Sonny's Blues Essay

These two stories “Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin and “Everyday Use” written by Alice Walker are both examples of struggle for African American people. These two authors Alice Walker and James Baldwin are both African Americans. Through their writings both writers wanted to critique, analyze and assess the culture that they belong to.

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

When asked by Sonny if they could take a detour before being dropped off by the cab driver, the narrator agreed and described the environment with a disgusting taste, "So we drove along, between the green of the park and the stony, lifeless elegance of hotels and apartment buildings, toward the vivid, killing streets of our childhood." (page 52) This would show the narrator's thoughts on Harlem being a negative environment and thinking nothing good can come from running these streets. He also called it a "trap" (page 2 p6), to further show the dead end reality they lived in. Having escaped the "trap", graduating college, becoming an algebra teacher, and having a family, the narrator has a concerning responsible-like personality. Even though they moved, he still thinks his location would have negative effects on Sonny again. "The moment Sonny and I started into the house I had the feeling that I was simply bringing him back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape." (page 53 p1) This would further show his concerning responsible-like personality. Having been given the responsibility to watch over his younger brother Sonny from the talk with his mother (who passed away), he feels as though the burden of Sonny succeeding and even living rest on his hands. Throughout the story, he

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.

James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” is the authors most studied and critically analyzed piece of literature. The majority of these analyses focus on the obvious themes of the book such as jazz music, the unnamed narrator, or the rift that divides Sonny and his brother. Little critique has ever gone into the biblical and religious themes that run throughout the story of “Sonny’s Blues.” Furthermore, it is even more astonishing that there is little critique given Baldwin has such a strong history with the world of Christianity.

The idea of relating public and private events in Baldwin’s own experiences is instituted later in the essay in order to transition from narrative to analysis. Baldwin started telling a story about when he lived in New Jersey before the time of his father’s death. He talked about his personal treatment by white people in the south, a first hand account of the racism of that particular era. He learned of the hostility of the Jim Crow Laws inflicted on African Americans during that time period. His story was analogous to nearly all African Americans at that point. When Baldwin lived in New Jersey, he became exposed to the racism of the south that occurred in restaurants and diners. During one of those experiences he wrote, “I

Write an essay exploring the motivation behind Baldwin's choice of narrator for "Sonny's Blues." Why do you think he chose the older brother to narrate the story? How would the story be different if narrated from the perspective of the younger brother?

Sonny's Blues begins in medias res to ease the reader into the complicated relationship between the narrator and Sonny. Baldwin begins the story with, " I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work. I read it, and I couldn’t believe it, and I read it again" (Baldwin, Sonny's Blue's). Right away Baldwin starts us off with burning curiosity to find out what the narrator read, who, or what is it about? He then gives us an initial uneasy impression of Sonny-a heroin peddler whose been arrested for drugs. Baldwin then reveals how much of a physical and emotion impact Sonny still has on the narrator. While the narrator has flashback to his childhood memories, and we wonder why him and Sonny are estranged. The narrator is forced

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of revival and awakening in which the African American community produced a new form of cultural identity. After years of oppression and slavery, African Americans struggled to discover their own distinctive culture. It was through the literature and artistry of the Harlem Renaissance that the African American community began to express the suffering and resentment they truly experienced. In addition, the movement allowed them to find a way to escape their hardships. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” address the addiction, poverty, and violence that surrounded African Americans and the triumph of life that was captured in their attempt to escape the suffering.

In James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" the symbolic motif of light and darkness illustrates the painful nature of reality the two characters face as well as the power gained through it. The darkness represents the actuality of life on the streets of the community of Harlem, where there is little escape from the reality of drugs and crime. The persistent nature of the streets lures adolescents to use drugs as a means of escaping the darkness of their lives. The main character, Sonny, a struggling jazz musician, finds himself addicted to heroin as a way of unleashing the creativity and artistic ability that lies within him. While using music as a way of creating a sort of structure in his life, Sonny attempts to step into the light, a life

In the first paragraph the ambiguousness comes to light as he states "Creole began to tell us what the blues were all about." It could have a literal meaning in the sense that Creole could be singing of the blues, actually speaking the words and the definition. It could also mean that the music itself tells the story of the blues. The notes and the melody intertwine to hit a chord as no words ever could. To convey a meaning as no tale ever could. To truly bind the narrator to his brother as no conversation ever could. It is with this paragraph that the narrator really begins to understand his brother and perhaps begins to understand a little more about himself. Baldwin uses this paragraph to describe the affect of music on a human in terms of finding the good in the bad and embracing life as it is. He chooses words in his description commonly associated with music, such as "beat" with"He hit something in all of them, he hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened apprehension began to beat the air.' In fact the sentence itself seems to move in "beat." He uses colloquial language that you would expect to hear from someone in a jazz joint with phrases such as "he and his boys" and "keeping it new." The last few sentences intricately weave together the ideas of the music and its parallel in life.

The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin makes excellent use of multiple literary elements. Namely, I think the writer utilizes symbolism and the nuances of point of view to give the story a deeper connotation that could not be said plainly. The meat of the story is about an unnamed older brother’s relationship and differences with his younger brother, Sonny. Sonny’s aspiration to become a jazz pianist leads him in an opposite direction than his brother, and into a world where the common suffering is dealt with by heroin and music. The fundamental differences between the brothers in their lack of understanding for each other and their gradual acceptance of one another is highlighted and

Personal stories and descriptions of major events are narrated throughout James Baldwin’s works as he analyzes the nature of the relationship between white and black America. The marriage of narration and analysis are especially evident in Baldwin’s essay, “Notes of a Native Son.” As Baldwin describes his father and their relationship until his father’s death, he simultaneously comments about the relationship between white and black America. Baldwin compares the events of his experience with concurrent American events to conclude about the nature of his personal relationships and the relationship between races; namely, that one must come to accept the

James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues is a short story focused around the narration of Sonny’s brother. The narrator in the case of Sonny’s Blues is the most important character in a cast of characters not only because he is the narrator, but due to the dynamic change of his character we see at the end of the story. Baldwin effectively uses the first-person narration of Sonny’s brother in order to convey the theme of communication. Throughout the entire story of Sonny’s Blues, the narrator and his brother interact through exchanging words countless times. The question posed is whether or not the narrator can truly hear what his brother is saying to him.

“When, beneath the black mask, a human being begins to make himself felt one cannot escape a certain awful wonder as to what kind of human being it is.”(4). In his essay, “Stranger in the Village”, James Baldwin writes about the major differences that African Americans experience in Europe and America. Throughout the essay, Baldwin describes how the Europeans are naive about the black man. The outrage and amusement that Baldwin feels throughout his visit causes the overwhelming realization of the history of the African American.