When did he realize? Ever heard of the Blues? This kind of genre originated in African American communities, which can be seen in Sonny’s Blues. Because this story took place after the Harlem renaissance, this kind of genre was one of the main points. The story talked about how Sonny is really into playing the blues and how it was the hook that bonded the narrator with his brother, Sonny. The two brothers had two different mindset on how to live life. Sonny adored playing the blues while the brother, which is the narrator, did not think it was something to listen to. Sonny and his brother were not really close for the entire story, but towards the climax many different feelings and new thoughts were generated in the narrators mind. In this story the narrator never wanted to hear his brother play, however, at the end after his daughter’s death occurred, the narrator changed his mind and gave the blues a chance. So he went with Sonny and listened …show more content…
I was introduced to all of them and they were all very polite to me. Yet it was clear that, for them i was only Sonny’s brother. Here i was in sonny's world” (Baldwin 44) He then realized why Sonny is really into this kind of music. Sonny started playing and at this moment the narrator understood that what Sonny did didn’t only mean so much to Sonny but also meant a lot to the people who were listening “then they all fathered around sonny and sonny played. Every now and again one of them seemed to say amen, Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life. But that life contained so many others.”(Baldwin 48). This kind of music wasn’t only important to Sonny but it was important to all African
The last four paragraphs of `Sonny's Blues' are written in what some people like to call `pencil' form. This means that they are almost interchangeable, they are written in a form where one paragraph could be before another and each could end the story. The order of them does not seem to matter so much as the meaning does. Which in itself shows how much is really packed into each paragraph. The end of this short story is told in a very common narrative form that tells exactly what happened detail by detail. Through the use of "then" as the first word in each paragraph, the narrator expresses to the audience what is happening exactly as it happens to him, piece by piece and feeling by feeling. This gives you a little insight into his psyche in a much more personal way than what an author usually attempts to convey with the word "I," and truly instills a bond between the reader and the narrator. You could almost say it makes you trust him and believe the rest of the story is true. Baldwin's utilization of personified description as well as the flow of his words make the piece read as if it actually was a jazz song by describing the feeling any person who has heard jazz knows. He leaves enough ambiguousness to really make you feel the music through the words, yet gives as mu...
Buddha has famously been attributed saying that “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” In life others pave pathways that we must take that may seem suitable, and if we diverge we are seen as rebellious. The short story Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, is narrated by Sonny’s older brother who shares from his perspective the struggles in life he and his brother go through growing up in the projects of Harlem, New York. Using imagery that makes readers feel as though they are experiencing it as well, the author vividly portrays the difficulties of finding a path in life through the various factors that inhibit one such as family, friends, and the cultural standard ascribed to one. In the story,
Sonny’s Blues By James Baldwin Sonny’s Blues the author is presenting the past from the perspective of the present in order to understand his own feelings concerning the role of a father. The two brothers in the story had different life choices. Both Sonny and the narrator have found their own mode of escaping the violence and harshness of the ghetto, different though those modes might be. After the death of the mother the narrator feels he is his brother’s keeper, because of the promise he made to the mother. He is not exactly happy about it and especially Sonny’s life style. Nevertheless, this is his only brother and he made a promise not to turn his back on him. Sonny was more like his uncle a music lover. Before the mother died she told him about his father and the pain he went through after the death of his brother. His father’s brother was a music lover and somewhat like Sonny. So, by telling this story it would help the narrator to understand Sonny. Now he knows a little about his family background and roots. At the end the narrator was finally able to see and understand what music did for Sonny; it allow him to be himself and express himself to other. Explore the implications of the allusion to the Book of Isaiah 51:17-23 in the concluding sentence. What has the narrator learned as the result of his experience? All of the desolation, destruction, famine, sword things that we (the narrator) go through in this life, are learned through other who have shared these same experiences. Our oppressor (Satan spiritually, mankind physically) causes a trembling in our lives; but just like Jerusalem, who was and still is oppressed; God has already taken our “cup of trembling”. We are delivered through the sharing of our experiences with one another, freeing ourselves from one who causes the trembling.
Baldwin executed a well written short story by making the point of view through the eyes of Sonny’s brother. The setting made the story realistic, and the themes were powerful and influential. Though Sonny had struggles in life along with the rest of the family, he is able to redeem himself through his music. “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others. And Sonny went all the way back, he really began to make it his.”
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood.
The narrator's disapproval of Sonny's decision to become a musician stems in part from his view of musicians in general. His experiences with musicians have led him to believe that they are unmotivated, drug users, seeking only escape from life. He does not really understand what motivates Sonny to play music until the afternoon before he accompanies Sonny to his performance at a club in Harlem. That afternoon, Sonny explains to him that music is his voice, his way of expressing his suffering and releasing his pent-up feelings.
Goldman, Suzy B. "James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music." Negro American Literature Forum 3rd ser. 8 (1974): 231-33. St. Louis University. Web. Apr.-May 2014.
Throughout Baldwin’s story it is obvious that he places a large value on music, as well as art in general, as a way to express oneself. When the narrator and Sonny went to the nightclub, Sonny played the blues on the piano as part of a group of performers. While playing, the narrator noted how passionate Sonny became while playing the blues and and noted that “Creole seemed to be saying, listen. Now these are Sonny’s blues” (Baldwin 148). From this short line Baldwin’s emphasis on music can be seen as Sonny was directly portraying his feelings through a piano. This artistry helps convey to the reader that playing music is where Sonny belongs and that he can only truly convey what he wants to, not through words, but through music. Baldwin wishes
The story Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a story about people’s actions and the effect that they have on the environment and the people around them. The Narrator is the older brother and the keeper of Sonny after his mother passes away. It is his duty to watch over his younger brother and to help guide him through life and to make the correct decisions. This caused great distress for him because he was never able to control Sonny and the life that he chooses to live. Sonny is The Narrators brother and is a dynamic character who decides early on what he wants to do with his life. This creates a constant tug of war with his brother which ends with him denouncing his brother and they also ceased talking for a long time. Sonny is also addicted
James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues tells the story of the narrator and his brother and the hardships that they must endure. As Kahlil Gibran States “Out of suffering have emerged the strangest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars.” (Gibran). In that very quote the real light is shown as it informs the reader that with suffering comes growth and once the person whomever it may be emerges out of the darkness they may have scars but it has made them stronger. The theme of light and darkness as well as suffering play a vital part in this story. For both men there are times in which they have the blues and suffer in the darkness of their lives but music takes the suffering from them.
James Baldwin was born in 1924 in Harlem, New York to an unwed mother. His mother married David Baldwin, a strict preacher who never accepted James. The oldest of nine children, Baldwin grew up in extreme poverty. Baldwin lived in Harlem until he moved to Paris due to the racial injustices. He returned to the United States in 1957 and became a major part of the civil rights movement. As one of the most popular authors of his time, Baldwin wrote about different problems such as sexual identity, family, church and life as an African American. (Rampersad) In “Sonny’s Blues,” he shows how a brother uses music to ease his suffering. James Baldwin was able to relate to the pain and suffering that jazz represents.
"Sonny's Blues" is filled with examples of music and how it makes things better. The schoolboy, the barmaid, the mother, the brother, the uncle, the street revivalists, all use music to create a moment when life isn't so ugly, even though the world still waits outside and trouble stretches above. Music and the tale it tells provide hope and joy; instead of being the instrument of Sonny's destruction, introducing him to the world of drugs, music is his way out of some of the ugliness. For Sonny and the other characters in this story, music is a bastion against the despair that pervades stunted lives; it is the light that guides them from the darkness without hope.
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
James Baldwin writes about two African-American brothers growing up in Harlem, a black ghetto in New York, during the 1950's. During this time black people were forced to live in a world of prejudice, discrimination, poverty and suppression. The life of a black person was very difficult; many opportunities afforded to whites were not afforded to blacks. Sonny and his brother lived in the projects and had many obstacles to overcome that white people didn't have to. Sonny chose music to outwardly express his suffering, his brother chose to bottle it up and keep it inside, but this is the common thread they both shared. Suffering is also shown in the story when Baldwin says "it came to me that what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind" (P 47). I think this quote means that both Sonny and his older brother want to retrieve some of their past so that it can help them cope with what has happened in their lives. If Sonny and his brother can both cope with what has happened in their lives and get over it, I think t they both can start moving forward and putting this behind them.
This issue becomes a conflict for the two siblings that grows tension among each other. Sonny expresses to the narrator that he wants to become a jazz musician. For example, the narrator explains, “It seemed- beneath him, somehow. I had never thought about it before, had never been force to, but I suppose I had always putt jazz musicians in a class with what Daddy called “good-time people” (pg. 86). In my opinion I think the narrator feels appalled that his brother wants to become a jazz musician because he thinks of them as people who hang around clubs and clown around. Both siblings don’t see eye to eye, the narrator sees it as Sonny wasting his time and Sonny sees it as being his career. The exposition of the narrator finding his younger brother in a newspaper resulted on reconnecting their relationship. Also, the conflict of the two siblings was their argument of not seeing the same