Human Emotion And Its Effect On Human Consciousness

In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, he talks about the different kind of suffering that people go through, and that not one person’s suffering is harder or easier to deal with; it is all relative. Perhaps we may, as a normal human being, consider that our suffering is more difficult to deal with than that of that other person; but one can ever know. In the story, both the narrator and his family are in many ways affected by sufferings. In addition, the narrator and his brother, Sonny begins to unravel their complex relationship as brothers; and teach each other about the greater meanings about life and suffering. Throughout the story, the narrator is a very persistent into a parental role; by the end, it is Sonny who teaches his brother a

In the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James H. Pickering, a brother is trying to understand what has led his younger brother, Sonny, to drug addiction and how to help his relationship with Sonny. The instructive purpose of this analysis is to examine how James Baldwin uses the narrators characteristics to construct the central conflict of the story. The two opposing forces that create the central conflict are presented as a person versus self, by a clash of two feelings. On one hand the parental characteristic of the narrator wants to help his brother. The other a closed - minded characteristic of the narrator wants to push his brother away. The central idea of the story is trying to overcome an internal conflict to be able to save relationships with those we love most but tend to push away. A change in thinking and acceptance moves those struggling back together where they want to be.

“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two stories that reveal the consequences of individual suffering. These consequences include estranging relationships, bitter behavior, and even illness, addiction, or death. Throughout each of these stories, Sonny and John’s wife, known as the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, continue to suffer due to John’s and Sonny’s brother’s, known as the narrator of “Sonny’s Blues”, failure to meet obligations and familial compassion. Neither the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” nor the husband, John, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” serve as the villains of the stories, however, I believe we are able to see how both their inabilities to effectively

Suffering is a constant presence in “Sonny Blues.” Suffering, as the main character passionately argues, is “inescapable.” From the death of the narrator’s daughter to the cold blooded death of his uncle. Suffering dominates, and is symbolized, throughout the story. It does not only affect the main character, but others in his presence. Through music, drug use, death of the family members and through character relationships, the theme of suffering is expressed in the short story, “Sonny’s Blues.”

The story “Sonny’s Blues” By James Baldwin is about a jazz musician and his brother in 1950’s Harlem. The story centers on Sonny who uses jazz music as an escape from his depression. James Baldwin captures the art of jazz during this time period. The themes in this short story are perhaps varied, but all of them revolve around some form of suffering. One theme shows how music can promote change and understanding within relationships. A second theme reveals suffering caused by guilt. Yet another theme references the results of suffering brought about by searching for ones’ identity and how that leads to misunderstanding. There are also subthemes concerning racism and poverty.

Those burdened with psychological pain in their lives often turn to drugs, alcohol, music, or other ways to cope with this suffering. Besides the celebrities that have abuse substances to battle their unhappiness, poorer communities like Harlem in the 1900s also fall victim to hardship. World renowned psychologist, Sigmund Freud analyzes these kinds of escapes from problems claiming how these obstacles in life will in turn define one’s life. In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin describes an emotionally tortured Sonny who, similarly to Freudian belief, chooses to numb his reality with heroin and jazz despite his brother, unnamed narrator’s, attempts to steer him towards a more reputable life.

In each story, the narrators’ misunderstanding of their family’s needs produces hardships and struggles as their loved ones find their identity alone. In “Sonny’s Blues,” the

“Sonny’s Blues” introduces two brothers who have differing mindsets about how to best cope with suffering. The narrator is Sonny’s responsible, unnamed older brother, who follows a very ordered path, using military service, marriage and teaching math to gain stability and escape the downward pull of Harlem. In contrast, younger brother Sonny lives his life like his music hero plays his jazz: improvising. Sonny experiments with drugs, skips school and eventually drops out, all the while feeding his obsession with piano. Sonny’s older brother sees no legitimacy in Sonny’s art and aspirations to become a musician. He disparagingly deems it “to be merely an excuse for the life he led”. The brothers are unable to set their differences aside, and are only reconnected in a time of immense grief, as the brother’s daughter, Grace, dies.

The narrator finds himself confronted with different forms of suffering that encompass both light and dark mechanisms of survival. Upon seeing Sonny for the first time in many years, “He looked very unlike my baby brother. Yet, when he smiled… the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like

Sigmund Freud is often referred to as the father of psychoanalysis; he was the first to ask and pursue several groundbreaking questions. However, despite any proclaimed parentage, the field has proceeded through multiple generations since the death of Freud himself, and the once influential name has now become a chapter in a psychology textbook, a stepping stone on the way to the names that are important now. True enough, certain speculations on Freud’s part – the Oedipus complex, his opinions on the healing properties of cocaine – do seem dubious when examined through a modern lens. Freud is often discarded because of this, especially in professional settings, but Freud’s conjectures being “false,” does not mean they were not meaningful.

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a story of how a distant and conflicting relationship between two brothers is saved by the powerful message within music. In “Sonny’s Blues” the music portrays a very powerful message. The story begins with Sonny being arrested for heroin use. Sonny’s older brother is a school teacher and did not want to believe that the news was true, “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I’d already seen so many others” (Baldwin 293). Sonny used his music and drugs to distance himself from all the negativity in his life.

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.

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” tells the tale of a young jazz musician by the name Sonny who gets caught up in the ghetto life and decides to abuse and sell heroin. The story is told by the narrator, a high school math teacher, who happens to be Sonny’s older brother. The two siblings have a somewhat cold relationship that is worsened by the suffering that both brothers have had to endure living in an impoverished area. By presenting events that transpired in the past and relating them to the present, the narrator allows the reader to create his or her own understanding of the two characters through the various themes and literary styles. “Sonny’s Blues” is not merely the story of the narrator’s experiences; it is the tale of his inner transformation and spiritual growth which his earlier experiences of death and loss have motivated.

Suffering is something that everyone has to persevere at some point in their life. One thing makes us unique is how we deal with these hardships. The characters in “Sonny’s Blues” endure many difficult situations. How they choose to deal with these situations effects their entire life. To begin the story, we see that the narrator’s brother Sonny has already dealt with his suffering by using heroin. Then the narrator’s daughter dies of polio, but his pain helped him reach out to Sonny. He brought Sonny into his home to live. The story then takes a turn, and it jumps back to before the boys parents died. Their mother tells a story to the narrator about his father. His father’s brother was hit by a car of white men and he died right in front of him. He never was the same after the incident. Then she made him promise to take care of Sonny and not let him fall no matter how hard it is. After the death of their parents Sonny expressed his yearning to be a musician to his brother, and he shot the idea down. Sonny pursued his dreams anyway, but went down the wrong paths. By the end of the story when the brothers are reunited the narrator finally

Chapter 1 explains the work of a Harvard psychologist named William James. William published the article “What is an Emotion?” in a philosophical journal entitled Mind in 1884. His paper is an argument for the primacy and necessity of bodily systems in producing emotional feelings. James-Lange theory states that physiological arousal instigates the experience of emotion. A Harvard physiologist, Walter Cannon, roundly criticized James’ theory, claiming that, according to the Cannon Bard theory, physiological changes follow emotional expression.