Addiction In Sonny's Narrative

The story begins by telling the readers how Sonny’s brother learned of him being in jail from a newspaper article (29), one might automatically infer that their relationship isn’t so good. It makes you wonder how much influence Sonny’s brother had when it came to how his life ended up. At one point in the beginning of the story his brother even asks himself if he had anything to do with it (33), as if to help the readers with the already occurring thought that maybe he could have helped his brother, maybe he could have been there and done more. Later on, he talks about the promise he made to his mother to take care of his brother, to lift him up and not let him fall (42). He had a responsibility to his little brother and he ultimately let him down, he let him fall and wasn’t around to help him back up when he needed it the most.

In James Baldwin 's short story "Sonny 's Blues" a young man questions his brotherly obligations after finding that his younger brother has been arrested for using drugs. In the attempt to rectify his younger brother 's behavior and life, the young man faces his own feelings for his brother and comes to terms with the life his brother Sonny lives. The developments of certain elements-plot, character, point of view, setting, symbolism-in the story help accentuate the narrator 's struggles and theme(s) of the story.

Thus, the narrator’s father dealt with the same struggle that the narrator and Sonny are facing now. The narrator wants to protect his brother from the darkness of the world that has always threatened to invade their lives but he fails to do so as he is torn by his emotions, which shift quickly from love to hate and he is also unable to express his emotions, feelings and concern towards Sonny.

What has not yet realized is that heroin is in fact the thing controlling him. What his brother has tried to obstruct him from is how the more dependent one gets, the more the drug and its providers takes control of their users. Ultimately, the price of this brief feeling of control is an ocean of even more pain and suffering. Fortunately, Sonny found yet another way to cope with his pain. Sonny is once again able to set aside his tortured mind and find happiness and peace through the keys of his piano instead of destroying his life with heroin. The narrator is finally able to witness his brother in true bliss and in addition, discovering the power of Sonny’s blues: “and it brought something else back to me, and carried me past it, I saw [Isabel] again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise” (Baldwin 140). Music will always be there to help with his problems like expressed by Gary Bartz: “Music is my religion. Music is the only thing that has never failed me People let you down, music won't” (Bartz 2). Although the narrator tried to help his brother become the same respectable man that he has built himself up to be, he can finally accept that, Sonny is unique in his own way, finding happiness in the music he plays. Overall, all the narrator wished upon his brother was happiness. Similar to what Freud predicted, Sonny found solace in escaping his everyday hardship with, not death, but music, which gave him the same lifting feeling of

The story opens with a crisis in their relationship. The narrator reads in the newspaper that Sonny was taken into custody in a drug raid. He learns that Sonny is addicted to heroin and that he will be sent to a treatment facility to be “cured.” Unable to believe that his gentle and quiet brother could have so abused himself, 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.

In the story of “Sonny’s Blues,” by Baldwin, the beginning of the story finds Sonny’s brother on his way to work reading about Sonny’s predicament. Sonny got arrested for “peddling and using heroin.” He didn’t want to believe that his brother was in trouble. While teaching his algebra class he was thinking about the past. He remembered when he first suspected his Sonny of using Heroin. He was always under the impression that Sonny was, “wild, but he wasn’t crazy. And he’d always been a good boy.” So he refused to believe that his brother was in trouble and needed him.

The short story is narrated by Sonny’s older brother. He is a school a responsible school teacher, with a family of his own. The story begins by the brother, whose name is unidentified in the story, finding out that his young brother Sonny got arrested for possession and selling drugs, specifically heroin. He is the type of older brother that is protective yet he is angry for what his brother has

This bitter conversation with the drug user would also be regeneration for the narrator. The drug user states he feels somewhat responsible in Sonny's arrest. In turn, the narrator faces the fact that he feels somewhat responsible for Sonny's arrest. As a result of his guilt and interest in Sonny, the narrator starts to ask the drug user specific questions regarding Sonny's disposition. The drug user has knowledge of the never-ending cycle of abusing drugs and shares this information with the narrator. In return, the older brother feels a regeneration of care for the drug user, who his is viewing as Sonny. This encounter concludes by the drug user requesting money from the narrator. The narrator feels sensitive of the drug users struggles (and failures) in life and gives him more money than requested.

When the narrator seen his brother in jail he could not help but bail him out . He gave sonny the benefit of the doubt .He did not think sonny would still be taking drugs till that one night he walked past sonnys room and found something he did not expect to be in there . when sonny came home he sat him down to speak to him. Instead of the narrator doing all the speaking sonny did . Sonny finally felt love .Someone important to him finally listened to him . The narrator says to his self , “ I realize 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 “ p.19. He began to slowly understand sonny . Sonny was alone with no ome speak why he was hurting . this conversation brought the brothers closer ,and the relationship became stronger then before . Both brothers went to a night club downtown where sonny was going to play . As sonny began to play his instrument the narrator began to see everything . he lfelt his brothers pain .Sonnys words explained his whole life and his hiddend feelings that brother could not see.Not too many people understood Sonny and his actions.According to him drugs and music understood him . when Sonnys brother was not around to love him after their mother passed away music and drugs were their for sonny when he was in nee of comfort and

Sonny suddenly becomes in his element. He greets those around him like they are family. The narrator describes it as Sonny’s “kingdom.” This is a new part of Harlem that the narrator has never seen before. It is clear that this is Sonny’s world, and in the nightclub, the narrator is simply Sonny’s brother and nothing else. As Sonny plays, the narrator observes, “He has to fill it, the instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do” (Mays, 113). Before, the narrator had never played an instrument, rarely had he even seen one being played. Music was never an important aspect to his life and for this reason, he felt music was simply a hobby. Now, the narrator is able to see what music is to Sonny. It is life; it is breath. It is what sustains Sonny and allows him to endure the pain of life. The narrator has been carrying the weight of his painful life with him. He has had no control over his parents dying or his little daughter dying, so he tries to maintain control of Sonny’s life. Since he cannot control Sonny, there is always that conflict between the two. As the narrator sits and watches Sonny, he comes to understand Sonny like he never has before. “. . .the face I saw on Sonny I’d never seen before. Everything had been burned out of it, and, at the same time, things usually hidden were being burned in, by the fire and fury of the battle which was occurring in him. . .” (Mays, 113). As a result of Sonny finding freedom in music, the narrator is able to as well. Early on, the narrator had no coping mechanism for the losses that he had in his life. Sonny was able to show him that music is a coping mechanism. While music may not be a mechanism for the narrator, it shows him that he needs one to let go of the past. “The narrator’s freedom comes through his recapturing and acceptance of the past; the music conjures up his mother’s face, his uncle’s death, Grace’s death accompanied by

Many tragic events happen in this short story that allows the reader to create an assumption for an underlying theme of racism. John Baldwin has a way of telling the story of Sonny’s drug problem as a tragic reality of the African American experience. The reader has to depict textual evidence to prove how the lifestyle and Harlem has affected almost everything. The narrator describes Harlem as “... some place I didn’t want to go. I certainly didn’t want to know how it felt. It filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace; and this menace was their reality” (Baldwin 60). Another key part in this story is when the narrator and Sonny’s mother is telling the story of a deceased uncle. The mother explains how dad’s brother was drunk crossing the road and got hit by a car full of drunk white men. Baldwin specifically puts emphasis on the word “white” to describe the men for a comparison to the culture of dad and his brother.

The plot should be one important element for a story. It is the comment for the story. Sonny’s Blues use the narrative method to tell the story. The plot is not very ups and downs, but it use the smoothly plot to reach the goal. There are so many dialogues in the story. No matter the dialogues between Sonny and his brother or the dialogues between narrator and their mother. It described exquisite and emotional. I think it just like the people who talk in front of me. The dialogue also run through the whole story. Start with what’s the problem between Sonny and Sonny’s brother. Then what struggles they had. Finally, how the problem solved. There is one dialogue between Sonny’s brother and Sonny’s mother. “‘I want to talk to you about your brother,’ she said, suddenly. ‘If anything happens to me he ain’t going to have nobody to look out for him. ‘Mama,’ I said, ‘ain’t nothing going to happen to you or Sonny. Sonny’s all right. He’s a good boy and he’s got good sense.’” (43) This plot describe the talk between mom and Sonny’s brother. It’s clearly portray the worry of Sonny’s mother. And this is also the start of narrator realized that Sonny become his responsible. There is another plot which describe their father’s brother. These two plots make reader connect with Sonny addict into drug is how undesirable by his family. Although

“Her voice reminded me of what heroin feels like...it makes you feel...distant and sure...it makes you feel in control” (pg.27) Sonny’s statement of heroin use can be compared to his admiration of music, and that is because music gave him the same feeling as using heroin. It allowed for him to “feel distant” and “feel in control”.

The narrator says that he “couldn’t believe it: but what I mean by that is I couldn’t find any room for it anywhere inside me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn’t wanted to know” (Baldwin600). The narrator and Sonny haven’t spoken much since the death of their mother. The narrator wanted Sonny to stay in school and finish, and Sonny wanted to drop out and join the army or the navy, and then chase his dream of being a jazz piano player. Sonny agreed to stay in school at first, but after a while, he stopped going and eventually ran away and joined the army. After not hearing from Sonny in years, the narrator heard from him out of nowhere when he was deployed in Greece. Both Sonny and the narrator were living in New York years after the war was over. They would meet sometimes, but it would always result in a fight, and eventually the narrator and Sonny stopped speaking. Before their mother died, she told the narrator to look after his brother. She said “it ain’t only the bad ones, nor yet the dumb ones that gets sucked under” (Baldwin607). So when Sonny got arrested for heroin, the narrator felt some guilt and that it was sort of his fault, but at the same time, he felt that he wanted nothing to do with him and his troubles. The narators confusion on the matter was put to a rest when he ran into one of Sonny’s friends right after the arrest, and his friend made it clear that as soon as Sonny got out he would go

As well as in the short story Sonny’s Blues, the main character, Sonny, is being criticized by his brother. Since the very beginning, their mother told the oldest one, ‘’ you got to hold on to your brother ’’ and that’s what he wanted to do, but Sonny took a different path than he did. Sonny was the kind of guy that was heroin-addicted and a jazz musician, but his older brother didn’t see all these sides of him. We discover all these sides by the use of flashback of the author throughout the major parts of the story. The author didn’t want us to see Sonny like his older brother was seeing him, he wanted us to see him as a poor, un-accepted guy that needed to be listened by his peers. The brother didn’t accept the journey that Sonny had taken, but if he would of saw the actual Sonny, and stop hiding in the darkness, he would of accepted him faster and understand that Sonny only wanted to show that he could do good things not only drugs. In the middle of the story, there is a flashback were we learn that actually Sonny is more experienced about life than his older brother, because Sonny was in drugs and was really affected by Harlem( the city they stayed in when they were younger). The brother had a pretty easy life; he became a teacher and had a little family. This demonstrates that we need support from our peers, to be able to continue without taking bad choices.