Music For The Soul By James Baldwin

“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness

In the short story "Sonny's blues," James Baldwin describes the conflict and discomfort that winds in Harlem of the post world war II. Through an in-depth characterization of the narrator, a teacher of algebra, and his brother Sonny, a musician devoted to drugs, the author portrays a Harlem in which beside people struggling to have a decent life there are also those who express anger and pain through jazz and somehow living on the margins of society. The narrator disapproves the life choices of Sonny and does not understand the hardships and the unbearable suffering that brings the younger brother to get lost in drugs in a vain attempt to quell a malaise.

Soul by Soul by Walter Johnson centers on the internal slave business in New Orleans as well as the slave market as a place of portrayal and oblique connotations built around the commoditization of the physique of slaves .A significant interest in Soul by Soul relates to the slave pen, where slave bodies as commodities determined the identities of black and white persons. Slave transactions were typically about show and filled with meaning-making, which was itself characterized by cost and worth. The paternalism ideology employed the black persons’ physique and slave transactions to imply that white persons were assisting powerless black people in the slave markets. In essence, the ideology suggests that, contrary to common perceptions, white persons were not separating slave families .The slave market history discussed in Soul by Soul relates to that of the antebellum in the South where slave trade was basically about purchases and sales. Those who owned slaves were consumers in the marketplace. Consumer way of life had structured individual identities. Slave bodies were regarded as items to be rated and assessed and were usually the subject of discussions. Every slave was given a made-up and decorated past. The market culture of slavery in that era was based on fantasy just like the ideology of paternalism. Succinctly, the slave market stimulated the self-definition of white persons from the South.

In this respect, the blues functions as a means of moving through suffering. Just as musicians in the band play the blues, the blues makes instruments out of the musicians. Levee, a brash trumpeter, wants to move on from traditional blues music and into more energizing Jazz, an increasingly popular genre. Levee wants to neglect the past, and the blues function as a reawakening to the dark reality of African American history. Being fully cognizant of one’s ancestral origins and how understanding how it may help in the present is ultimately not important to Levee – “I know he ain’t talking about me. You don’t see me running around with no bone in my nose.” (Wilson, 32) Larry Neal, the author of “The Black Arts Movement” published in Drama Review, elaborates on this connection between the Blues and history: “History, like the blues, demands that we witness the painful events of our prior lives; and that

In Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues,” a portrayal of living in the historical record of poverty, racism, and segregation in Harlem, New York, affecting the pathways of lives for society and American Culture. Sonny, a pathless protagonist of the story uses music as his pathway of escaping society’s African American brutal oppression in the 1950’s. Through the eyes of the narrator of the story, Sonny’s brother, describes their past and present lifestyles as he remembers it. He thinks back to day he promised their mother while he was on leave from the army before she passed away to watch over Sonny and would not allow anything bad to happen to him. Trying to live up to his promise he states, “I don’t want you die trying not to suffer,” (Baldwin,

In the Baldwin’s story, Sonny’s Blues, the author portrays African -Americans in the urban life. Even though he writes about reconciliation of two brothers, who are trying to overcome their differences and to come to understand each other, the story shows the meaning of Jazz in African American culture, particularly in Harlem during 1950.

The story of Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin talks about the relationship of two brothers. One of the main problems we see in this story is the miscommunication between the narrator and his brother. The narrator does not seem to listen to Sonny by ignoring him when he talks to the narrator about his passion for music. Instead, the narrator insists Sonny live with his then fiancée. This action of the narrator shows us that is important to support the family and do not judge them. Sometimes we ignore what the person is telling us and as a consequence, it can turn into never hearing again from that person. The narrator does not have empathy for his brother. He does not understand how Harlem make him feel. This city represents darkness, despair

The essential and gradual progression of “Sonny’s Blues” symbolizes the measured adaptation of the narrator's perception of the importance of his younger brother's approach at life. The progression directs Baldwin’s audience to a thoughtful involvement with the individual by supplying an understanding of the human intentions of the young people whose situations, under normal circumstances, only receive recognition by others when being stated to others merely for their involvement in contributing to the severe statistics of dropout rates, usage of drugs, and unemployment status. The overall purpose of the story and its correlation with the theme of Baldwin’s work as a whole, is hidden behind his deliberate metaphorical use of the Blues. The distinctive feature of the Blues is its arrangement of individual and public significance in a harmonious affair with the past. "The Blues-singer

Most importantly, he was left aloof as there was no direction to follow, no lofty goal to reach, no barrier to break open. “His life was pointless, aimless, and it was true that he didn’t concern himself an awful lot about other people. There was nothing he wanted bad enough to risk anything for, inconvenience himself for. …He was bored. Everybody bored him. The city was boring. The racial problems that consumed Guitar were the most boring of all.”(Morrison 107) Milkman pays no heed to the problems that others of his race must face as they don’t directly affect him; therefore he has no obligation to even consider them and separates from his own race. Guitar, Milkman’s friend, finds purpose in rectifying the position that society has place on him and his fellows by joining the Seven Days cult which sees to avenging the killings of black men through killing a white person. Milkman disagrees with their philosophy and Guitar’s justification of “loving his race”, viewing it as simply murder. Having neither goal for personal achievements nor the betterment of his society, Milkman is left lost within himself until Pilate begins to set in motion the awakening of her nephew in her interactions.

Throughout the story, “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin perfectly intertwines varying themes surrounding African Americans in Harlem during the 1950’

“The meaning of life is to not simply exist, to survive but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.”said by Arnold S. in the absolutely true diary of a part time indian sherman alexie explores the meaning of life through never ending friendships, facing your biggest fears and learning not everyone is against you.

“Sonny’s Blues” by author James Baldwin tells the tale of two brothers; one good and one evil. The narrator paints the two brothers as “light” and “dark”. The author James Baldwin writes about his relationship with his brother Sonny whom was the “dark” brother. In essence, this story is about the struggle of two black brothers growing up in Harlem. This essay incorporates the struggles that Black men and women go through on a daily basis. Though both brothers were from the ghetto, the narrator seems to have assimilated into the larger society/culture; he was a school teacher doing generally well in what we call life. Sonny on the other hand turned to drugs (heroin) to escape from

“How hard a thing is life to the lowly, and get how human and real!” W.E.B. Du Bois. Ghana Calls is a Poem written by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. He is also formally known as W.E.B. Du Bois. “He has been referred to as the father of the civil rights movement and as a historian, a sociologist, a scholar, a teacher, a novelist, and a journalist”(Hufford D 1997). This poem was dedicated to Kwame Nkrumah. Kwame Nkrumah was the Ghanaian leader who declared Ghana independence from Great Britain (UK). Many of W.E.B. Du Bois literary work was devoted to issues associated with the people of African descent from America and Africa as well. In the poem Mr W.E.B. Du Bois wrote on how it felt growing up in Ghana Africa through the eyes of a child having a dream. The depiction of the dream gave details of the soul of one Ghanaian and the issues of the place they call home. W.E.B. Du Bois used imagery, personification and other literary devices in Ghana Calls to engage the reader on what he is trying to convey in his writing.

“Sonny’s blues” takes place in Harlem where two brothers struggle to escape the reality of their life. “Sonny’s blues” is not told by Sonny, but by his brother the narrator who prefers to keep his name anonymous to let the reader interact more easily. The analysis of this short story reveals a narrator of an Afro-American community who wanted to be part of the white culture but in vain, because he was confronted to tragic events, such as his brother’s imprisonment at an early age for drug dealing and the death of his little daughter.

As George Bernard once said, “life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself,” which is a way to view life’s simplicity. There aren’t any ground rules life hands to you when you are born; therefore it is your life to own. I can’t tell you the way to live your life, but I can tell you to make it a good one. Take risks. Opportunities. Stop settling. Make new friendships or better yet, protect your old ones.With that being said, I am taking my life day by day. I am determined to fulfill the contentment and hope I desire due to my passion for traveling, my faith, and family and friends.