#8

Daniel Cuevas-

Through a window in the waiting room on the tenth floor of the Black Tower I look out over the green rolling hills of Forest Lawn where my brother is buried. He was twenty-seven and alcoholic when he ended his life, and at this moment, in this place and time, I see myself in him, sitting here, waiting to meet with an executive. I imagine he once occupied this same space, if not this exact office then another in the building, and I imagine he felt as I do now. Anxious. In need of a drink. Maybe, like me, he questioned why he was here, if this was what he really wanted. If he belonged. Maybe, like me, he was attracted to a business that is at least in part responsible for his destruction. (Brown, 43)

In this scene, Brown shows the reader the harsh reality he had to go through. Losing a family member that is so close to you is tough, it sometimes can make you do irrational things because you then feel hopeless. Hopefully, Brown uses his brothers death as symbol. A symbol that shows Brown that if he goes down the same path as his brother, he will meet the same fate as him. Thus, Brown will realize that he has to change his ways because if he doesn't, he will ultimately be looking at death straight in its eyes. This is my prediction of what is going to happen later on in the story of James Brown. In addition, brown shows us that he has a lot in common with his brother, but the similarities are not good things. He states that he is questioning his being at the office and how he is attracted to business that is responsible for his brothers destruction. So basically, Brown is blaming the "business" for the death of his brother. Furthermore, I wonder how the "business" led to his brother Barry's death. Moreover, I predict that his brother was unhappy with that "business" and I question myself as to why and how he got into the "business" in the first place.