Addictions In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

When his brother asked him what he wanted to do, he quickly responded “I’m going to be a musician.” There wasn’t any thinking needed; he knew exactly what he wanted in life. Though the brother’s point of view we get to see how unimpressed he was that Sonny wanted to be a musician. “It seemed -beneath him, somehow,” Sonny’s brother wrote. Though the story is well written in the point of view that it is told in, the weaknesses are that the readers don’t get to see everything through Sonny’s eyes and see his struggles.

When Sonny moves in with the family, he is given the expectation to finish college and stay out of trouble. Sonny has other ideas though and skips his classes to go to the local jazz club and play music. When the narrator first learns of Sonny’s antics he is very disappointed and is frustrated that Sonny continues to pursue a musical career. He believes it is part of the reason that Sonny has had so much trouble in the past and doesn’t believe it is a positive thing for his brother. Sonny is immediately kicked out and the two go for another extended period of time until talking again. Eventually the narrator has another change of heart and invites his brother to live with him again and Sonny agrees. The two struggle to communicate so one day Sonny invites the narrator to come watch him play at the jazz club and it is then that the narrator truly understands his younger brother. He is watching Sonny play with a group of musicians when he sees “Sonny’s face is trouble” (Baldwin 254) with the difficulty in

The narrator experienced a lot of problems throughout his life but managed to emerge victoriously from most of them. Even with this, he needs to support Sonny because this was his mother's dying wish. "The death of the narrator's daughter, Sonny's failure to fit in with his own family, a stint in the navy all serve to alienate the brothers, even after their mother made the narrator promise to keep an eye on young Sonny" (Smith 22). The fact that they were born in a harsh environment, society's views in regard to their racial background, and the fact that they experienced a lot of hardships during their lives all had a severe effect on the personalities of each of the brothers.

James Baldwin’s, “Sonny’s Blues,” illustrates the story between two different brothers as they struggle to discover the character of one another. “Sonny’s Blues” is narrated through the older brother’s point of view, as he portrays their difficulties in growing up, separation, and reunion. Baldwin purposely picks to tell the story in the first person point of view because of the omniscient and realistic effects it contribute to the story overall. The mother, father, and Sonny all express their accounts to the older brother, making him the perfect character to tell the story. In addition, the first person point of view allows the reader to experience the vicarious feelings that the

Mr. Baldwin made the older brother the narrator so the reader would not feel like Sonny was a dangerous man. The older brother seemed to apologize for Sonny while at the same time try to convince himself and the reader that Sonny really was not a bad guy. Sonny is really a hero and yet an anti-hero. He is someone that seems dangerous, lazy and extreme until you get to know him. The problem is that Sonny does not let people know him.

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.

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.

With the narrator watching Sonny’s every move for “signs”, he stated, “I was trying to find out something about my brother. I was dying to hear him tell me he was safe.” (Baldwin, 822),that is when he had a flashback about his mother on why his brother might be hiding his emotions. The narrator remembers his last talk with his mother. This conversation happened when the narrator came home for break during the war and Sonny was in college at this time. During this time, his mother told him about the death of his uncle and he said, “I asked her, “What happened to his brother? How come nobody’s ever talked about him?” (Baldwin, 824). The story was about how his uncle got killed in a hit-and-run accident by a group of of drunken white people, one night walking from a club. “They was having fun, they just wanted to scare him, the way they do sometimes, you know. But they was drunk. And I guess the boy, being drunk, too, and scared, kind of lost his head. By the time he jumped it was too late” (Baldwin, 825). Through his mother telling the story, she asked the narrator to keep a promise, “Oh, honey,” she said, “there’s a lot that you don’t know. But you are going to find out.” She stood up from the window and came over to me. “You got to hold on to your brother,” she said, “and don’t let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him. You

Fictional writing is generally done just to entertain readers. Some authors create stories with a singular point of view, while others introduce more complex plots and storylines. When it comes to author James Baldwin’s short story Sonny’s Blues, there is much depth given to the storyline and the characters. Sonny’s Blues has been analyzed by many different people throughout time because the story has many elements. From Baldwin’s skillful use of metaphors and similes to his incorporation of religious references, this story is insightfully and complexly written. A simple story about a man and his brother leaves readers with an inside look into family, drug addiction, socioeconomic struggles in the Black community, and the language of Jazz

Sonny's brother is mired in silence. He attempts to shield himself from the realities that make up his existence, but

The development of the plot stands out as one of the most crucial elements of the story. From the very beginning, the narrator discovers that Sonny has been arrested for his drug use. This action engenders the narrator to reflect on his relationship with Sonny. The discovery of Sonny 's arrest quickly conveys to us a point that is so central to the story. Following the introduction of plot is the conflict. The conflict of the story centers around the narrator and Sonny arguing about Sonny 's decision to become a jazz musician. This conflict,however, has happened before the situation in the introduction of the story but is mentioned further in the story. Sonny 's desire to become a jazz player is seen as a waste of time by the narrator. Consequently, tension is formed between the brothers because of their lack of agreement on the issue. The tension between the brothers gets even more complicated when Sonny moves into the narrator 's apartment. During this part of the story, the narrator and Sonny try to come to terms with themselves and each other. The climax of the story is when the narrator and Sonny argue in the apartment. This is the most important part of the story because both brothers have a brutally honest argument. The narrator discusses Sonny 's drug use, his misunderstanding of Sonny as a musician, and Sonny 's frustration in life. This argument between the two brothers resolves when Sonny invites the narrator to come hear him play. The

He doesn't want to hear any "sad story" from the drug user (or Sonny). Yet, the narrator feels guilty for not wanting to listen to the drug user (or Sonny). He begins to think that if his relationship with Sonny had allowed Sonny to talk and be heard than maybe Sonny would not be using heroin. This thought is expanded when the narrator sees the barmaid. The narrator "sees the little girl" in the barmaid, yet senses her struggling in life and views her as a semiwhore.

In one scene, their mother asks the narrator to take care of Sonny and to watch out for him when she dies. She tells him that his own father had had a brother who was very much like Sonny, but who was killed by drunken whites on a rural road in the South. This flashback is significant because it shows how the narrator's father had a brother whom he watched over too like the narrator did to Sonny and never really understood his brother's passion for music either and that music "died" when his brother passed. As the narrator looks at his father's relationship with his brother, the narrator can see how Sonny and his relationship are just like his father and his uncle's relationship. In a second flashback, the narrator tells us that following his mother's funeral, the narrator arranges for Sonny to live with his fiancée Isabel's family while he is at war. After his mother's funeral, Sonny tells the narrator about his dream of becoming a jazz musician and the narrator is enraged and thinks that Sonny's dream isn't a real dream. In a third flashback, Sonny clashes with Isabel's family, who don't understand his passion for music, his desire to "hang out" downtown with other musicians or his rejection of Isabel's family's values and lifestyle. At this point, Isabel's family feels like they are being punished, because Sonny practices day after day and uses music as his only way to escape all of his feelings. Sonny then decides to run away and

Now, it is a little strange saying that one brother is detached from the other. However, in this story it provides different thoughts on about Sonny. By not knowing the full story on Sonny we can actually feel the suspense the older brother feels as he looks over Sonny after such a long time of not seeing him. We as the reader don’t fully

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