ipl-logo

Drug Abuse In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

692 Words3 Pages

James Baldwin’s classic short story “Sonny’s Blues,” features emotional topics like struggles, addiction, and love. The story takes place in Harlem, New York in the early 1950’s, and revolves around the narrator’s perspective on Sonny’s life and the impact the community had around them. In their youth, both the Narrator and Sonny lived in the projects infested with drug abuse, impecuniosity, violence, and racism. Into their adulthood, both would live thoroughly different lives. The narrator is prosperous, he has a wife, two children, and a good job as a high school teacher. While his brother is a homeless drug addict on the erroneous side of the law. The Narrator insists that Sonny’s struggles is him being a product of his own environment. …show more content…

Haplessly, after their mother’s death, Sonny’s life has been marred by prison and drug abuse. The Narrator makes this clear when he assesses, “He had been picked up, the evening before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin.” (83). This is the first we really hear of Sonny or his drug use, and the statement is direct. There is no sugarcoating the presence of drugs in this story and Sonny’s addiction would ultimately lead him to a life of a convicted felon. The Narrator made it obvious describing Sonny’s situation when he said, “Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother, I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light.” (82). The narrator makes this observation about Sonny when he optically discerns him after he’s relinquished from prison. Prison, for Sonny, was a hellish experience, as was his addiction to drugs. His addiction to narcotics has led him to a life of malefaction, and solitude. And has impacted not just himself, but additionally his relationship with the Narrator. “Yet it had happened and here I was, talking about algebra to a lot of boys who might, every one of them for all I knew, be popping off needles every time they went to the head. Maybe it did more for them than algebra could.” (4). The narrator sort of senses the futility of trying to teach high school

Show More
Related
1115 Words | 5 Pages

“Sonny’s Blues” is not just about Sonny's decisions and struggles but also about how they affect the narrator. This story is as much about family and brotherhood and the relationship between these two men as it is about the character of

Read More
521 Words | 3 Pages

In contrast, the narrator internalizes his feelings by repressing them as his father did after his brother passed away. As it was the relationship of their father and uncle, Sonny and his brother grew up in Harlem, a district replete with hopelessness and poverty. Yet each individual reacts to his environment in unusual ways. On the one hand, the narrator distances himself from his community in Harlem, including his brother Sonny. The narrator may love his brother but is in general judgmental of the direction of Sonny's life struggles and decisions.

Read More
1417 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
1184 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1441 Words | 6 Pages

James Baldwin is a renowned author best known for his work of essays, books and short stories, particularly those which dwell deeply into important social and psychological issues of discrimination, gender inequality, homophobia and so on. One of Mr. Baldwin 's most appreciated literary works is the short story 'Sonny 's Blues ' which focuses on two brothers who grew up together but take different paths in life. The story follows the narrator learning about his brother Sonny 's incarceration due to the use and selling of drugs until his brother gets parole. Throughout the story, we learn about the relationship between the pair and are able to witness the narrators ultimate understanding of Sonny and his ambition. As we continue to observe the impressive short story, we find the most recurring theme to be that of sorrow.

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
692 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
591 Words | 3 Pages

‘Sonny’s Blues’ was written by James Baldwin about the story of two brothers. The narrator and his brother Sonny are the main characters and their pain and sorrow are the part of their life. The narrator and his brother learn to deal with their pain and suffering. I believe that the narration was perfect because the author uses dialogue and mind reading of the main character because he is stating how the narrator feels also his father, his mother and also Sonny feels.

Read More
1315 Words | 6 Pages

He describes the childhood friend of Sonny as being “high and raggy” and smelling “funky,” and later a woman as having a “battered face” and being a “semi-whore” (68-69). These vivid character descriptions sharply contrast the strong lack of environmental descriptions found at the beginning of the story. These environmental descriptions are not yet found because Sonny has not yet come back to the city. Since the environment is used as a tool for describing the relationship between the brothers, it can not be described fully until the relationship is at play. As soon as the narrator is reunited with Sonny, he begins to fully describe his surroundings.

Read More
1191 Words | 5 Pages

Sonny Blues Paul Pearshall once said “Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted”. In this story the conflict of responsibility takes place. A brother, who happens to be the narrator, blames his self for the events that takes place in his life, such as his brother sonny’s crack addiction. The Narrator feels responsible for his brother’s heroin addiction because he believed he shut his brother’s career goals down, felt as though he went against what his mother asked him to do, and because he chose not to believe that the way he treated his brother affected his brother life.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

He knows he has loyalty to Sonny, yet it takes him a while to get over his suspicion and give himself to offering Sonny his support, He’s upset that Sonny has picked a life that is not the same as his own, and doesn’t understand his brother and his views, they both don’t see eye to eye. He accuses the music for driving Sonny to heroin, and he tells Sonny how furious he is that Sonny appears to end his life by being someone who is addicted to the wrong things. Sonny gets upset that his brother is failing to reach out to him after his capture, for not accepting that individuals have typical methods for managing things, and for not understanding that being an artist isn't what altered Sonny into being a drug addict. Towards the ending of the story the narrator ends up seeing his brother play piano at a nightclub and it appears that he at last recognizes how gifted his brother is. However, most importantly, he additionally appears to see that music is a piece of Sonny.

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

In James Baldwin's short story, Sonny’s Blues, the reader should understand and visualize the historical context in order to understand the world being presented. The reader has to comprehend the harsh life of a male African-American who struggles with his dreams and drug addiction sometime around early 1957. I will discuss Baldwin's writing style, the life/value of an african american's life during this time, and the relationship between Sonny and his brother. Baldwin’s short story illustrates the hardships a person faces while searching for themselves in a world full of people or obstacles that stand in their way. Some of these obstacles are self inflicted, present from the beginning of their existence or appear as though they are random.

Read More
419 Words | 2 Pages

The narrator starts the story off by reflecting back to when Sonny was a young boy. He then compares his students to Sonny and realizes they could end up like him one day. For that reason, the narrator starts to doubt his

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

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 rescuing from himself. He hides behind a curtain of denial trying to protect himself from emotional reality. The narrator struggles to understand when and how Sonny began his troubles with drug addiction; he does not understand where he went wrong in being a role model for his younger brother. Now, years later the narrator is a school teacher who is trying to be a role model for the young boys in his class.

Read More
1465 Words | 6 Pages

Everyone needs rescuing sometime in life? The narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” struggles with his own identity and finding himself. He has a sense of insecurity and conformity to escape his past and from where he comes. The narrator finds himself focusing on his brother’s mistakes in life when in reality; he is questioning his inner insecurities. The narrator believes he must rescue his brother but realizes first he must find rescue himself.

Read More

More about Drug Abuse In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

Related Topics

Open Document