The Theme Of Suffering In James Baldwin's Sonny

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Numerous instances of disconnect within the story can be clearly be identified. Sonny’s family is portrayed to be bitterly haunted by the fact that they hails from a black, poor, and still trapped within the precincts of the community. For Sonny being a young African American born in Harlem, he is aware of the limits and obstacles surrounding him. He struggles to defy the stereotypes by running away from Harlem and establishing a career in music. Unlike his brother, Sonny desire is to free from the traditional social order in Harlem. Instead of being free from the challenges of the society, Sonny winds up being confined in prison, he ends up being literally captive. Long after Sonny is released from prison, he is still described as a caged …show more content…

Sonny’s suffering complements the expression of real suffering and a protest against it passionately and inescapable. Suffering is symbolized throughout the story by use of darkness. Darkness is believed to have encroached lives of the narrator's family and the entire Harlem community. Members have accepted to live by it as something to be borne and endured. Although Sonny is an addict, he defends his state as an attempt to cope up with the suffering that would otherwise have paralyzed him. Suffering has caused the narrators family a lot of pain and is therefore, essential to engage art and redemption measures. However, Sonny explains the much suffering revival musicians must have had to go through in order to sing a nice song so well. One has to out darkness to sing good songs like Sonny does. Suffering which is symbolically presented as darkness, if applied creatively, can yield great achievements. It also helps individuals to understand and have compassion for each other, the two essential attributes of redemption. It is indeed the death of the narrator’s daughter that dramatically changes the narrators view to revert to a path that leads to his …show more content…

The narrator demonstrates the blues as “the tale the sufferings, delighted, and triumph” (Baldwin 1957). Given the definition therefore, the story depicts itself as a blues tale that it begins with the suffering Sonny and his brother, subsequently the growing sense of communion between them, and finally the triumph by them over alienation and pain they had gone through for a long time. Both brothers acknowledge that it’s not innovation that presents them the victory, but rather the light they got in a world full of darkness. The story much similar to the real music Sonny plays that attempts bring musicians to commune with their audience with intent to bridge differences while nurturing understanding and compassion between them to relieve them from

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