The Representation of Race in Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

1521 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racism in literature

The Representation of Race in Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

The journey undergone by the narrator (and elder brother) in Sonny’s blues may be short in literary terms but is said to be one of the tenderest and thought provoking pieces in modern fiction.

Indirect comparisons between life and music are rich within many of the paragraphs and pages and remain quietly present throughout the duration of the story even when less patent.

Jazz as a genre is undeniably unpredictable and often misunderstood.

The jazz listened to, played and loved by Sonny is used as a colorful metaphor right through the story.

The examples are endless. One crucial one was the almost unbearable frustration the narrator experienced while looking outside in to Sonny’s life.

He saw a chaotic, capricious mess when he looked at the life his younger brother lived; much like the erratic and confusing disarray he heard when he heard Jazz.

Although Sonny was aware of the detrimental direction his life was going in, he chose to continue to make music wit beats and rhythms not understood by his brother.

Narrator compared every angle and direction of Sonny’s choices with one another; the drugs, the music, the lack of reality in his preferences- he related each with the other and initially distanced himself from his sibling who he still loved dearly, mainly because he didn’t understand why a well adjusted young man would choose to live a life to indicate that he was a character of the contrary.

As the story grows and unravels, we witness a clear shift in emotional generosity and acceptance in Narrator; he watches and listens to his brother, learning that his story isn’t as uncompressible as he once thought.

It may always be slightly confusing to him but he learned to see depth and courage in Sonny and this is mirrored in/on the final page when almost an identical journey is taken in the few minutes that Narrator experiences his blood playing his music, his life, ‘He didn’t notice it, but just before they started playing again, he sipped from it and looked towards me. Then he put it back on top of the piano. For me, then, as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother’s head like the very cup of trembling’. (Sonny’s blues.141). John M. Reilly writes, ‘this first is the theme of the individualistic narrator’s gradual discovery of the significance of his brother’s life.

Show More
Related

  • Releasing Emotion In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Sonny starts to play the piano, he is a little bit nervous, and he does not really feel the music that he is playing. After a while though, he starts to loosen up and play his heart out. The tune he is playing is no longer just a song; it is “Sonny’s Blues” (148). The music he plays “fills the air with life, his life,” and Sonny’s brother finally understands “he could help us be free if we would listen, “ and that Sonny “would never be free until we did” (148). By the end of the story, Sonny achieves his goal of communicating his problems though his

    Read More

  • External Conflict In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    Conflict is opposition between two forces, and it may be external or internal,” (Barker). There are two styles of external conflict that can be examined within the plot of “Sonny’s Blues”. The first of these is character versus society. This is the outer layer of the external conflict observed between Sonny and the society, which his life is out casted from. The meat and potatoes of the external conflict however, is character versus character. Sonny lives a lifestyle that his brother seems to be incapable of understanding. The internal conflict lies within the narrator. It is his struggle to understand his brother that drives the plot. The climax occurs when Sonny and the narrator argue in the apartment. The argument stems from the narrators complete inability to understand Sonny’s drug usage and life as a musician, and Sonny’s feeling of abandonment and inability to make his brother understand him. This conflict appears to come to a resolve at the resolution as the narrator orders Sonny a drink following hearing Sonny perform for the first time. It appears as though this is the moment when the narrator begins to understand, perhaps for the first time, his brother the

    Read More

  • An Older Brother's Influence in James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues

    1568 Words  | 4 Pages

    In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” the unspoken brotherly bond between the narrator and his younger brother Sonny is illustrated through the narrator’s point of view. The two brothers have not spoken in years until the narrator receives a letter from Sonny after his daughter dies. He takes this moment as an important sign from Sonny and feels the need to respond. While both Sonny and the narrator live in separate worlds, all Sonny needs is a brother to care for him while the narrator finds himself in the past eventually learning his role as an older brother.

    Read More

  • Brotherly Love in Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    James Baldwin, author of Sonny’s Blues, was born in Harlem, NY in 1924. During his career as an essayist, he published many novels and short stories. Growing up as an African American, and being “the grandson of a slave” (82) was difficult. On a day to day basis, it was a constant battle with racial discrimination, drugs, and family relationships. One of Baldwin’s literature pieces was Sonny’s Blues in which he describes a specific event that had a great impact on his relationship with his brother, Sonny. Having to deal with the life-style of poverty, his relationship with his brother becomes affected and rivalry develops. Conclusively, brotherly love is the theme of the story. Despite the narrator’s and his brother’s differences, this theme is revealed throughout the characters’ thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue. Therefore, the change in the narrator throughout the text is significant in understanding the theme of the story. It is prevalent to withhold the single most important aspect of the narrator’s life: protecting his brother.

    Read More

  • Brothers' Relationship in Baldwin's Sonny's Blues

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    As "Sonny's Blues" opens, the narrator tells of his discovery that his younger brother has been arrested for selling and using heroin. Both brothers grew up in Harlem, a neighborhood rife with poverty and despair. Though the narrator teaches school in Harlem, he distances himself emotionally from the people who live there and their struggles and is somewhat judgmental and superior. He loves his brother but is distanced from him as well and judgmental of his life and decisions. Though Sonny needs for his brother to understand what he is trying to communicate to him and why he makes the choices he makes, the narrator cannot or will not hear what Sonny is trying to convey. In distancing himself from the pain of upbringing and his surroundings, he has insulated himself from the ability to develop an understanding of his brother's motivations and instead, his disapproval of Sonny's choice to become a musician and his choices regarding the direction of his life in general is apparent. Before her death, his mother spoke with him regarding his responsibilities to Sonny, telling him, "You got to hold on to your brother...and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you get with him...you may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you're there" (87) His unwillingness to really hear and understand what his brother is trying to tell him is an example of a character failing to act in good faith.

    Read More

  • Sonnys blues

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin relies on music to convey the theme of hardships for both Sonny and his older brother. The relationship between the two siblings is rocky. “I didn't write Sonny or send him anything for a long time.” said the older brother. Jazz is able to bring both of them closer together and have a better understanding of one another. With the older brother appreciating Sonny’s love for jazz it also allows him to the troubles in both their lives. Through Sonny’s music he was able to help his brother’s pain and in return his brother was able to help him. At first the older brother said, “I simply couldn't see why on earth he'd want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on bandstands," but towards the end of his brothers performance his views changed. He sends Sonny a drink after his performance and Sonny nods back to him. This represents the acknowledgment that Sonny now has his older brother’s approval. Even though Sonny and his brother still have different views and understandings of music it is still their own opinion. Their relationship and bond strengthen with the help of music.

    Read More

  • Suffering as a Common Denominator

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    Richard N. Albert is one critic who explores and analyzes the world of “Sonny’s Blues”. His analysis, “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”” is an example of how one can discover the plot, characterization and jazz motif that builds this theme of suffering. Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients that make up the plot: the initial situation, conflict, complications, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice. At the beginning of the story, the narrator reads in the newspaper about Sonny’s arrest for using and selling heroin.

    Read More

  • The Troubled Brother in Sonny’s Blues, by James Baldwin

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sonny’s Blues is first-person narration by the elder brother of the musician struggling with heroin addiction and issues with law. However, on closer inspection it appears that Sonny’s unnamed brother is also very troubled. His difficulties cannot easily be perceived and recognized especially by the character himself. The story gives accounts of the problems Sonny’s brother has with taking responsibility, understanding and respecting his younger brother’s lifestyle.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast My Sonnys Blues And My Papa's Blues

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the narrator having a responsibility to take care of his brother, he consistently forces the fact that he wants his brother to be well off and not care about his passion in music. The older they got, the more they drove away from each other because of the fact the narrator becomes overly protective with Sonny, and uses a “tough love” strategy though it does not making any positive effect. After they took some time apart, they both realized they cannot emotionally make it in this world without one

    Read More

  • Music as Salvation in Sonny’s Blues, by James Baldwin

    886 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story, Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin uses music, jazz, and hymns to shape the story and show how it shapes Sonny’s life and how music is inherent to his survival. All of this is seen through the older brother’s eyes; the older brother is the narrator and the reader begins to understand Sonny through the older brother’s perspective. Baldwin writes the story like a jazz song to make a story out of his father’s past and his brother’s career choice and puts them together, going back and forth, until it creates a blending of histories and lives. He shows how the father’s past is similar to the narrator’s life; the older brother has conflicts with his younger brother, Sonny. Music heals the relationship.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    All three of these symbolical details are woven together in "Sonny's Blues" to create a non-literal meaning directly beneath the words. The end result is an enriched message about urban struggles for expression, happiness, and chemical independance. Ultimately, Sonny's revival concludes the readers' literary tour of world in which he lives. What is begun with a presentation of hardships is finally concluded with Sonny's triumph, a chance at a better future.

    Read More

  • Suffering and Surviving in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin presents an intergenerational portrait of suffering and survival within the sphere of black community and family. The family dynamic in this story strongly impacts how characters respond to their own pain and that of their family members. Examining the central characters, Mama, the older brother, and Sonny, reveals that each assumes or acknowledges another's burden and pain in order to accept his or her own situation within an oppressive society. Through this sharing each character is able to achieve a more profound understanding of his own suffering and attain a sharper, if more precarious, notion of survival.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Family in Sonny's Blues

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, “Sonny’s Blues” is the story of Sonny told through his brother’s perspective. It is shown that the narrator tries to block out the past and lead a good “clean” life. However, this shortly changes when Sonny is arrested for the use and possession of heroin. When the narrator starts talking to his brother again, after years of no communication, he disapproves of his brother’s decisions. However, after the death of his daughter, he slowly starts to transform into a dynamic character. Through the narrator’s change from a static to a dynamic character, readers were able to experience a remarkable growth in the narrator.

    Read More

  • Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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...

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    The short story Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is written in first person through the narrator. This story focuses on the narrator’s brother sonny and their relationship throughout the years. This story is taken place in Harlem, New York in the 1950s. The narrator is a high school algebra teacher and just discovered his brother in the newspaper. This story includes the traditional elements to every story, which consist of the exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution.

    Read More

More about The Representation of Race in Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin and The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Open Document