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Sonny's Blues Figurative Language

1335 Words6 Pages

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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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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Father And Son Relationships In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

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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.

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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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The Theme Of Brotherly Love In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

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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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A Literary Analysis Of Sonny's Blues

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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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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.

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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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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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Symbolism In Sonny's Blues

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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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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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