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Sonny's Blues Thesis

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Historically speaking Harlem has been known to be a historically African American society. In this society, nothing came easily to the residences. During the time of the story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, the society was not only impoverished but they also had to endure oppression in their daily lives. In this story, Baldwin depicts Harlem as a jailed community where the residences are trapped. In this environment, the people are not given the opportunity to succeed for themselves not to even mention their families. These people are trapped for generation after generations with no outlet or change. Baldwin creates an environment where the two main characters, brothers cannot escape from the impoverished and oppressed society in order to …show more content…

In the story the narrator is an algebra schoolteacher, and older brother to Sonny. He wants to escape Harlem but is unable to. the narrator constantly struggles with a combination of guilt and anger when his brother, Sonny, is arrested for possession of heroin. You can see when the narrator says he felt “like a bastard” for not writing to him sooner (47-49) The narrator was so frightened and guilty of what Sonny has become he was never prepared to face him because the narrator feels he failed his obligation as brother it only takes him losing his daughter to contact Sonny. Although the narrator hates the society of Harlem he tries to find the bright side he also feels like he’s trying to better society by mentoring and teaching at his school to keep the kids from the corruption and drugs of Harlem. The narrator is frequently confounded by Sonny’s reactions to troublesome life events because he doesn't understand Sonny's underlying internal struggles. For instance, when Sonny tells the narrator he wants to be a musician the narrator doesn’t really understand, “I sensed myself in the presence of something I didn't really know how to handle, didn't understand” (110-112) The narrator did not understand what sonny was going through he did not realize that sonny was passionate about music in till the end, when we see the narrator develop when Sonny invites him to watch him play he realizes he’s in "Sonny’s world” he sees what an amazing musician Sonny is. He finally understands a little better what Sonny has been trying to explain to him about

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Still out of money and still surrounded by the drugs he went into a life of crime that took him straight to prison. It was then that the narrator knew Sonny was really in bad shape, but it wasn’t until the narrator’s daughter died that he knew he had been a bad brother. Lacking the brotherly love was supposed to give Sonny as the favor to his mother was a major role towards why Sonny ended in prison. Poverty in Harlem was harsh and unforgiving for Sonny and the narrator not being there for him was what ultimately led Sonny into such a badly influenced life. The narrator wasn’t a bad person though he just wasn’t conscious of his actions he was a busy man with a family to take care of and even though he felt for his brother he didn’t have the resources to spend to help his brother.

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