Substance Abuse In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blue’s” makes great use of different literary devices throughout the story. Sonny’s Blue’s is about an older brother’s relationship and differences with his younger brother, Sonny. Sonny’s ambition to become a jazz pianist points him into an opposite direction than his brother, and into a place where the common suffering is handled with drugs and music. The fundamental differences between these two brothers in their lack of understanding for one another and their gradual acceptance of one another, is presented and explained by their personal and social conflicts. The author uses setting, symbolism, and the narrator’s change in his point of view to give the story a deeper meaning and significance to the

In James Baldwin’s short story, Sonny’s Blues, he describes a story of pain and prejudice. The theme of suffering makes the readers relate to it. The story is told in the realistic point of view of Sonny’s brother. The setting and time of the story also has great significance to the story. From beginning to end, the story is well developed.

Family is one of the primary concepts in James Baldwin's short story "Sonny's Blues", considering that the connection between the narrator and his brother, Sonny, echoes throughout the text. The writer intended the audience to feel the relationship between the two characters and he initially induced confusion in individuals by hiding the fact that the narrator is Sonny's brother. Most of the story deals with the narrator acknowledging the roles that each of his family members had in shaping his personality and he proceeds to put across his perspective regarding each of them. Baldwin brings forward a story that has a long tradition in the history of mankind, considering that one can associate elements from the biblical account involving Cain and Abel with this text.

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

A captivating tale of a relationship between two troubling brothers in Harlem, "Sonny 's Blues" is told from the perception of Sonny 's brother, whose name is never mentioned. Baldwin 's choice of Sonny 's brother as a narrator is what makes "Sonny 's Blues" significant in terms of illustrating the relationship and emotional complications of Sonny and his brother. The significance of "Sonny 's Blues" lies in the way Sonny 's brother describes their relationship based on what he observes, hears, and feels, and how he struggles trying to understand Sonny through the course of the story. This is a story of how two African Americans brothers take their own path through life as they struggle to find meaning in their lives.

Family values and environmental factors can have a positive or negative effect on the decisions we choose to make in life. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny Blues”, he uses this dynamic relationship between two brothers and the struggles they face as individuals and as a family while living in Harlem to highlight multiple themes. A few examples include, coping with adversity with music, dysfunctional family dynamics, and environmental factors. The environmental factors the two brothers face in Harlem are a key aspect James Baldwin expresses in his story. In the author’s story, the narrator finds out through a newspaper that his younger brother Sonny has been arrested for using and selling drugs. The narrator doesn’t realize the struggles Sonny is going through until he talks to one of Sonny’s old friends who is experiencing the same struggles. The narrator didn’t write to his brother while he was in prison until his younger daughter dies. After his daughter passes away he reaches out to his brother and Sonny writes back to reconcile with him while trying to explain his choices he had made. After Sonny gets out of prison, he is taken in by his older brother. In a flashback, the narrator remembers a conversation and the promise he makes to his mother regarding taking care of Sonny after she has passed. The narrator reflects on the constant conflict he has with Sonny regarding Sonny being a jazz musician. While Sonny is living with the narrator,

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

In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin presents an intergenerational portrait of suffering and survival within the sphere of black community and family. The family dynamic in this story strongly impacts how characters respond to their own pain and that of their family members. Examining the central characters, Mama, the older brother, and Sonny, reveals that each assumes or acknowledges another's burden and pain in order to accept his or her own situation within an oppressive society. Through this sharing each character is able to achieve a more profound understanding of his own suffering and attain a sharper, if more precarious, notion of survival.

The relationship between siblings can be very strained. Maybe the siblings fight all of the time, or they just don’t care what the other(s) do. In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” the relationship between Sonny and his brother was very distant for a few months after Sonny was arrested, but they became closer once he was released. The brothers do care about each other very dearly and want the best for each other. Baldwin’s short story shows a sibling relationship in which the narrator wants to be there to protect Sonny.° The narrator shows this quality when he sees his mother for the last time, after his mother’s funeral, and after Sonny’s struggle with addiction.*

James Baldwin's short story "Sonny's Blues" highlights the struggle because community involvement and individual identity. Baldwin's "leading theme - the discovery of identity - is nowhere presented more successfully than in the short story 'Sonny's Blues" (Reilly 56). Individuals breeds isolation and even persecution by the collective, dominant community. This conflict is illustrated in three ways. First, the story presents the alienation of Sonny from his brother, the unnamed narrator. Second, Sonny's legal problems suggest that independence can cause the individual to break society's legal conventions. Finally, the text draws heavily from biblical influences. Sonny returns to his family just like the prodigal son, after facing

In “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin shows how the bond of brotherhood can withstand many disheartening choices one can make in life. “Sonny’s Blues” is a story about a brother who has made a life for himself the best he could. The unnamed character in the story describes the heartbreaking experience of witnessing his younger brother, Sonny, fight to stay sober. While the unnamed character grew up, joined the military, and got married; his brother Sonny, took a less travelled path that lead to some trouble. When Sonny was younger, his musical dreams seemed to upset the unnamed character and he felt his brother needed to grow up and make a real life decision about a career. The unnamed character didn’t believe

Sonny’s Blues is a novella with Sonny and his brother a teacher as main characters; Sonny engaged in drug use and peddling an act that landed him prison where his brother visited him and eventually on release he lived with him. Sonny’s parents died at different times during the racial segregation epoch in America, they were African-Americans who suffered victimization. Before her mother’s death, she had instructed Sonny’s senior brother - a teacher- to take care of him because the surrounding world was dark symbolic for unfriendly. The theme of brotherly love begins when their mother requests them

Sonny's Blues is a short story written by James Baldwin. In this story, Baldwin helps us understand the different ways people experience pain and suffering. It is a story about two brothers and the way they cope with pain and suffering in dissimilar ways. As the story begins, Sonny was arrested for using heroine while his brother was a teacher at school. In the end, we see Sonny playing some blues in a club while his brother listens and this is when we learn that, the music helps the brothers to deal with their pain and suffering.

According to Liukkonen, James Baldwin is well known for his "novels on sexual and personal identity, and sharp essays on civil-rights struggle in the United States." "Sonny's Blues" is no exception to this. The story takes place in Harlem, New York in the 1950's and tells of the relationship between two brothers. The older brother, who is the narrator and a participant in the novel, remains unnamed throughout the story. The novel is about the struggles, failures and successes of these two African American brothers growing up in the intercity as a minority. The encounters that the narrator and his brother, Sonny, have throughout the story exemplify Baldwin's

In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, Sonny and the Narrator display various stages in their sibling relationship. Sonny and the Narrator have gone through situations where they don’t communicate with each other, where they argue with each other, and where they are on good terms with each other. In real life, siblings argue and fight but eventually find common ground. Sonny and the Narrator’s relationship is a realistic sibling relationship.