The Weary Blues

Because of human nature, every person alive will experience suffering. Suffering is unavoidable, undeniable, and a part of every person’s life. Suffering is often an idea explored in literature, and in the short story Sonny’s Blues, by James Baldwin, the narrator is faced with the darkness and suffering he has dealt with throughout his life, along with the struggles of dealing with his brother, Sonny. The narrator, in denial about the suffering he has become accustomed to in Harlem, can deny it no longer after the literal and metaphorical death of his daughter Grace, and only find salvation after listening to, and comprehending his brother Sonny's music. The darkness of Harlem has always brought suffering to it’s residents, and it is often

In James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues he deals with a man trying to find his identity in a very hostile society. The blues in this story is used in a more emotional manner which recollects the past. It also repairs the relationship between the two brothers who have chosen two different ways of coping in their ghetto environment. The blues also serves as a communication devise between the two brothers. Baldwin uses the blues to state a fact; the ugliness and meanness inherent in the human condition. In order to really understand the message of the blues you have to be one that has suffered just like Sonny and the elder brother. The blues that they play also communicates to other sufferers who have had their own trials, so they know what this music is all about. Sonny's suffering are within himself, but deep suffering is common to all his listeners. Even his brother can attune himself to this suffering, which is brought on by the death of his little daughter Grace. When the brother is at the club listening to the blues he recalls his mother, the moonlit road on

The piano accompaniment also assists in expressing the poem’s imagery. Most of this Lied is quarter notes in the voice with eighth notes in

Blues is one of the most captivating genres of music. The genre was originated in the late 1800’s as a method used by African American slaves to express the circumstances as well as to put emphasis on their feelings and emotions. In order to create these feelings in this music, blues artists incorporate many of the same techniques used to write poetry. One of the most easily identifiable songs in which it is easy to see the relation between poetic elements and blues music is the song “Empty Bed Blues” by Bessie Smith.

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.

The speaker needs to impart his experience to his gathering of people. He utilizes clear dialect to draw his group of onlookers into his own particular sentiments. He coordinates his own particular distinct style with that of the performers by yelling "O Blues!" rehashing expressions and words, and including melody verses to sing. Hughes uses onomatopoeia in “The Weary Blues” to imitate the sounds of blues music. The reader can almost hear the song with such examples as moan, croon, droning, and thump. The artist is communicating as well, however it's less about what he's imparting and more about how he does it. He could simply say he has the blues. Rather he conveys what needs be through non-verbal communication, singing, and piano playing. Blues music unites the speaker and entertainer somehow. The first three lines tells us they share a common feeling to some experience. The singer is at conflict with himself, the blues are a part of him and he can not stop playing. Both suffer from a result of their experiences in everyday life they call the

In Hurston’s first piece of work, “Spunk”, won second place in an Opportunity magazine’s literary contest used a woman’s love triangle. Subsequently, in 1925, Hughes also won first place in the same Opportunity magazine’s contest for “Weary Blues”, a musical poem (blues) about a man playing his piano sullenly. The authors’ perceptions about the world around them greatly influenced their work. Hurston grew up with a free spirit and open heart whereas Hughes’ perspective is bleak because of his identity as a black man. Although Hughes identified as a black man, it is clear in his subject matter was an internal struggle with himself. Hughes’ dismal display of Negro life was a very controversial aspect of his writings, while Hurston suffered for her subject matter, focusing on a more uplifting view of Black life.

The poem “The Weary Blues,” by Langston Hughes, focuses on all but the following elements of modernism:

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.

Harlem has always had a history with jazz and African American heritage. During the 1920s, jazz became a huge musical movement, especially in Harlem. This period of time is coined “The Jazz Age.” Along with being known for jazz, Harlem is also well known for its violence and being poverty ridden. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, is a short story about a family living in Harlem, particularly two brothers, and their struggles growing up. The narrator, also the older brother, joins the military leaving his younger brother and brother behind. During his absence, Sonny, the younger brother, develops a drug addiction. Along with the drug addiction, Sonny struggles with school and lacks the motivation to actually go to class. These struggles

The two poems entitled “Harlem” and “The Weary Blues” where both written in the time if the Harlem renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was time when the people expressed their selves and the hardships and the reality of their times. The two poems are similar in a way. They both take place in Harlem and are both written by Langston Hughes. They both describe some type of sad but energetic tone, also known as blues.

In today’s society we face a lot of issues, but there is one issue that stands out to me most. Which these two poems address, that is injustice towards other race in America. In Langston Hughes “I Too” and “The Weary Blues” the trouble of unjust towards African Americans, weigh on the speaker’s mind. Each poem reflecting on the same issue just a little bit differently.

In several cultures, music is said to be a universal language. Music can portray emotion that anyone can understand and relate to, transcending any singular tongue. In "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, and "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes, music is portrayed as being a connection to the happenings of character's lives, a way of channeling and expressing their emotions as something physical.

     Jazz music is often associated with long, lazy melodies and ornate rhythmical patterns. The Blues, a type of jazz, also follows this similar style. Langston Hughes' poem, "The Weary Blues," is no exception. The sound qualities that make up Hughes' work are intricate, yet quite apparent. Hughes' use of consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, and rhyme in "The Weary Blues" gives the poem a deep feeling of sorrow while, at the same time, allows the reader to feel as if he or she is actually listening to the blues sung by the poem's character.

No black person can escape the blues, because the blues are an inherent part of the black existence in America. To be black is to be blue. The blues tell us about black people’s attempt to carve out a significant existence in a very trying situation. The purpose of the blues is to give structure to black existence in a context where color means rejection and humiliation. Suffering and its relation to blackness is inseparable from the meaning of the blues. Without pain and suffering, and what that meant for black people in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas, there would have been no blues. The blue mood means sorrow, frustration, despair, and black people’s attempt to take these existential realities upon themselves and not lose their sanity. The blues are not art for art’s sake, music for music’s sake. They are a way of life, a life-style of the black community; and the will for survival. Thus to seek to understand the blues apart from the suffering that created them is to misinterpret them and distort the very creativity that defines them (Cone, 1980).