Suffering In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

“Sonny’s Blues” is an emotional story written by an amazing author, James Baldwin, who has come to be one of my favorite writers. This particular piece talks about the troubles of African American freeing themselves from the mental bondages of their surroundings, the ghetto. The title is significant, and helped me to understand the underlining meaning of the story. The title can be divided into two main reasons, the first, “Sonny’s Blues, meaning the music he plays. Second is the reference to his life, his feelings, his style, and most importantly his way of life.

Eventually the narrator and invites him to live his family once he is released from prison and Sonny reluctantly agrees to live there until he finishes college. This is a big turning point in the narrator’s character because he had finally began to wonder “ about the life that Sonny had lived” (Baldwin 243) and started making his efforts to take care of his little brother like he once promised his mother.

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.

Asides from giving complete information to the brother, Baldwin chooses to write the story in the first person point of view because he wants the reader to feel exactly as how the brother is feeling. By having it told from the first person, the reader could build a stronger connection with the character in the story. Baldwin distinguishes to the reader the difference between of being told a story and of experiencing the story first hand. The reader sees the events through the brother’s eyes, which makes the story more realistic and believable. For example, when the brother first discovers about his uncle’s death, he is stupefied and shock at the unbelievable news. Baldwin demonstrates this by stating,” I guess I didn’t want to believe this.” He ends with, “Still, I couldn’t move.” (51) If the quotes were replaced by “he” instead of “I”, the story would lose its credibility. The reader will be less reluctant to believe the true emotion that the brother is experiencing. The first person point of view connects character to the reader, allowing for a more complete understanding of what is happening.

Thus, the narrator’s father dealt with the same struggle that the narrator and Sonny are facing now. The narrator wants to protect his brother from the darkness of the world that has always threatened to invade their lives but he fails to do so as he is torn by his emotions, which shift quickly from love to hate and he is also unable to express his emotions, feelings and concern towards Sonny.

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

Eminent psychologists have made convincing arguments for the effect birth order has on personality. In addition, laymen can cite innumerable examples of domineering, pragmatic, reliable older siblings contrasting with those fitting the "youngest stereotype" -- irresponsible, spoiled, and selfish. Such character traits often cause lifelong conflict between siblings. In his short story "Sonny's Blues," James Baldwin shows a profound example of such sibling friction. Baldwin paints a realistic portrait of an older brother, Richard (the narrator), always steady, predictable, and in control, and Sonny, a musician and recovering heroin addict who looks at the world through

The author also describes Sonny’s walk in a musical way, “He has a slow, loping walk, something like the Harlem hipsters walk, only he's imposed on this his own half-beat” (p. 325).

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

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.

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

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

him, he realizes that Sonny is his own man. The trouble the narrator had with Sonny is

The title used by James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues, according to John Reilley, can be interpreted in two ways (Reilly, 56). The first interpretation is the state of unhappiness and discontent amongst the Black community and the music played by Sonny, or rather his depression (blues).

The narrator says “the darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about” (226). This story is based in Harlem, New York. There is a lot of darkness in this town from prostitutes being beat up to drugs. Soony himself has said that maybe if they didn’t live there he would have been able to stay away from the drugs and the life style he has been living. When their mother appears to the narrator she says “you going to be evil with him many a time” she’s referring to the narrator being evil with Sonny (228). She wants the narrator to be hard on Sonny and be there for him. The narrator writes “I was sitting in the living room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My troubles made his real” (233). Why is Sonny associated with darkness in the short story? Sonny hasn’t been on the right track for a while and is still underage and in high school. Sonny was using and selling heroin. He also believes his brothers kids do not remember him, which means he is distant from his family. Sonny wants to join the military and the narrator brings up how will he study music in the military. How could he leave if he's not old enough? He plans on just leaving and they’ll believe him because he looks old enough. Sonny’s Blues is a story filled with dread and darkness but makes a good story because throughout the gloom in the story you get this sense of symbolism and imagery, making the story more compelling to