8 (1974): 231-33. St. Louis University. Web. Apr.-May 2014. Ognibene, Elaine R. "Black Literature Revisited: "Sonny's Blues"" The English Journal 60.1 (1971): 36-37.
During the time in prison, blues seems to be the music he can relate to, and it helps with his pain and suffering. Sonny realizes that music has a much better impact of his life versus his heroin addiction.Music has alwa... ... middle of paper ... ...the civil rights movement. This story has different aspects of the brothers’ lives and how they chose to cope with racism. The story also tells us how both brothers resolve their racism issues and have a relationship again. Sonny struggles in the beginning with his racism, he quits school, joins the service, gets mixed up with drugs, spends time in prison, and then finally he finds his outlet with music.
"Eliot's The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock." Explicator 62.4 (2004): 221-223. Humanities Source. Web. 15 May 2014.
For the author, the blues are more universal than a specific type of music. The narrator describes that the blues are "the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph." With this quote, the story "Sonny's Blues" is actually a blues piece: it starts with the suffering that the two brothers face, continues with their developing communion, and ends with brotherly love and triumphs over loneliness and suffering. The story "Sonny's Blues" is like Sonny's actual music, because it tries to bring people together and, through that link of grace and understanding, to relieve suffering. The author is not playing the blues but actually putting it down in writing.
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Twelfth Edition. New York: Pearson, 2013.
Towards the end of the story, after Sonny’s amazing performance, the narrator saw how Sonny’s struggles and dreams came pouring out through his music. In other words, Baldwin’s literary work, Sonny’s Blues is a story of suffering and triumph. These themes have been depicted countless times in his other works as well. Throughout James Baldwin’s life and in his literary works, he have been trying to make meaning of the cruelty and hardships in life. This is what, precisely, Sonny is trying to do with his music.
The "blues", both as a state of being and as music, are basic to the structure of the story, and both the narrator and his brother Sonny have had their share. The contradictory lives of the two brothers contribute to the theme of being safe and take risks. In this story, Baldwin writes about two brothers who grew together. As each of the boys grew older, they fell apart from one another and lived two completely different lives. The narrator, who is the older brother, seemed to be more conservative and more determined for a good future.
When the music stops, older brother was in tears, because Sonny?s music also made him go deep inside himself and find the pain of his daughter?s death; the pain of broken promises, and the pain of denying his own kind. The end is a triumph for both: Sonny showed his brother his world, his purpose, his bitter-sweet happiness, even with the always present lure of addiction. Older brother found respect and acceptance for Sonny, and such acceptance transformed his view of everything around him. Works Cited: Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues" in Vintage Baldwin.
Web. 8 May 2015. "Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin." Short Story Criticism. Ed.
In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues” there is a constant contrast between light and dark. Baldwin uses this theme to highlight the struggles that the Narrator and his younger brother, Sonny, both face. Light represents all of the positive aspects of life. Meanwhile, the darkness represents the constant struggle that threatens the characters in the story. Light and dark has a presence in both characters.