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Sonny's Blues Figurative Language

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This particular story digs deep into the mindset of the American Negro during the Civil Rights and Jim Crow eras. I believe I would do the story justice by viewing it through a culturally critical lens. From my observation, Baldwin uses his craft to paint a poignant picture of Negro life in the fictional story of two brothers, struggling in their own way to simply be in their most unique form of personal expression. In doing so, the very craft that Baldwin uses to harness that oppressive language, uplifts and empowers not only the writer himself, but gives positive validity to the life and struggle of a people and their many unique forms of expression.
“Sonny’s Blues” is a story about two brothers who choose very different paths in …show more content…

My God, how would he support himself? A family? What about respectability within a brutal and unforgiving racist society? The narrator, being the primary caretaker of young Sonny after the death of their mother, tried to fulfill her wishes and take care of his younger brother. He wanted to put Sonny on a stable path, but he did not know that Sonny was already in the throes of drug addiction as a result of the pain and moral decay that was around him within the streets of Harlem. Sonny was looking for a way out of it all, he hated life in Harlem. Sonny’s chosen profession also reflects an emotional instability within. He seeks to harness that “wildness” in order to stay “above the cracks”—to stay alive. This chasm between the brothers’ personalities can represent a separation of the classes and modes of thought and existence within the Negro race itself. W.E.B. DuBois called this “twoness” of nature a “double consciousness.” On one hand, the Negro seeks personal and cultural authenticity—a sense of self and free expression within a land, a language and a way of life whose very foundations were formulated and built on the notion of African-American slavery and denigration and were also alien to the African immigrant/slave. Yet, on the other hand, the African-American must make some conforming strides within the racist confines of American society in order to sustainably co-exist within

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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.

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619 Words | 3 Pages

Authors use rhetorical strategies to express themes in their writing. Different rhetorical strategies help convey different themes with varying degrees of effectiveness. One way to determine the effectiveness of an author’s style is to compare their works to another. In order to determine whether Nancy Mairs or James Baldwin is more effective, it is necessary to evaluate the two side by side.

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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.

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1099 Words | 5 Pages

In the essay “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin, he expresses feelings of hate and despair towards his father. His father died when James was 19 years old from tuberculosis; it just so happens that his funeral was on the day of the Harlem Riot of 1943. Baldwin explains that his father isn’t fond of white people due to the racist past. He recalls a time when a white teacher brought him to a theater and that caused nothing but upset with his father, even though it was a kind act. Many events happened to Baldwin as a result of segregation, including a time where a waitress refused to serve him due to his skin color and Baldwin threw a pitcher of water at her.

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334 Words | 2 Pages

We all have memories that make us cringe like nails on a chalkboard as they traverse our brain. The narrator read the article about Sonny and everything from the past came flooding back to him, “Sonny was wild, but he wasn’t crazy” (146) the narrator states in disbelief. Another example of this cringing feeling is near the end of “Sonny’s Blues” as the narrator elaborates “that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky” (175). The narrator quotes this as he reminisces on the many years of suffering he and Sonny endured. Even though James Baldwin’s short story is spread in the span of a decade, the narrator can vividly remember the memories that make him recoil as he states “The same things happen, they’ll have the same thing to remember”

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838 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator described the very stereotypical gang members in Harlem being “filled with rage” and “popping off needles every time they went to the head” (Baldwin 123). Lastly, the change in the author's tone was very evident. The readers could notice when the narrator was talking about life in Harlem or Sonny’s drug abuse because it had a very bitter and cold tone. However, when Sonny was talking about his music the tone was hopeful and positive. Baldwin wanted to show that music was the one thing helping with Sonny’s pain.

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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.

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1111 Words | 5 Pages

Even though one knows what they want to communicate-they still have problems getting it out. Throughout the story of Sonny’s Blues, it shows that people should learn to express themselves clearly or befall many difficulties in their life. This can relate to the reader 's own experiences of trying to express themselves and having difficulties when they cannot. This can be shown through Sonny 's youth as a teen when he tries to explain himself. This is also shown through the brother 's actions between one another.

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251 Words | 2 Pages

Sonny’s Blues incorporates racial frustration, self-expression, avoidance, lightness/darkness and symbolic nature of music. Baldwins descriptive mental images gives readers a sense of the time frame the characters are in. With our understanding of the setting we are able to understand how life was like in the 1940s and why the theme of racism plays a factor in these characters lives. Through this short story Baldwin manages to show pain ,and hardships and the journey that is needed to transcend from

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1315 Words | 6 Pages

James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” tells the story of two brothers living in 1950s Harlem. The story depicts the relationship of the brothers as the younger brother, Sonny, battles to overcome a heroin addiction and find a career in jazz. In “Sonny’s Blues”, Baldwin’s shifting portrayal of Harlem mirrors the changing relationship of the two brothers: while both the city and the relationship were originally with dark uncertainty, by the end of the story, the narrator has begun to find peace both within his surroundings and his relationship with his brother. At the beginning of the story, before Sonny returns to Harlem, the narrator never describes his surroundings, only the people in them.

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1027 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the story Sonny’s Blue, there are many different symbols that represent different things, with the disparate functions. Light and darkness are the two universal symbols of Sonny’s Blues. Light has usually conveyed the goodness, hope, and purity of life. In the other hand, darkness performs for death, tragedy, and negativity.

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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.

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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

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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.

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1465 Words | 6 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 rescue from his guilt of

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