Alienation In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

Sonny’s Blues

The feeling of having a voice but not being able to use it just because others are silencing you or you are being silenced by yourself. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever just been stuck with you and your shadow? In the short story “Sonny's Blues” by James Baldwin the character Sonny relates to these feelings. Sonny walks through the streets of racial reality and alienation with no one to talk to. Through his music, however he finds both himself and a way to speak to others.

Sonny had his own ambitions, but being in the dark silence was a roadblock for him to overcome. The darkness was hidden from Sonny and his brother until they were older.They grew up within segregation and the housing projects which Sonny tried to

The narrator played it safe and got a job where he knew that he could get a job and basically just live comfortably. He wanted to fit in nothing more nothing less. Sonny couldn't see it the way his brother saw it. Harlem was a trap to him and he didn’t want to stay there. When the narrator asks what Sonny wants to do and he responded that he wanted to be jazz musician. All the narrator's responses with was, “doesn't this take a lot of time? Can you make a living at it?” (135) Sonny doesn’t care if he makes a living or not what he cared about was that “people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for.” (135) Sonny then tells his brother that he has to think seriously about the future and that he should go back to school. His brother yells at him and says that “ you decide it, he pointed out. I didn't decide nothing.” (136) This fight lead to the alienation in the family. The narrator couldn’t hear how his brother did not want to stay and that he was really set on being a jazz musician. Sonny listened to his brother, but his brother wouldn’t listen to him. Sonny felt like he “ain’t got nobody in all this world, Ain't got nobody but ma self.” (Hughes) This lead to Sonny skipping school to go with other musicians and for Sonny to just play piano all by himself. He had no one to support

Due to this reason he turns to drugs to escape. He first escaped with heroin. Sonny always was told what to do. He had a predetermined track by his brother. Choosing to do drugs made Sonny “feel – in control. Sometimes you've got to have that feeling.” (142) He couldn’t stand being in this world with someone controlling him he need the drugs to take him to a different place, to keep him going. He didn’t really needed the drug to play his music he just needed it “in order to keep from shaking to pieces.” (142) Sonny tries to explain to his brother that jazz reminds him of what heroin feels like “sometimes when it's in your veins. It makes you feel sort of warm and cool at the same time. And distant. And and - sure.” (142) It's like self validation. Something to keep him grounded. Basically what he is trying to tell him that he used it to escape but now instead of drugs he uses jazz to escape. Once the narrator heard Sonny play he knew “he was in Sonny’s world. Or, rather; his kingdom. Here, it was not even a question that his veins bore royal blood.” (145) When he heard Sonny play he could finally understand and listen to Sonny. Jazz gave them a common ground. Once the narrator realized that he could be free “if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.” (148) Sonny wasn’t alone anymore he redeemed himself. When the narrator bought him the Scotch and