Week Two: "Last Days of Brother Ray"

David Ritz, "The Last Days of Brother Ray"


The "Last Days of Brother Ray" is the story of a man writing about the experience he had about writing a biography about the great Ray Charles. Throughout the piece we saw the transformation of Ray from a person who 'had no fears' and was one of the most accomplished musicians to walk the face of the earth to a man who was too weak to speak.



In the years of Ray's prime he was cocky, arrogant and could seemingly look death in the eyes and show no fear. This strong and fearless mentality is what Ray credited his life's success to. As said in the piece, "If Mama gave me religion, the religion said, 'Believe in yourself.' "  This relentless self centered mentality came about because he knew that no body would help him except himself, and due to his success he held very strongly to this belief. As soon he was diagnosed with cancer, and the disease was clearly breaking down his body, it also broke his mentality; making even the great Ray Charles vulnerable.

Seeing such a great and prominent figure such as Ray Charles show remorse and guilt for the things he did leads me to believe...