In Sonny’s Blues, the escape Sonny found in heroin, he now finds in music. James Arthur Baldwin (1924 – 1987) was a civil rights activist and an author. He was the oldest of nine children who was born and raised in Harlem, NY. The relationship with his adopted father was distant and strained which is similar to the relationship Sonny had with his father in Sonny’s Blues. Sonny’s Blues is a short story written by Baldwin in 157. It is often included in anthologies of fiction in college literature seminars. At the age of 14, he became a member of a Pentecostal church in Harlem and started preaching at the same time. In 1948 he moved to Paris to escape the prejudices towards homosexuality and blacks in America. In 1963 he received the …show more content…
The narrator first learns about this when he is home from the Army for their mother’s funeral. “After the funeral, with just me and Sonny alone in the empty kitchen, I tried to find out a something about him… “What do you want to do?” I asked him. “I’m going to be a musician,” he said” (Pg. 105). The narrator is in disbelief that his brother wants to play with Jazz musicians. He makes his disproval clear when he states “Well, you make think it’s funny now, baby, but it’s not going to be funny when you have to make your living doing it” (Pg. 106). The narrator calling his brother “baby” signifies that his decision is immature and quickly discredits what is really important to Sonny. He goes on to say “it seemed – beneath him, somehow” (Pg. 106). While still trying to understand what is important to Sonny, his brother asks him if he wanted to be like Louis Armstrong. This notion is quickly shot down and called “old-time, down-home crap” (Pg. 106) by Sonny. He then tells his brother he wants to be like “Bird!” “Charlie Parker!” Sonny’s brother has never heard of him. Sonny exclaims that “He’s just one of the greatest jazz musicians alive” (Pg.
As Sonny’s connection to jazz music is a symbol of escape or relief from his internal suffering. Sonny, who explains to his brother later in the story, dreams of playing jazz music. Combined with what we know about his struggle with addiction, this symbolism of jazz being his escape is clear. Near the end of the story, the narrator decides to tag along with Sonny to one of his shows at a nearby nightclub, where he then witnesses Sonny giving his dedication to music. During this ending sequence, light is brought up plenty of times.
Sonny’s Blues is based in Harlem in the 1950’s during the Harlem Renaissance. This was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural center in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. The period is considered a golden age in African American culture, making literature, music, stage performance and art. In "Sonny's Blues," James Baldwin portrays Sonny's redemption from rock bottom in Harlem in the 1950's using vivid imagery
Throughout the story of “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin develops a theme that can still be related with today. The misunderstanding and lack of knowledge that the narrator experiences, about his brother, is something that many today feel, as their own family members are being prosecuted and they do not comprehend why. Within the story, there are numerous subtle ideas that are used to progress the story and theme along to the ending that is given. James Baldwin advances the theme of his story, that misfortune and anguish can be renovated into a unique art form, using characterizations, settings, and symbolisms. One of the main literary devices that is used to express the theme is characterization.
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story depicting the relationship of two brothers, Sonny and an unnamed narrator. The story takes place in the project of Harlem, New York in the early 1950s. The narrator is a high school math teacher. His younger brother Sonny is a troubled musician struggling with his addiction to drugs. Before their mother dies, she asks the narrator promise to her he’ll look after his younger brother when she is gone.
Sonny's Blues was written in 1957, 37 years after the roaring twenties had come to an end. Long after the great Migration, where millions of blacks moved to northern cities to escape Jim Crow, and embrace the new found possibilities offered. During this period African-Americans in New York, collectively gathered in Harlem mainly, it was usually alluded to as the black capital. There blacks shared culturally and also, influenced music greatly. This is also where the "new negro" persona was crafted, blacks were no longer going to be referred to as someone's mammies or boy.
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" analyzes a very complex relationship between the narrator and his brother, Sonny. Before directing to the attention of the relationship between these two brothers, we have to first understand the personality of each character. Initially, the narrator has a stable job as a hardworking math teacher and makes an effort to assimilate himself to his surroundings, but has never comprehended his brother, Sonny. Sonny is the complete opposite of the narrator. Sonny separates from his brother to become a Blues musician, though becomes addicted to drugs, such as heroin, in order to control his own feelings.
"Sonny's Blues" is a story about two brothers, Sonny and the narrator, who reconnect after years of separation. The story begins with the narrator on his way to high school, where he sees a newspaper about his brother Sonny who is arrested for heroin use. Sonny is a talented jazz musician and an addict to heroin. After his arrest, the narrator does not write a letter to his brother as Sonny's friend had advised her. However, after the death of his daughter Grace, who died of suffering from Polio.
Baldwin uses symbols such as ice, lightness and darkness, and jazz music to add more depth and meaning to “Sonny’s Blues.” Throughout the whole story, jazz music plays a major role in defining the characters and culture of Harlem, which is overwhelmed by drugs, poverty, and racism. Jazz music has a different meaning to each of the characters of the story. For the narrator it is a reminder of Sonny’s drug addiction, because he believes that a musician needs to get high in order to play music. However, for Sonny it is confortable to him, he loves to listen and play the music.
In modern-day life people often have their ups and downs of having power and losing it all. This is a key element in life, which is why many art forms choose to use it as their basis of writing. Literature often shows power and powerlessness through heroes and villains. However, author James Baldwin brings the battle of having and losing power through ordinary people’s life experiences. In the short story, Sonny’s Blues, written by James Baldwin examines the idea of how the desire to have power or control leads to having no power at all through the plot, characters, and setting.
In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” the author uses Sonny’s struggle for a redeemed life to push the narrator toward the realization of his own need for rescue; through this realization, the narrator can find his identity and be free from his sadness. The narrator needs rescue from his guilt of
Although both characters were different they found an understanding by trying to feel what each other were feeling. Also by coping with their tough childhood and feelings together without directly communicating. Sonny wanted so desperately to please his brother, but couldn’t find a way to avoid Jazz but still get that feeling he craved. Sonny was clearly disappointed and embarrassed by his choice of actions and despite what anyone said, he realized the choice he made was poor and it was time to follow his dream. At the end, the narrator realizes why Sonny turned to drugs in the first place.
Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin was a short story about the struggles of living in a tough, rundown neighborhood and looking to drugs as a way out. Baldwin’s intent on writing this piece focuses on pain and suffering. The author stresses that not everybody is born in the best circumstances. Sonny was one of those people who grew up in a rickety town where people often did not make it out successful.
This was to take up the responsibility that was given to him and to let his brother know that he has someone on his corner. “I was sitting in the living room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My trouble made his real” (Baldwin 378). This shows that the brother has grown sympathy for Sonny. This is because his daughter’s death caused him to really sit down and evaluate the series of events that has taken place in Sonny’s life.
As Donald C. Murray has said in his article, “James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’: Complicated and Simple”, “Images of light and darkness are used by Baldwin… ( Murray 354)”. Also, Baldwin is able to tell a story that can make the reader visualize what is happening to this character Sonny, even though it is being narrated through the eyes and perspective of his older brother. He portrays the older brother as someone who can understand and recognizes the internal struggles of Sonny and be compassionate about them, even though the elder brother does not agree with all the life choices his brother has
Introduction First published in 1957, Sonny’s Blues written by James Baldwin is a prose of two brothers. Sonny, the younger one, is a rebellious jazz musician who turns out to be a drug abuser, while the narrator, the elder brother, is a conservative mathematics teacher in Harlem. He, the narrator, refuses to understand Sonny whose life is distorted by imprisonment. In this way, Baldwin developed the major topic of music, the cornerstone of African American culture, alongside with the themes of brotherhood and salvation. How music develops the plot of the story Music is a leitmotif in Sonny’s Blues, which reflects and creates a new structure of music and drama (Bribitzer-Stull, 2015).