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Demonstrating his love for music, it’s the only thing holding him together as his only purpose in life is creating music because his life in prison has changed him and he is unwilling to chase after any other goals besides music. While also displaying the literary device metaphor because the words, “shaken to pieces,” is an implicit comparison between each other. All in all, James Baldwin also develops metaphors throughout the duration of “Sonny’s Blues,” to tie in with his theme of suffering can lead to creation.
The short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is about a young man whom is struggling in life. The narrator, who is unnamed throughout the story, and Sonny’s older brother tells the readers in depth about his brothers battle. In the late 1900s during poverty and systematic oppression, many African Americans were subjected to one specific area in modern day known as Harlem. Not only is story about discrimination African Americans faced, it is about two brothers gaining a better understanding on each others lives. Baldwin demonstrates that acceptance over a family member’s decisions can strengthen the bond between two estranged brothers.
As a matter of fact, the storyteller does not appreciate Sonny's motivations to play jazz music until the evening he socially joins Sonny to his stage show at a nightclub. Sitting in a dark corner at the nightclub, the storyteller listens to his brother play, considering the reminder of Sonny's friend, Creole, of what the Blues are about, "The tale, of the blues, how we live, and how we are delighted, how we suffer... and how we triumph... must be heard... it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." (Baldwin 139). For the narrator, he perceives that the Blues is the manifestation for Sonny's emotions, especially his suffering, because, as Creole would say, music is the only light in the
James Baldwins Sonny’s Blues is a story about a challenging, evolving relationship between two brothers in post-World War II Harlem of New York. The story is told from the point of view of the narrator as he goes through his thoughts on Sonny’s challenges. The narrator is like any other man. He has a job as an algebra teacher, a few kids, and importantly, a loving wife. Isabel is characterized as an extremely caring woman who loves her family, especially her brother-in-law, Sonny.
The differentiating pictures of light and dimness, which fill in as truth and the truth, are utilized to portray the battle amongst Sonny and the storyteller in James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues.” In section one of the story contains a figurative entry: "I gazed at it in the swinging light of the tram auto, and in the appearances and collections of the general population, and in my own face, caught in the dimness which thundered outside"(49). This reference is huge in light of the fact that it is a complexity to the discouraging society that the storyteller and his sibling Sonny live in. The haziness is the depiction of the group of Harlem that is caught, in their surroundings by physical, monetary, and social boundaries.
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.
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blue’s” makes great use of different literary devices throughout the story. The author utilizes conflict, symbolism, and the narrator’s point of view to give the story a deeper meaning and significance to the story. Sonny’s Blue’s is about an older brother’s relationship and differences with his younger brother, Sonny.
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
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.
There are many ways that symbolism is used to show things that are unique to each story that James Baldwin writes including “Sonny’s Blues”. The main symbolism surround music. One thing that it symbolizes is hope. Music gives Sonny hope that he can travel away from Harlem and those who doubt what he can do using blues music and his piano skills. This is not just used as symbolism in the story, but in what was really happening during this time.
Even when light is shown on the streets of Harlem, the darkness consumes it. Baldwin describes the physical symbol of light as he tells of Sonny’s Uncle being murdered, he writes, “there was a moon that night, it was bright like day…the minute his brother stepped…into the road, in the moonlight” (Baldwin 101). Light is shown to be just as dangerous as darkness is in this story. If Sonny’s Uncle had not stepped out into the light and tried to escape the darkness, then he would not have been murdered. Darkness is shown to inhabit the light within Sonny’s place of refuge.
As Donald C. Murray has said in his article, “James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’: Complicated and Simple”, “Images of light and darkness are used by Baldwin… ( Murray 354)”. Also, Baldwin is able to tell a story that can make the reader visualize what is happening to this character Sonny, even though it is being narrated through the eyes and perspective of his older brother. He portrays the older brother as someone who can understand and recognizes the internal struggles of Sonny and be compassionate about them, even though the elder brother does not agree with all the life choices his brother has
(European Graduate School) In Sonny’s Blues Baldwin shows both his influence of from Black people and drug addiction to the loneliness that situations create and how isolation occurs during troubling times. Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a story of struggle and redemption through others. James Baldwin uses the narrator the story from a first person point of view which leads to a sense of disorientation in the reader and contributes to the stories theme of forgiveness.
It also shows the dependence Sonny has on the piano and his addiction to the music. Sonny and the narrator finally come to a mutual understanding of one another in this scene. Baldwin’s diction and vocabulary choices contrast one another and ties back to a central theme of the story: dark vs. light. He chooses words such as “life”, “beautiful”, and “freedom” to represent the positivity of the music, but he uses words like “lurked”, “lament”, and “burning” to emphasize the negative vibes Sonny releases while he plays. The
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
