Sonny’s Blues, by James Baldwin

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.

The story “Sonny’s Blues “is about two brothers that deal with racism. In dealing with their issues they both suffer and survive in their family and community. Their stories are a strong impact on their character and how they deal with their pain. Sonny chooses a more damaging means of racism, such as drug addiction to heroin; although, he does find a better choice music! The older brother, the narrator, James Baldwin, goes to college to become a teacher, and give back to his community in Harlem.

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. After years of non communication between brothers, a single event happens that puts them back in touch.

One good thing about music: when it hits, you feel no pain,” says Bob Marley. Music is relevant in James Baldwin’s 1957 short story, “Sonny’s Blues.” It is about an unnamed male narrator struggling with his brother Sonny’s heroin addiction. Baldwin mentions in the story that the narrator and Sonny are “seven years [apart]” (1732). This fact is one of the reasons for the awkward relationship between the narrator and Sonny. Although the author states directly that Sonny has a heroin addiction, he has overcome a lot of pain in his life to get to where he ends up in the latter part of the story.

The darkness represents Sonny in a way. He is a recovering drug addict that just finished serving time in prison. When he was released from prison his brother was there to meet him. He finds his reemergence into the world through his love for music. For Sonny, music is his guiding light.

The story portrays two brothers that grew up in harlem struggling with their environment as well as their emotional detachment from one another. Sonny one of the brothers in the story suffers from a heroin addiction that distances him from his family. The narrator Sonny’s brother, willingly creates a distance between him and his brother

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... ... middle of paper ... ... the miserable life that African Americans had to withstand at the time. From the narrator’s life in Harlem that he loathed, to the drug problems and apprehensions that Sonny was suffering from, to the death of his own daughter Grace, each of these instances serve to show the wretchedness that the narrator and his family had to undergo. The story in relation to Baldwin possibly leads to the conclusion that he was trying to relate this to his own life. At the time before he moved away, he had tried to make a success of his writing career but to no avail.

“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin this story is about two brothers that grew up and still live in Harlem and the ways they handle the pain and suffering that have happened in their lives. The city of Harlem plays an important role in this story because both brothers’ are trying to escape where they came from. Feeling trapped by his surroundings Sonny turned to drugs. The narrator of the story, as we learn later on is Sonny’s older brother, reads in the newspaper that Sonny had been picked up, the evening before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and doing heroin (Baldwin, 2012). The narrator felt scared and feared what would happen to Sonny you see this when it states, “It was a special kind of ice.

"Sonny's Blues" If you were not able to talk to anyone, nor did people want to listen to what you have to say, would that affect you? In the short story, "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, Baldwin writes about two brothers, Sonny and the narrator, who lose communication between one another because Sonny goes to prison. The narrator, having to make a promise to their mother before her death, was to take care and watch over his young brother Sonny no matter what. This turned out not to be the case and the narrator did not pay much attention to his brother's goals as well as doings. By the end of the story, the audience realizes that the only place where the narrator can understand and feel for his brother is at the place where Sonny finds his passion, the jazz club.

Sonny the youngest of the brothers develops an increasing interest in music, jazz specifically. Which his brother does not approve, simply because he cannot understand what may push his brother to pursue a musical career “So you’ve got to listen. You’ve got to find a way to listen” (Sonny’s Blues 117). The race related difficulties of the time coupled with the toughness of life on Sonny, act on Sonny, finally leading him astray. After years of not seeing each other, Sonny’s brother see on the newspaper that his younger sibling went to jail, because of drug related issues.