A recurring theme when it comes to many stories, either novels or short stories, is a realization of one’s identity. It may be either the main character or supporting characters that undergo an epiphany. While it is uncertain if his views were changed, the narrator of Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin went through a catharsis by the end of the short story. After reuniting with his former heroin addict brother, Sonny, the narrator tries to make him conform to the society. Sonny, on the other side, would much rather enjoy art such as Charlie Parker. Likewise, In Hell-Heaven by Jhumpa Lahiri, through the conflict between the parents and the younger generation, the inner conflict of cultures surfaces. However, through the use of the symbols such …show more content…
In reality, it is a conflict between the two clashing cultures of Bengal and America. The title itself supports it. The correct way to say the phrase is “Heaven-Hell” and so when the opposite is used, it makes the impression of someone saying it incorrectly because of a misunderstanding of the language. It also signifies the tear between the two cultures, one way seeming right to Americans and the other to Bengalis. Pranab and Ursha came to the United States at a young age, allowing them to be more open-minded to the customs of Americans. This quick assimilation results in the opposition by the both parents with statements such as, “This is what happens to people in America?” The parents, especially of Pranab, don’t approve of his fiancee as she doesn’t “fit in” with their Bengali customs. The older generation is unaccustomed to the a foreign experience to enter their lives, pushing it away and causing disunity. The younger generation struggles with the two cultures. Ursha struggled with living an American childhood by going to school dances due to her mother “flying into a rage” at the mention of such American customs. The conflict in the story, unlike Sonny’s Blues, is not a realization of their identity but a struggle of finding their …show more content…
The scene in which the realization takes place is when Sonny shows his brother his talent with the piano. Not only is the imagery extremely emotional as he felt “his own tears begin to rise” for the first time in a long time, but the symbol of the trembling cup is striking as well. In the very end, the narrator has his epiphany. He sees the cup “[glow] and sh[ak]e above [his] brother’s head” most likely symbolizing the holy cup or glowing halo alluding to the Biblical holy cup used by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper. Those who have a glowing halo over their heads are considered saints or holy. So, to have this cup hover over Sonny’s head gives the impression that Sonny is, in fact, no longer a sinner and moved toward salvation. As his music plays the cup rises, signifying that through Sonny’s music he is able to replace his previous addiction with a more productive one: music. To have the narrator realize this, he can become much more aware of his brother’s passion by the “troubling stretching above [them], longer than the sky.” Despite there being trouble above them, the narrator realizes that “freedom lurked around [them]” and that his brother’s music gives Sonny a healthier freedom than he had with heroin. He is able to channel his struggles caused by heroin into something beautiful with his music. Through this realization, the narrator
...school. Under those circumstance, Sonny’s brother disprove the idea of being a musician. Therefore, even though narrator did not support Sonny dreams in the end he did accomplish his dream as a musician. Although the relationships are based on different events, it shows the same point that both narrator did have loves for their daughter Emily and Sonny. As a final point view family member was not be able to support cause of lack of circumstances in the family.
In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” the unspoken brotherly bond between the narrator and his younger brother Sonny is illustrated through the narrator’s point of view. The two brothers have not spoken in years until the narrator receives a letter from Sonny after his daughter dies. He takes this moment as an important sign from Sonny and feels the need to respond. While both Sonny and the narrator live in separate worlds, all Sonny needs is a brother to care for him while the narrator finds himself in the past eventually learning his role as an older brother.
James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” is the authors most studied and critically analyzed piece of literature. The majority of these analyses focus on the obvious themes of the book such as jazz music, the unnamed narrator, or the rift that divides Sonny and his brother. Little critique has ever gone into the biblical and religious themes that run throughout the story of “Sonny’s Blues.” Furthermore, it is even more astonishing that there is little critique given Baldwin has such a strong history with the world of Christianity.
As "Sonny's Blues" opens, the narrator tells of his discovery that his younger brother has been arrested for selling and using heroin. Both brothers grew up in Harlem, a neighborhood rife with poverty and despair. Though the narrator teaches school in Harlem, he distances himself emotionally from the people who live there and their struggles and is somewhat judgmental and superior. He loves his brother but is distanced from him as well and judgmental of his life and decisions. Though Sonny needs for his brother to understand what he is trying to communicate to him and why he makes the choices he makes, the narrator cannot or will not hear what Sonny is trying to convey. In distancing himself from the pain of upbringing and his surroundings, he has insulated himself from the ability to develop an understanding of his brother's motivations and instead, his disapproval of Sonny's choice to become a musician and his choices regarding the direction of his life in general is apparent. Before her death, his mother spoke with him regarding his responsibilities to Sonny, telling him, "You got to hold on to your brother...and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you get with him...you may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you're there" (87) His unwillingness to really hear and understand what his brother is trying to tell him is an example of a character failing to act in good faith.
Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The Norton introduction to Fiction. 6th ed. Ed. Jerome Beaty. New York: Norton, 1996. 47-70.
As many characters in different stories go through their life, they encounter the tough times, which they sometimes they cannot avoid. As seen in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, Sonny becomes addicted to drugs and other harmful substances. This inevitably leads to Sonny becoming unstable. This is similar to the main character, Guy, in “A Wall of Fire Rising” by Edwidge Danticat. Guy realizes how he cannot help his family any more than he can. He has to live through the harsh living conditions of Haiti. These two stories have similar themes which will be revealed in the end. The authors in both “Sonny’s Blues” and “A Wall of Fire Rising” use various figurative devices including foreshadowing, metaphors, and symbolism to reveal how the stress the character face end up leading them to escape.
All of humanity suffers at one point or another during the course of their lives. It is in this suffering, this inevitable pain, that one truly experiences life. While suffering unites humankind, it is how we choose to cope with this pain that defines us as individuals. The question becomes do we let suffering consume us, or do we let it define our lives? Through James Baldwin’s story, “Sonny’s Blues”, the manner by which one confronts the light and darkness of suffering determines whether one is consumed by it, or embraces it in order to “survive.” Viewing a collection of these motifs, James Baldwin’s unique perspective on suffering as a crucial component of human development becomes apparent. It is through his compassionate portrayal of life’s inescapable hardships that one finds the ability to connect with humankind’s general pool of hardship. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” makes use of the motifs of darkness and light to illuminate the universal human condition of suffering and its coping mechanisms.
The central characters in "Sonny's Blues" afford one another a place in which to suffer. The relationships between these brothers and their mother reveal the ways in which family members allow each other moments of weakness in order to access and resolve personal grief. By allowing one another to suffer, the pain becomes easier to bear. They gain a sense of empathy that helps them to face the life ahead of them. The narrator feels "for the first time, how the stones of the road she had walked on must have bruised her feet" (439). It is this feeling of companionship that pushes these characters forward against the trouble.
Conflict is opposition between two forces, and it may be external or internal,” (Barker). There are two styles of external conflict that can be examined within the plot of “Sonny’s Blues”. The first of these is character versus society. This is the outer layer of the external conflict observed between Sonny and the society, which his life is out casted from. The meat and potatoes of the external conflict however, is character versus character. Sonny lives a lifestyle that his brother seems to be incapable of understanding. The internal conflict lies within the narrator. It is his struggle to understand his brother that drives the plot. The climax occurs when Sonny and the narrator argue in the apartment. The argument stems from the narrators complete inability to understand Sonny’s drug usage and life as a musician, and Sonny’s feeling of abandonment and inability to make his brother understand him. This conflict appears to come to a resolve at the resolution as the narrator orders Sonny a drink following hearing Sonny perform for the first time. It appears as though this is the moment when the narrator begins to understand, perhaps for the first time, his brother the
In conclusion, Sonny’s Blues depicts the love of a brother through the narrator, who at the beginning was disengaged, unsupportive, and emotionally distant. However, the turning point was when Grace died. This triggered a great turmoil of feelings that overflowed the narrator leading him to a major and impacting change. Instead, he turned into being involved, supportive, understanding, honest, and accepting of his brother Sonny; regardless of the reality that there was no guarantee his pain would not consume his life.
All three of these symbolical details are woven together in "Sonny's Blues" to create a non-literal meaning directly beneath the words. The end result is an enriched message about urban struggles for expression, happiness, and chemical independance. Ultimately, Sonny's revival concludes the readers' literary tour of world in which he lives. What is begun with a presentation of hardships is finally concluded with Sonny's triumph, a chance at a better future.
In conclusion, “Sonny’s Blues” is the story of Sonny told through his brother’s perspective. It is shown that the narrator tries to block out the past and lead a good “clean” life. However, this shortly changes when Sonny is arrested for the use and possession of heroin. When the narrator starts talking to his brother again, after years of no communication, he disapproves of his brother’s decisions. However, after the death of his daughter, he slowly starts to transform into a dynamic character. Through the narrator’s change from a static to a dynamic character, readers were able to experience a remarkable growth in the narrator.
James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’ and Raymond Carver’s ‘Cathedral’ are two stories which bring out several similarities concerning thematic issues and use of various stylistic devices. Studying the two stories closely enhances the reader to gain essential understanding on the issues being raised such as internal and external conflicts affecting the characters. Although the plots of the two stories are different, their development in terms of characterization, style and themes is more or less the same as there are noticeable similarities. This gives the reader a good platform to examine deeper on the conscious aspects incorporated in the two thereby creating cohesion, coherence and understanding the stories more easily. The two stories through the narrator’s points of view have exposed the internal conflicts in the characters and their various misconceptions towards other characters as individuals and the general worlds they live in.
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
When one first comes across the short story Hell-Heaven you automatically believe religion comes into play. A great number of people all over the world were conveyed to believe that God is affiliated with heaven and the Devil is affiliated with hell despite what belief you practice. The author Jhumpa Lahiri is authentically comparing the two cultures, American culture to hell and the Bengali culture to heaven. She also has the reader acknowledge that one’s heritage beliefs and values are not static but are subject to change. When the two cultures are seen side by side, it is made very apparent of their differences. Regardless of their characteristic diversity that is displayed by Lahiri, America is not demonic because, as an America you have the liberation to dress, verbalize whatever language you desire to talk and accept any God you desire to worship.