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

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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 …show more content…

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

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After the narrator goes with Sonny to the Jazz club, he meets Sonny’s friends and sees how they appreciate him and his music in a way he never did. He then begins to see the importance of music to his brother and makes a discovery about himself and Sonny. He listens to Sonny play and is delighted and starts to accept his brothers wanting to be a musician. The narrator realizes he was wrong to try and make Sonny change and he sees the power of Sonny’s blues as he is playing. The acceptance over Sonny’s dream not only strengthened their relationship, but also helped them gain a better understanding of each other.

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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

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In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin wrote a different type coming of age story. At the end of the story the narrator finally develops a new understanding for his brother, and forgives him. The story’s narrator is a black algebra teacher, whose name is never revealed, who is living in Harlem, a New York City neighborhood. In the beginning of the story the narrator reads about his brother, Sonny, being busted with heroin in the newspaper.

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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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