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. First, the exposition of this story starts with the narrator who discovers Sonny in the newspaper for using and selling heroin. As he reads the paper on the subway he couldn’t believe what he had read. This made him reminisce the days that …show more content…
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 …show more content…
The narrator allows Sonny to move into his apartment. By allowing Sonny to live with him he has allowed to trust him again. For example, the narrator explains, “The idea of searching Sonny’s room made me still. I scarcely dared to admit to myself what I’d be searching for. I didn’t know what I’d do if I found it. Or if I didn’t” (pg. 91). This shows how the narrator had the opportunity to search his brother’s room, but had the ability not to. Tension grew among brothers while living under one roof. This starts the climax of both arguing in the apartment. The narrator doesn’t understand why his brother wants to be a musician. This argument was built of emotion both had and not yet discussed among each other. Such as the narrator expressing his anger towards his brother’s drug use and Sonny’s frustration towards the narrator not understanding his plan to become a jazz musician. For example, the narrator states, “I realized, with this mocking look, that there stood between us, forever, beyond the power of time or forgiveness, the fact that I had held silence – so long! – when he had needed human speech to help him” (pg.94). The argument with his brother made him realize that he abandon his younger brother when he needed him the most. He realized that if he would have spoken out and talk about his drug use that he wouldn’t have to go
As the narrator makes his way to the courtyard heading home from school, a "friend" of Sonny's, another drug-user, approaches him. The narrator ...
Big brother hasn’t heard about him since that day and he “[Is] scared, scared for Sonny” (47). As the story continues, big brother has a flashback of his childhood; his brother Sonny and his mother are in it. Mother asks big brother to take care of his younger brother, ever since that day Sonny has been a responsibility to him and when Sonny expresses he wants to be a jazz piano player, the narrator thinks this is a waste of his life and that he has failed to his mother wishes. Their inability to see eye to eye on this is what causes so much strife between the
Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories 1992: 409 - 439.
In the lyrical and heartrending short story Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin tells the tale of two brothers, both having taken a different path to survive, and how these paths have estranged them. One brother, the narrator and a button-down algebra teacher, lives a straight-forward life with a wife and two kids. The other brother, Sonny, is a heroin hooked, jazz crazed, musician who views life in a much different light. During the course of their difficult relationship the narrator, through remembrance of previous death experiences in his life, acceptance of Sonny’s choices , and hearing Sonny express his sorrows and suffering through his music is able to open his heart to the previously unaccepted Sonny and rekindle their fraternal bond.
Several passages found throughout "Sonny's Blues" indicate that as a whole, the neighborhood of Harlem is in the turmoil of a battle between good and evil. The narrator describes Sonny's close encounters with the evil manifested in drugs and crime, as well as his assertive attempts at distancing himself from the darker side. The streets and communities of Harlem are described as being a harsh environment which claims the lives of many who have struggled against the constant enticement of emotional escape through drugs, and financial escape through crime. Sonny's parents, just like the others in Harlem, have attempted to distance their children from the dark sides of their community, but inevitably, they are all aware that one day each child will face a decisionb for the first time. Each child will eventually join the ranks of all the other members of society fighting a war against evil at the personal level so cleanly brought to life by James Baldwin. Amongst all the chaos, the reader is introduced to Sonny's special secret weapon against the pressures of life: Jazz. Baldwin presents jazz as being a two-edged sword capable of expressing emotions like no other method, but also a presenting grave danger to each individual who bears it. Throughout the the story, the reader follows Sonny's past and present skirmishes with evil, his triumphs, and his defeats. By using metaphorical factors such as drugs and jazz in a war-symbolizing setting, Baldwin has put the focus of good and evil to work at the heart of "Sonny's Blues."
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.
Sonny’s Blues is a short story written by James Baldwin. The story is written in the first person singular narrative style and it begins with the narrator who reads in the newspaper on his way to work about his younger brother Sonny, who has been caught in a heroine bust and jailed. The narrator becomes very disappointed in his brother that he does not write to him for a while but after his daughter Gracie, succumbs to polio, that is when he remembers his brother and writes a letter to him. The two brothers maintain contact through the letters till Sonny is released from jail. After his release, Sonny moves in with his brother and his family. During a family dinner, they flash back about their parents. The narrator describes their father as a drunk who died when sonny was fifteen. He liked his privacy just like sonny but they never used to get along. Sonny was a withdrawn and a quiet type while their father feigned to be big, loud-talking and tough. The narrator recalls the last time he saw their mother alive was before he left for war. He remembered his mother telling him to take care of his brother. The story talks of Sonny’s life in Harlem and how he tried to escape the stereotype of the community’s traditional social view. He tries to venture into jazz music which the narrator does not find suitable for him. Sonny gets lured into drugs in the attempt of escaping the darkness in his life and finds himself in jail. The narrator tries to help and understand his brother. When Sonny invites the narrator to Greenwich Village to watch him perform, the narrator is uncertain but accepts the invitation. As Sonny plays the piano, the narrator feels the magic in the music and can see how his brother’s emotions come alive and he is able to...
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.
Throughout the story, the narrator learns how important it is to Sonny for him to care and listen to him. Sonny is vulnerable and in a state where he is getting into trouble with drugs and alcohol perhaps because he feels as though no one cares enough to help him. The narrator lives his life as a teacher while Sonny spends his days using drugs hoping someday to pursue his dreams of music. Both characters end up in a place they are meant to be; acting as family and leaning on each other for support, which is the true importance of an older brother.
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.
There was a point in the story where Sonny and the older brother are watching a church revival group. The older brother does not see Sonny until later in the song; that was the starting point when the older brother realizes how important music is to Sonny. Sonny escapes from everything when he plays piano. The older brother meets Sonny back at the apartment and they watch the church scene through the apartment window.
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
At first glance, "Sonny's Blues" seems ambiguous about the relationship between music and drugs. After all, the worlds of jazz and drug addiction are historically intertwined; it could be possible that Sonny's passion for jazz is merely an excuse for his lifestyle and addiction, as the narrator believes for a time. Or perhaps the world that Sonny has entered by becoming involved in jazz is the danger- if he had not encountered jazz he wouldn't have encountered drugs either. But the clues given by the portrayals of music and what it does for other figures in the story demonstrate music's beneficial nature; music and drugs are not interdependent for Sonny. By studying the moments of music interwoven throughout the story, it can be determined that the author portrays music as a good thing, the preserver and sustainer of hope and life, and Sonny's only way out of the "deep and funky hole" of his life in Harlem, with its attendant peril of drugs (414).
Historically, strong family relationships have been emphasized by American society. Strong family ties have been significant to maintaining healthy lifestyles and relationships across many cultures, including African American culture. Sonny, the younger brother in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, has suffered from a heroin addiction which caused him to separate from both his parents and his older brother. The essay portrays two brothers who struggle with their difficult Harlem environment, cultural issues, and their emotional detachment from one another. As the brothers struggle with their inner conflicts and outward environmental struggles, they are reunited through a common theme in the essay: music. Baldwin empowers Sonny with a gift of extraordinary musicianship, and uses this gift to enlighten and empower the narrator. Baldwin’s essay narrates the trials of the narrator on his journey to self- discovery and the brothers trial of rebuilding their brotherly bond with music as their guide. The essay uses music as a form of communication between the brothers and symbolizes it as a powerful force in their relationship. In Baldwin’s essay, “Sonny’s Blues”, the narrator and Sonny are empowered through music, and through this empowerment, the music is able to rekindle and rebuild the brothers relationship.
In conclusion, the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin brings out two main themes: irony and suffering. You can actually feel the pain that Baldwin's characters experience; and distinguish the two different lifestyles of siblings brought up in the same environment. The older brother remaining nameless is a fabulous touch that really made me want to read on. This really piqued my interest and I feel it can lead to many discussions on why this technique was used. I really enjoyed this story; it was a fast and enjoyable reading. Baldwin keeps his readers thinking and talking long after they have finished reading his stories. His writing technique is an art, which very few, if any, can duplicate.