Sonny's Blues: Freedom, Acceptance, And Redemption

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The story Sonny's Blues is about overcoming suffering and pain. The themes of the story are freedom, acceptance, and redemption. At the beginning of the story, the narrator seems to be out of touch with himself and disconnected from his community. When his daughter dies, he gradually begins to comprehend the depth of his brother Sonny’s struggle with drugs addiction. He later reconnects with his brother to rekindle their relationship. At first, he is hesitant to accept his brothers' desire to be a musician. After hearing Sonny play, the narrator accepts the meaning of his brothers' life. By accepting his brother, he is able to come to terms with himself and his community. This breakthrough led to redemption for the narrator and his brother …show more content…

Some escaped the trap, most didn’t. Those who got out always left something behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap. It might be said, perhaps, that I had escaped, after all, I was a school teacher; or that Sonny had, he hadn’t lived in Harlem for years. Yet as the cab moved uptown through the streets which seemed, with a rush, to darken with dark people, and as I covertly studied Sonny’s face, it came to me that what we were both seeking through our separate cab windows was that art of ourselves which had been left behind. It’s always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches” (Baldwin 104). This excerpt from the story really reflects the narrator's disconnect from …show more content…

“He turned back to me and half leaned, half sat, on the kitchen table. “Everything takes time,” he said, “and – well, yes, sure, I can make a living at it. But what I don’t seem to be able to make you understand is that it’s the only thing I want to do” (Baldwin 110). In the beginning of the story, the narrator reads a news story about his brother Sonny being arrested from a drug bust. When Sonny is released from jail he decides he wants to become a blues musician. The narrator moves Sonny in with to his family’s home while he is away in the army and Sonny’s constant piano playing annoys the household. The narrator and his family soon come to terms with the fact that music gives Sonny a life purpose and a meaning to live. “At the same time, he wasn’t really a man yet, he was still a child, and they had to watch out for him in all kinds of ways. They certainly wouldn't throw him out. Neither did they dare to make a great scene about the piano because even they dimly sensed, as I sensed, from so many thousands of miles away that Sonny was at that piano playing for his life. (Baldwin 112). It At this moment, the narrator begins to accept his brother, who had rejected for so long. He starts to accept the fact that his brother Sonny finds his purpose through

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