Dennis Madara
Intro to literature
Dr. Wilson, Jency
03/24/23
Sonny’s Blues
Sonny’s blues is a short story written by James Baldwin. James Baldwin was an African American writer. He conveyed his thoughts through different literature forms including essays, novels and poems. Some of his works include “Go Tell It on the Mountain”, “Giovanni's Room” amongst others. The story Sonny’s blues was first published in 1957. The story tells the story of two sibling. Though attached to anguishing experiences and unpleasantly that makes people shun away from, pain and suffering can also bring good in people.
‘Sonny Blues’ begins by a brother narrating a story of his younger brother Sonny, a musical artist with a drug problem. Sonny feels like everyone is trapped. Therefore, throughout the story, sonny suffers both internally and externally trying to liberate the people around him. Even though meticulous, Sonny’s brother could catch a glimpse of pain and suffering for seconds in his face as he tried to cover it with a smile. Sonny’s brother believed he had his life figured. Sonny felt free but freedom meant nothing to him if those around him were still entrapped. He used music as form of communication to reach out to his audience. He was however making little to no success in his music visions and that frustrates him.
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“– I think I may have written sonny the very day little Grace was buried. I was sitting in the living room myself in the dark -- thought of sonny. – My trouble made his real.” After the burial of his daughter, seating in a dark living room by himself, sonny’s brother remembered to reach out to sonny after a long silence. The pain of losing his daughter, the dark room, loneliness and isolation made him remember Sonny in prison. Sonny’s brother could see through Sonny’s suffering, as he understood that from the loss of his