Sounder

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This article is about the book and film named "Sounder". For other uses, see Sounder (disambiguation).

**Sounder (the book)**

Author	William H. Armstrong
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher
Released	1970
Media Type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-06-440020-4

Sounder is a novel by William H. Armstrong, which won the Newbery medal in 1970. It tells the story of an African-American sharecropper family in Louisiana in the 1930s who must struggle when the father is sent to prison.

1 Plot summary
2 Background
3 Film
4 External link

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Since the family is African American, they have to try very hard to make friends and almost everyone acts against them. The father works as a sharecropper. He spends many days out in the sun and makes very little money. The mother and the sister of the boy spend long days inside the house, trying to make the best out of what little food they have.

One day, there is a good smell from the kitchen: they were cooking a nice big piece of ham. The family knows that the father has stolen the food, because that's what he has to do in order to keep his family from starving. Minutes later, the Sheriff arrives and arrests the father for robbery. Sounder runs after the dad and gets shot in the ear by the Sheriff.

For about three months after the father’s arrest, Sounder stays under the family's shack. No one in the family knows what's going on with the dog, but the mother keeps convincing the boy that Sounder is fine. It's even harder living without the father, since even the small wage he earned was vital to the family.

Sounder finally comes out from under the house, and the boy starts visiting his father in jail more often. The guards at the jail treat him poorly. When the boy arrives at the jail with a cake for his father, the guard cuts it up “looking for weapons.” After the boy passes the inspection, the guards let all the white guests bring whatever they want into the jail.

When the family hears that the father is being transferred to another jail in the South, they can no longer visit him because they aren't told where he's been taken. The boy and Sounder go to see if they can find the father, although the mom strongly opposes it. He does not find his father, but he sees a group of convicts working hard in the sun behind a fence. A guard throws iron at him, injuring the boy's hands, but the boy escapes without further injury.

While returning to his home, the boy sees people discard books and picks one up since he always wanted an education. He then sees students running out of a school building. A teacher at the school offers to let the boy live with him so he can attend the school and get an education.

He goes home and asks his mother. Although this would mean that she would have to work even harder, she agrees. The boy spends about a year at the teacher’s house, with a couple of visits to his mother. After that, he goes home for good. The dad is eventually released, but when he arrives home, he is ill, and, despite the efforts of his family, he soon dies, and so does Sounder.

[edit] Background

The book Sounder by William H. Armstrong won the Newbery Award in 1970. Sounder was also made in to a major movie in 1972. The book Sour Land, also written by William H. Armstrong, was not a sequel of Sounder but a “tribute” of the book, since Sounder was so successful.

Sour Land was and you are following the idea of Sounder. It also shared the idea of discrimination. It is about a white family living around the same time. The mother in the family had just died, so it was tough for the family to get along. But in the “Sour Land” that they live in, no one else understood them. The only other person was a black man. The family quickly became friends with the man, but the community was very disappointed with the friendship between a white and a black man. The community was willing to go through some drastic measures before they would allow the friendship.

[edit] Film

In 1972, Sounder was made into a film. The film stars Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal, and Eric Hooks. It was written by Lonne Elder III and directed by Martin Ritt.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Winfield), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Cicely Tyson), Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

In 2003, ABC's Wonderful World of Disney aired a new film adaptation, reuniting two actors from the original. Kevin Hooks directed and Paul Winfield played the role of the teacher. (Winfield and Hooks played father and son, respectively, in the original version.)

Sounder (the movie)
original movie poster
Directed by	Martin Ritt
Produced by	Robert B. Radnitz
Written by	Lonne Elder III
Starring	Cicely Tyson Paul Winfield Kevin Hooks Carmen Mathews Taj Mahal Eric Hooks
Cinematography	John A. Alonzo
Distributed by	Twentieth Century-Fox
Release date(s)	1972
Running time	105 min
IMDb profile