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Conflict Between Sonny

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The story starts with an anonymous Algebra teacher who begins to narrate the movie stating the news about his brother. Sonny’s arrest happened while in the midst of selling heroin as the news was told. He is disturbed the whole time because of this news that his brother continues to remind him of his students who, will probably meet the same fate.. With the hostile environment that his students encounter every single day, and often doubts their success in the future. As he ends his day in school, he is met by his brother’s friend at the gate of the school. Sonny’s friend is a fellow addict giving the narrator reasons to become dismissive with this old friend. Having too much guilt for the unsympathetic treatment that he has shown, he gave this …show more content…

The conflicts are the internal and the external conflicts. The internal conflicts showcase problems between Sonny and himself, and the narrator against himself. Next, the external conflict found in the story revolves around Sonny and law enforcement, and Sonny in conflict with his brother. As the story progresses, the different types of conflict that are associated with the story becomes more invasive. First, the conflict of looking deeper into Sonny’s addiction becomes more apparent. Next, the narrators issues with his family. Third, there is the issue of the narrator’s fight to cope with the gloom brought about by a broken promise. Lastly, the conflict between Sonny and his brother. The internal conflict of Sonny vs. himself deals with Sonny’s addiction to the dangers of drugs. Studies have proven the fatal effects of drugs when abused. His frustrations were turned to the comfort of drugs as a temporary escape from reality. Another escape that he chose to his problems was the piano. Through music, Sonny was able to escape reality, if only for a second. On the other hand, the narrator also has some conflicts of his own. First of all, his daughter has passed. Another conflict that he is going through is his guilt about not being able to take care of his brother as a promise to his mother. To cope with the conflicts brought about by his guilt, he has decided to take the necessary actions to deal with the problem …show more content…

The clear “killing streets” of their time and Sonny’s choice for the blues and jazz over the classical music translates to Sonny’s choice for poverty. This choice happened because of the limited opportunities presented to their race; they are placed in a society where it is economically struggling. Although this was the case, Sonny, and the narrator found ways to deal with their respective conflicts and the existing conflicts that were present between them. As an example, Sonny dealt with the law and served his sentence. Second, the narrator finally let his guard down to communicate with his brother. Third, the narrator was able to accept his brother’s passion for the blues by trying to be an audience at one of his shows. The conflicts of the story were resolved by the men deciding to be humble and to overlook their differences. It took a great deal of courage to deal with the consequences that were brought upon them because of wrong choices. It was a matter of decision that has led both characters to solve the conflicts of their lives. Sonny could have decided to sell and use drugs again after getting out. The narrator could have also decided to search Sonny’s room for drugs. But, both characters decided to turn a new leaf and make better decisions in

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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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He hasn’t seen his brother in about a year, but as he is walking out of his school he notices a familiar face and it turns out being one of his brother’s old friend. The old friend spoke to the narrator about how hard Sonny’s struggle is now and how it will still be a struggle later. The narrator went

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After hearing that his younger brother, Sonny, has been put in jail due to drug use, he remembers his childhood, and how they both never did really get along. Both Sonny and the narrator feel a sense of “darkness outside”, and this “darkness” is what creates the miscommunication between the brothers (Baldwin 338). Sonny changed his normality due to not being noticed during his childhood, and the drastic change causes the older brother to feel uncomfortable seeing his brother, because Sonny told him that “he was dead as far as [he] was concerned” (351). Their struggles caused them to lose contact, and to slowly build that invisible barrier between their

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The narrator keeps this in mind and tries to sway Sonny to a path he feels is right for him. Sonny wants to go into music however the narrator feels it would be

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He starts reminiscing to the time when Sonny was in high school. This was due to the resemblance of characteristic that the kids in his class room had to his younger brother and because of the newspaper that he reading on the way to work. The narrator says, “These boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone.”

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Although both characters were different they found an understanding by trying to feel what each other were feeling. Also by coping with their tough childhood and feelings together without directly communicating. Sonny wanted so desperately to please his brother, but couldn’t find a way to avoid Jazz but still get that feeling he craved. Sonny was clearly disappointed and embarrassed by his choice of actions and despite what anyone said, he realized the choice he made was poor and it was time to follow his dream. At the end, the narrator realizes why Sonny turned to drugs in the first place.

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The main themes in this story is suffering, anger and isolation. First, suffering is one of the themes because Sonny suffered a heroin addiction. “He had been picked up the day before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin(Baldwin,123).” The narrator told how Sonny got arrested for selling and using heroin. This is a suffer for Sonny because he fell in the wrong path and started hanging around with the wrong crowd and ended up doing drugs.

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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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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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By growing up with not just losing his father, but also his mother, Sonny faced many adversaries. By unable to fight off his hardships, he attempted to create a way to escape from his sufferings by using heroin and engaging in criminal activities. Sonny argues that all human beings, including the narrator, must suffer and each has his own ways to survive and Sonny’s thinks his was drugs. In the end he ended up in prison.

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The narrator took the role of being a big brother serious; however going to the military and keeping distant from Sonny affected his brother in many ways. Sandy Norton states that the narrator was in awe when it came to his brother, he didn’t know how to help Sonny, which is why he chose not to think about his brother’s addiction to heroin. “He is, in fact, A man full of fear, trying to use his relatively privileged social position to protect himself from social reality” (Norton 175-192). This quote explains how the narrator tries to avoid thinking about his little brother being hooked on

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He knows he has loyalty to Sonny, yet it takes him a while to get over his suspicion and give himself to offering Sonny his support, He’s upset that Sonny has picked a life that is not the same as his own, and doesn’t understand his brother and his views, they both don’t see eye to eye. He accuses the music for driving Sonny to heroin, and he tells Sonny how furious he is that Sonny appears to end his life by being someone who is addicted to the wrong things. Sonny gets upset that his brother is failing to reach out to him after his capture, for not accepting that individuals have typical methods for managing things, and for not understanding that being an artist isn't what altered Sonny into being a drug addict. Towards the ending of the story the narrator ends up seeing his brother play piano at a nightclub and it appears that he at last recognizes how gifted his brother is. However, most importantly, he additionally appears to see that music is a piece of Sonny.

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Sonny believes that the drugs will make him forget about everything he is suffering with, but really it is only making his life worse along with getting him into a load of

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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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When the narrator accompanies Sonny to the nightclub to listen to him play his music; Sonny’s music portrays his wisdom as he plays about his brother’s frustrations with the trials and sufferings they both endured. Sonny’s artful playing of the blues opens the narrator’s heart to listen genuinely. If one listens to what lies on the inside that is the key to finding oneself. Joseph Flibbert states in the article “Sonny’s Blues” Overview, “In the music he hears, he sees his mother’s face, and that of his little girl … The powerful incantations of Sonny’s art reaches his soul, and for the first time, he listens to the dark voice within”.

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