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Sonny's Blues: The Harlem Renaissance

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Sonny's Blues was written in 1957, 37 years after the roaring twenties had come to an end. Long after the great Migration, where millions of blacks moved to northern cities to escape Jim Crow, and embrace the new found possibilities offered. During this period African-Americans in New York, collectively gathered in Harlem mainly, it was usually alluded to as the black capital. There blacks shared culturally and also, influenced music greatly. This is also where the "new negro" persona was crafted, blacks were no longer going to be referred to as someone's mammies or boy. They started taking pride in being black and weren’t going to walk around ashamed anymore, all of this lead to the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem Renaissance is where colored photographers, …show more content…

According to (jod.sagepub.com) black adolescents and young adults from Harlem sampled heroin by the age of 18. Harlem is an urban neighborhood, filled with public assistance apartments, poverty, and violence caused havoc on the neighborhood. Family struggles normally plagued those who lived in these communities, lack of money meant that most kids turned to the streets to find closure and assistance. Sonny’s Blues was written by James Baldwin who was also faced with the similar troubles, born to a single mother in Harlem, who later remarried. Growing up with other siblings favoritism was happening, according to pbs.org, he didn't get on well with his religious stepfather. The story also states, Sonny being the fathers favorite and was “the apple of his fathers’ eye". Baldwin’s work usually shows similar situations as to where one child is favored over the other since he's lived through …show more content…

That you shouldn’t let your living situations or surroundings determine your outcome. Sonny's Blues shows challenges that troubled the African-American community, and how drugs troubled the young artists and kept them bound like slaves. How those living in Harlem, felt like there was no escape to the poverty that surrounded them. How a young artist was overcoming his demons, with the support of his family and living out his dream. How one has to forgive and not let the past control one’s future, nor let the surroundings of your environment determine where you will go in

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In the 1920’s segregation was common, big cities like Baltimore was even more segregated, and incidents just as the poem, took place more often as it should. Buses were places were places where people were forced to come together. The setting in “Sonny’s Blues” is the impoverished Harlem after the Korean War, and the future looks grim to most of its inhabitants. After all, the two works might have been written thirty years apart, but the conditions had not changed much for African Americans in America during that

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The genre developed from the roots in African musical traditions…Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African Americans.” (Wikipedia) Sonny wanted to be a musician, which his brother didn’t approve of because he was worried about him making a living on that profession. The narrator didn’t take Sonny seriously and that annoyed Sonny. He felt that his own brother wasn’t there for him and wanted to dictate his life.

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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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Sonny, a jazz musician from Harlem, New York City, who took a different way from his brother and not the best decisions, but destiny took him back to his brother looking forward to starting over. Sonny’s Blues published in 1957 by James Baldwin is a true story that happened to the author. When Sonny is released after he gets caught for sealing and consuming heroin, his brother and his brother’s wife, James and Isabel received him in their house after long time not knowing a word from him. The story shows that even tough that Sonny did not chose the correct decisions about his life, he was a person with no malice, just that he raised in the wrong place.

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James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues Lesson: Read 1. How does Baldwin's real-life experience connect to his short story, "Sonny's Blues"? Read Baldwin's biography for more background on his life. - James Baldwin’s real-life experience connects to his short story by demonstrating that in the story his father had passed away when he was a young age. In real life, he didn’t even know his father.

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This is what makes him such a distinguished author. In the short story, ‘Sonny’s Blues,’ Baldwin tells a story of two brothers taking care of each other in order to create an intense atmosphere, the tone of Baldwin’s writing allows the reader to relate to the characters and the struggles they face, and he makes it evident how jazz brings them together. Baldwin was born in

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Throughout the story “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin presents the struggles and disadvantages of living in Harlem, New York. Harlem was recognized for being a poor and a violent neighborhood by that time. In this story, the unnamed narrator discusses how he was unable to avoid suffering. From the death of his little daughter to Sonny’s heroin addiction to the tragical death of his uncle, and the lack of opportunities while living in Harlem. “Sonny’s Blues” is about the suffering and the segregation the community faced, specially the unnamed narrator and Sonny.

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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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“Sonny’s Blues” is about complex relationship between two brothers living in Harlem. The story is narrated with the first-person who discovers about his younger brother’s arrest in the newspaper for using and selling heroine. The narrator, who is a school teacher, reveals how life is difficult in the ghetto. In contrast, his brother, Sonny, is a musician who has led a wilder life. Since the author has real life experience of living in Harlem, he understands it problems effectively.

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From the very beginning of the tale, the sorrow is palpable through the unnamed narrator 's discovery of Sonny 's incarceration, and moreover through the atmosphere created by Mr. Baldwin. The most prominent message that can be deciphered and recognized in Sonny 's Blues is that the sadness and sorrow that one experiences in their life can bring about many obstacles but it can be countered and used for something greater by a search for understanding and acceptance. James Baldwin establishes this implication through the use of his characters; the narrator, Sonny, and the singer seen on the street. All these characters experience sorrow and sadness in their

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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.

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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.

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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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Sonny’s blues consist of everything the character Sonny went through during his life. Sonny and his brother, who are both African American, grew up in Harem, New York during the mid-1900’s. Because of this, Sonny had a difficult life. He found drugs at a young age and became a heroin addict and seller. He wanted to become a musician however his brother did not approve of his choice and when sent to live with his brother’s fiancé, found that they only endured his piano playing and found him a burden.

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984 Words | 4 Pages

Sonny’s Blues is a story written by James Baldwin a man who is known for his involvement in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The setting of this book takes place in the 50s right after the Korean war when soldiers are coming home from the war. What strengthens this story more is Baldwin's background and his involvement in the Civil rights movement. Sonny’s blues follow from the perspective of Sonny’s older brother which is interesting considering that while Sonny is the main character, his brother is the narrator and also it doesn’t specify what Sonny’s older brother name is. This story puts the reader in the heart of Harlem a poor area.

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