Ida's Blues
The death of her brother Rufus effected Ida in a way that shaped her bitterness, and sparked her determination. She applies this bitterness to her soulful songs and seems determined to survive in the music industry. Her charismatic personality entrances the crowd more than her actual voice, for which Eric reveals in the text is not well trained. However, the audience is continually drawn to her and she quickly earns success. Vivaldo should have rejoiced at her fame, but instead seemed to hold a slight resentment towards Ida. During her first public performance, Ida sings new songs she had be working on. Vivaldo grumbles under his breath that she has been working, which Eric implied to mean he was not. Eric comes to the conclusion that Vivaldo must be thinking how he was not working because of the distraction of Ida, yet she had not allowed him to distract her (Baldwin 254). Ida's dream was to become a renowned jazz singer, and she did not allow anything, including her love for Vivaldo, to damage this.