Cash meets Barclay by ate and accepts Barfly’s wisdom and guidance and with maturation appreciates Barclay well-played roll in his life. To tell this story, the article includes two prominent themes: coming of age and sacrificing for the benefit of others. This essay will reveal key moments throughout Mentor’s Lessons Heard in Jazz Time that provide evidence of the two projected themes. The reader will see that coming of age and sacrificing for the benefit of others Is a necessary part of life and creates a better self.
The theme coming of age Is supported by Cash’s first encounter with Barclay. On Cash’s first encounter with Barclay, Barclay approaches him right after giving a “major speech”. Cash explains that during his speech he “tried to speak with emotional conviction while providing the student and faculty with a clear and historically grounded speech on the critical importance of African-American history for the country In general and the Oberlin High School curriculum in particular”. After his speech he was approached by a “small, well-built, serious looking black man”.
Cash expected the man to congratulate him on a Job well done, but Instead of the expected raise, he said, man, that was an informative speech, but you must watch your grammar and support your ideas and propositions with more evidence. ” Cash soon finds out the man is Lawrence Barclay. He explains his first encounter with Barclay being a “makeshift beginning” with a man that has become his “pride and joy”. By Cash explaining his very first encounter with Barclay as such, he proves that maturation has occurred.
The beginning being makeshift confirms that his 1 8-year old mind initially didn’t know how to take in the constructive criticism given, but the act that Barclay has grown to be his “pride and joy” allows readers to imply that he soon learned to take in such criticism, which is explained further in the story. In the beginning, Cash explains his rejection of Jazz music. He says, “My youthful reaction was What kind of music is this? Where are the words? No, I’ll pass,” Later in the story, Cash tells readers that Barclay Introduced him to Jazz and also says ” God moved him gentleness, passion, Joy and love of Jazz in my own way and my own time. By saying his, Cash demonstrates that with time, Barclay wisdom helped him learn the Joy and love of Jazz, which he rejected earlier in life. This also proves maturation occurred and supports the theme of coming of age. In the eighth paragraph, Cash explains that from day one, Barclay sacrificed for him. “From the day Mr.. Lawrence archly saw this bright and wayward young black man he reached out his hand, heart, spirit, talent, money, friendship, and above all, his love and put it in the service of me as a person. Cash goes further and says, “l was not a social case, I was not an experiment for his good works, or a brother in dire straits, or a project in need of rescue; I was a concern because he had grown up in the segregated City of Cleveland Sacrificing all these elements to put in the service of Cash as a person had no benefit to Barclay.