The Depiction Of The Narrator In Sonny's Blues, By James Baldwin

Essay #3 In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator (the protagonist) is depicted as a high school algebra teacher at the local school in Harlem, New York. One day he spots someone he used to have some relations with and they end up talking. The narrator soon learns his brother, Sonny, was arrested which disrupts him. The story progresses and the narrator's daughter unfortunately passes away which in turn leads the narrator to reach out to Sonny and reconnect. After meeting up Sonny ends up staying with the narrator, and during this time the two reminisce and have flashbacks to their upbringing and the challenges they endured. After hearing about Sonny’s addiction issues and his found passion for music, the narrator begins

Jazz music is also depicted to be a dominant force within African American culture in the 1950s. This is displayed through the narrator witnessing and listening to his brother Sonny's affiliation to the topic. Once again Sonny is used for a depiction, a depiction of the influence of jazz music and expression. In a flashback, Sonny and the narrator are talking and the narrator asks Sonny “What do you want to do” (Baldwin p. 133) in a career path sense. Sonny answers a musician and this puzzles the narrator to the point where he starts frowning at Sonny's response. The narrator then asks what kind of musician is still frowning at this “musician” choice to which Sonny responds seriously, “‘I want to play with jazz musicians.’ He stopped. ‘I want to play jazz’” (Baldwin, p. 134). After hearing this, the narrator then frowns more than before. This disapproval of the narrator and the extreme want of Sonny to pursue jazz counteract each other. It shows the dominance jazz can have over someone and how special it can be to people. The fact that Sonny stopped to essentially restate his previous desire to play jazz also shows