Suffering In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

Drug addiction initializes suffering and derives some other aspects of suffering, especially in the world of youth. Sonny grew up in a family in Harlem, where he suffered drug addiction in his childhood. He attended military to escape drugs while he always dreamt to become a jazz musician. However, after the military, he returned to New York with his unchanged addiction. Due to touting and using heroin, he was arrested. His brother, the narrator, could not bear his addiction and scorned him. Listening to Sonny play in a nightclub, the narrator eventually understood him, forgave him and accepted him as a young musician. The theme of suffering stimulated both the two brothers, especially Sonny, to grow up mentally.

Growing up in a corrupting

His mother revealed to him the story about his uncle killed by young men of a different race in a traffic accident, hence wanted him to watch his brother carefully. His mother said, “... don’t let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you get with him.” (Baldwin 11) Therefore, the narrator, an ordinary husband, a young father and a mathematics schoolteacher, had to bear the suffering of the race issue and, most urgently, the extra responsibility beyond that of his own family and his job. He struggled to convince Sonny desperately, as he begged, “But if you don’t finish school now, you’re going to be sorry later that you didn’t… I swear I’ll help you do whatever you want to do...Will you please do that? For me?” (Baldwin 15) Some time later, the narrator’s little daughter suddenly died. So far, the narrator, a young man, suffered more than

After their parents died, they talked seriously about Sonny’s future. Sonny bravely and persistently expressed his desire to become a jazz musician, “It’s the only thing I want to do.” (Baldwin 13) Hence, his brother proactively helped him by arranging him to live and practice piano at his sister-in-law’s, where Sonny “was at that piano playing for his life”. (Baldwin 16) However, “the music had been torture” for other folks there, hence he had to quit practicing, leave them and join the navy. Attending a neighborhood revival meeting, Sonny realized that a singer there suffered quite much before she could sing extremely well, and believed that music could relief much suffering from a singer. Sonny’s observation inspired himself to pursue music further. While in the nightclub, they played the blues. “His face was troubled, he was working hard… Sonny moved exactly like someone in torment.” (Baldwin 23). In other words, using music, Sonny communicated his suffering and his regrets to the outside world. Furthermore, “He has to fill his instrument with the breath of his own life.” (Baldwin 23) Sonny and his team members played with so much effort and energy as to sweat soaking wet at the end, but let out their breath while grinning. In short, Sonny desperately used music to reduce mental