James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is relatable for those who have a sibling. Family is universal, making this short story relatable whether drugs are involved. In the beginning, an unnamed narrator is introduced. He discovers through reading a newspaper that his brother, Sonny, has been arrested. Sonny had been using and selling heroin at the time of his arrest. The narrator is an algebra teacher preparing to teach his class. His class happens to be filled with majority young boys. He realizes that some of his students could someday end up like Sonny, considering the hardships that they had to go through as children growing up in Harlem. At the end of the school day, the narrator begins heading home when he thinks he has spotted Sonny. Instead …show more content…
Sonny’s friend happens to be expecting to see the narrator and the two begin walking together. They begin to converse about the narrator’s brother while the narrator begins to wonder if maybe the friend is to blame for Sonny being on drugs. At the same time the narrator feels sorry for Sonny’s friend, who is explaining to him how hard and painful his brother’s drug-addicted life has been. Time goes on and the narrator never writes Sonny. The only time he writes his brother is when his daughter Grace dies. In return Sonny writes a long letter back to the narrator, where he tries to explain why he has done what he has done throughout his life. The narrator and his brother start communicating with each other more. This leads to Sonny moving into the narrator’s family apartment when he is released from …show more content…
He also remembers the last day he seen his mother while on leave from the Army. His mother had told him to watch out for his brother. After speaking with his mother, the narrator went back to the Army and never thought of his brother again until his mother’s death. At the funeral, the two brothers sat and talked about Sonny’s plans for his future. Sonny told his brother that he had dreams of becoming a famous jazz musician. The narrator disagreed with his brother’s idea, so he arranged for Sonny to go live with his wife’s family and instead pursue college. Sonny did not want to do this but agreed to do so anyway. Sonny loved music so much but the rest of the family were not okay with the constant piano playing. Sonny had gotten into trouble for skipping school. When confronted by the mother of the family, he admitted to skipping class to go hangout with the musicians in Greenwich Village. After the confrontation, Sonny begins feeling like a heavy burden to the family: So two days later Sonny joins the Navy. The narrator never knows if his brother was dead or alive until one day receiving a post card from Greece from him. After the war the brothers return to New York but never hear from each other. The times that they did see other they got into arguments over the decisions Sonny has made in his life. Sonny tells the narrator that he is dead to after
The narrator cannot reopen communication with Sonny until a second crisis occurs, the death of his daughter from polio. When Sonny is released, the narrator brings him to live with his family.
Sonny’s brother has been distant towards him, but recently, he has been trying to understand him and help him. Sonny decides to take his brother to a concert to see if he will understand what he is trying to convey through music. Sonny hasn’t played the piano for “over a year” and he is a little bit rusty (147). Sonny also says he isn’t on “much better terms with life” than he was a year ago (147). In a way though, he is in a much better place, because his brother is there for him.
...n his brother’s life the theme in Sonny’s Blues would’ve have been altered. Overall, what was vital to the narrator, in this time of turmoil and frustration, was to nurture the relationship with his brother Sonny, not only because of the love he had for him but also for the obligation he had as a brother and the commitment he had toward his mother.
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.
Family structure is often built on foundations consisting of, trust, principal, and unconditional love. Relatives are often a reflection of the morals, and dignity our guardians instilled in us. The struggle in families arises when an individual does not live up to the standards set for them, by family, and sometimes results in incarceration, or use of narcotics. In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, readers encounter two brothers who are brought up in the rough neighborhood of Harlem, New York. Although Sonny, the younger brother, chooses a different life path in heroin usage, and in being a musician, his older brother, the narrator, becomes an algebra teacher. Despite not being in each other’s lives for a period of time, the knitted fraternal relationship that they share proves to be eternal regardless of their loss of contact. Ultimately, this story is an amazing illustration of how two people are from the same blood and home, are never quite the same, yet the love of a family will always be kindled. In the following articles "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music, by Suzy Bernstein Goldman, explains how people often explain their emotions through music. In another article titled, -“ Black Literature Revisited: "’Sonny's Blues’" by Elaine R. Ognibene, she elaborates on the effects music has to bring two people together. Finally, in “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin's "’Sonny's Blues’" by Richard N Albert discusses, the bound in families and enlightens on the cliché saying that blood is thicker than water. Ultimately, Albert provides the best interpretation of the short story “Sonny Blues,” because it’s more realistic and relatable from my own personal experience.
Sonny’s brother feels guilty after talking to Sonny’s friend and after his daughter died he decides to write Sonny a letter, he says, “I didn't write Sonny or send him anything for a long time. When I finally did, it was just after my little girl died, and he wrote me back a letter which made me feel like a bastard”(126). From there on he would write and send things to Sonny. The narrator thinks about Sonny being his baby brother and how can someone get themselves in
The older brother, the narrator, finds himself struggling at the beginning of the story. While riding the subway, he reads in the paper that Sonny has been arrested for possession of drugs. During his day of teaching, he reflects on prior years with Sonny and their past adventures as young boys. He remembers Sonny's "wonderfully direct brown eyes, and great gentleness and privacy." The narrator sees his brother as a good boy, not "hard or evil or disrespectful." He wonders how many of his algebra students are similar to Sonny in appearance and personality along with his drug habits. This comparison allows the older brother to conclude that Sonny was probably not arrested on his initial use of drugs. It also allows the narrator is see that Sonny may be like most of the other young boys in Harlem.
He constantly practices the piano which annoys Sonny’s wife’s family who he is living with until his schooling ends. Sonny looks to music as a means to obtain freedom from his suffering to find the light so to speak. This passion for music makes Sonny go to the extent that he skips school to hang out with Jazz musicians. His sister in law’s mother eventually finds out and then Sonny leaves shortly afterwards and joins the navy. Sonny does not send any word to his brother for a long time leaving his fate uncertain to the narrator until eventually he sent him a postcard from Greece. Sonny eventually returned to New York and a after a while the two brothers eventually get back in touch. When the two brothers finally do see each other again the narrator has his brother live with him, one night when Sonny comes home he invites his brother to come and see him play at a Jazz club where everyone knows Sonny and has respect for him. Then as he watches Sonny play he sees all of Sonny’s struggles get put into his music as his passion is pouring out of him, and he realizes how the music helps Sonny with throughout all of his suffering and he sees how it can help himself, "Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did. Yet, there was no battle in his face now. I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth. He had made it his: that long line, of which we knew only mommy and
...school. Under those circumstance, Sonny’s brother disprove the idea of being a musician. Therefore, even though narrator did not support Sonny dreams in the end he did accomplish his dream as a musician. Although the relationships are based on different events, it shows the same point that both narrator did have loves for their daughter Emily and Sonny. As a final point view family member was not be able to support cause of lack of circumstances in the family.
Numerous instances of disconnect within the story can be clearly be identified. Sonny’s family is portrayed to be bitterly haunted by the fact that they hails from a black, poor, and still trapped within the precincts of the community. For Sonny being a young African American born in Harlem, he is aware of the limits and obstacles surrounding him. He struggles to defy the stereotypes by running away from Harlem and establishing a career in music. Unlike his brother, Sonny desire is to free from the traditional social order in Harlem. Instead of being free from the challenges of the society, Sonny winds up being confined in prison, he ends up being literally captive. Long after Sonny is released from prison, he is still described as a caged
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
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.
When first reading “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, it may initially seem that the relationship between musicians and drugs is synonymous. Public opinion suggests that musicians and drugs go hand and hand. The possibility lies that Sonny’s passion for jazz music is the underlying reason for his drug use, or even the world of jazz music itself brought drugs into Sonny’s life. The last statement is what the narrator believes to be true. However, by delving deeper and examining the theme of music in the story, it is nothing but beneficial for Sonny and the other figures involved. Sonny’s drug use and his music are completely free of one another. Sonny views his jazz playing as a ray of light to lead him away from the dim and dismal future that Harlem has to offer.
After discovering what has happened to Sonny, the narrator makes it seem as if he does not care and does not want interference in the life he has worked so hard to create. This is proven when the narrator discusses what has happened to Sonny with one of his brother’s friends. As shown through this quote, the narrator is not concerned about what has happened to his brother and believes it is not his responsibili...
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