The Similarities Of Life Exposed In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.” Quoted by James Baldwin, who was one of many important voices in the racial discussions of the 1960s. James Baldwin's biography and background is still shown in his compositions. One specifically, "Sonny's Blues." This short story is mostly about the narrator and his little brother Sonny. There are three manners by which his life has an influence in this story. He was extremely familiar with the black experience in America amid an exceptionally segregated time, beating the childhood odds in a single parent household, and his confusing relationship with God. James understood what it was like to be black in America. He was born on August 2nd,

The chance for a good and proper life for black children was very challenging. Single mothers had it hard. Many didn’t have much money and were forced to send their children to schools that are located in poor urban areas with low incomes jobs. Without the proper education for these children, a lot ended up with dead end jobs and no real chance for a college education to obtain a good paying job with benefits for themselves and their families. This was a similar situation for James. However, James was different from his fellow classmates. He enjoyed reading and even his teachers understood that there was something special about him. James real father left at an early age which lead to his mother remarrying a strict man who in a way, was James real father. James writes, “Your father always acted like he was the roughest, strongest man on earth.” (102). Much like in the story, this was his actual reality. “His mother, a soft-spoken and hardworking woman, remarried a man named David Baldwin. David was an angry man who sometimes abused the children, including James. The boy would grow up to become almost as hot-tempered as his stepfather.” (McGill 2) Sonny and James hid a lot of their emotions, however they did have somewhat of a temper when involved in bitter altercations. From the story, I also gather that James started working in a school to help with magazines. In Sonny’s Blues, the narrator worked as a math teacher in a school. They both were doing something positive to keep them out of