Throughout American history, there is a variety of great authors who have brought the many genres of literature we have today. Many hear names like Edgar Allan Poe and automatically think of a dark short story, or two, from his collection of works. How many authors are there who give strong visualization and experiences that not many individuals may get the chance to examine in their life? Around the early 20th century, African Americans were slowly progressing into being integrated in society as citizens of America. As there were many complications with this adjustment, African Americans were held back from living what everyone else would call “The American Dream” through the next few decades and still fighting for it. About 1955, the Civil …show more content…
Rights movement began for equal rights of African American citizens to be treated equally as everyone one else. Many activists got involved with the movement to help pave the way for a brighter future. There were powerful leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X who was more on the religious side and their voices heard through media around the nation. Then there are leaders like James Baldwin, an author and a Samaritan to African Americans. James Baldwin was born in New York City on August 2nd, 1924. James developed to loathe his father for continually reprimanding and teasing him. As an issue, he revolted from multiple points of view, first by turning into a youthful pastor at a church congregation, then would dismiss the congregation to seek writing afterwards. Baldwin wanted to peruse writing, and when he graduated from Dewitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he had composed essays for his school and church papers. Around 1945, Baldwin met Richard Wright who helped him to be able to secure a Eugene F. Saxton Fellowship and then a Rosenwald Fellowship. Richard Wright also helped him with first couple of publications. In 1953, Baldwin had published his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. Baldwin describes John Grimes 14th birthday in Harlem, 1935. Flashback episodes are to recount the lives of John's parents, aunt, and to his slave grandmother in the early South. The first section of the story follows John's thoughts, then; the second section following mostly his aunt's, the third is his father's and the fourth following his mother's thoughts. Towards the end of the story, it comes back to John’s thoughts. By 1948, Baldwin was regularly publishing book reviews essays in periodicals such as New Leader, Commentary, and Partisan Review. When the strain of being a Black man amongst Whites and a homosexual amongst heterosexuals (He was at one point engaged to be married) became too much, Baldwin left the United States to join friends in exile to Paris. For the rest of his life, he would frequently cross the Atlantic Ocean (Field, p.23-38). After arriving in Paris, France, Baldwin began feeling a sense of freedom in this new city.
He had formed many personal and work-related friendships while traveling. In 1957, Baldwin goes back to the United States to do coverage of the Civil Rights movement. During this time, Baldwin writes his publicizing the periodical Partisan Review, The Nation, and Commentary. The short story “Sonny’s Blues” was originally published in The Partisan Review and then was published in his collection Going to Meet the Man. This short story was considered one of Baldwin’s greatest stories in his career. “Sonny’s Blues” is a story about a narrator getting back into contact with his brother Sonny. The story is set in the 1950s and the narrator is a black math teacher thinks about his brother, Sonny, who used to be a jazz musician until he turned to a life of drugs. Towards the end of the story, the narrator listens to Sonny’s solo at the bar and hears Sonny’s pain through the jazz music, finally understanding the suffering he has been …show more content…
through. Throughout his novels and stories, he constantly relies on biblical imagery and phrases to make his moral and political points. In “Sonny’s Blues,” there is the “cup of trembling” and the description of housing projects as “rocks in the middle of a boiling sea,” a phrase that could have been lifted directly from the Book of Revelations in the Bible. Baldwin’s sentences also contain a biblical tone and rhythm. For example, near the conclusion of “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin describes the effect that Sonny’s playing had on him: “I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting.” The message and particular words that Baldwin employs also have a biblical tone. At the heart of the sentence is a desire for peace and salvation, ideas that occur repeatedly throughout the Bible (SparkNotes Editors). During the 1950s, James Baldwin had made a number of literary works while helping and being active within the Civil Rights movement. He also wrote the essays Notes of a Native Son, and the novel Giovanni’s Room. Most of his works before Giovanni’s Room were describing Baldwin’s experiences as a black man in American society around the Civil rights movement. “Giovanni's Room is noteworthy for bringing complex representations of homosexuality to a reading public with empathy and artistry, thereby fostering a broader public discourse of issues regarding same-sex desire” (Bronski, p.10-11). At the time of the 1950’s, being openly gay to the public was not as accepting in society as it is today, especially among the black community. This story tells of a man named David and his life, trying to make it through France after moving there from America. David tries to deny his sexuality until the end of the series due to a turn of events. “The book stirred up a great deal of controversy when it was released. However, the critics proclaimed it a masterpiece, and it is still recognized as such today. Even in the 21st century, it is one of the few widely accepted books to openly deal with a same-sex relationship in a direct and complex way.” (“Giovanni’s Room”) In the early 1960s, Baldwin published another set of essays, Nobody knows My Name: Mores Notes of a Native Son, following his other work Notes of a Native Son describing the Black experience. Along with more essays, Baldwin then published the book The Fire Next Time to try and educate white Americans of what it was like seeing through the eyes of black society, as how their lives differentiated from each other. After this, Baldwin went on to publish many stories, novels, essays, poems, and a play until the year of 1985. Baldwin died of esophageal cancer, or stomach cancer, on November 30, 1987 in Saint-Paul-de-Venice, France. Since dealing with America’s society, Baldwin has seen so much violence and mistreatment of black people before and after the Civil Rights movement. During his early years, the experiences he faced were the main reasons for his leaving to France, to be able to express more of his passion for writing and to live his life the way he wanted to.
Baldwin inspires the many minds of the people of today with these aspiring literary pieces and the experiences they tell. He was widely known for his works Go Tell It on the Mountain, Going to Meet the Man, Sonny’s Blues, Giovanni’s Room, and the essays Notes of a Native Son besides being an activist for the Civil Rights movement. James Baldwin was an African American man who contributed much of his talent to the Black community, even until today. He stands as one of America’s Greatest Black authors as well as with the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community. From my personal perspective, James Baldwin is a very great author to learn from and even read in my leisure time as a student. With his literature, I can relate to the many things Baldwin describes as being Black in America. It is definitely different to walk down the street than other individuals due to the pigment of my skin or the way I am presented. Unfortunately, America has still yet to overcome racism. Will this nation ever will? Until America gets more comfortable with talking about race as one, then racism will still be the same as it’s ever been. Society has come a long way from what it used to be, how it used to function, and how people were seen and treated. Its people like James Baldwin to help
give a voice to the people, help them reach where they once couldn’t at one point. Baldwin was an author that I think everyone should at least read once in their life. To me, he gives me such imagery with his literature. It takes me to the setting and brings me to familiar places that I did not expect to be in. James Baldwin is not just a great author, but a great Black author who has brought so much to the literary world. I am Glad to gotten the chance to have done my research on him; just to discover that there was a little bit of myself inputted in some of his stories and life experience. To venture out and discover who you are, and express what you are. James Baldwin was a man that did many things to help African American people be understood as whole, that there is more to the person than just the pigmentation of their skin. He was a great example of that, and for it to still be presented to others to get the chance to experience what he felt is an experience itself. James Baldwin believed in being in a society where anyone would not have to be judged, to be free of eyes staring into one’s soul. To not be afraid to walk down the street, to be equal to others regard of what they may be or who they’re with. James Baldwin was a Samaritan for wanting life to be easier for African Americans and gay people as well, and through his literature it was seen.
Sonny’s Blues is first-person narration by the elder brother of the musician struggling with heroin addiction and issues with law. However, on closer inspection it appears that Sonny’s unnamed brother is also very troubled. His difficulties cannot easily be perceived and recognized especially by the character himself. The story gives accounts of the problems Sonny’s brother has with taking responsibility, understanding and respecting his younger brother’s lifestyle.
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
We are all part of a society where justice and respect must be followed if we want to have a nice image of ourselves and be accepted by others. In the short story, Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, two brothers are struggling to accept each other. Until the brother listened to Sonny and accepted what he wanted to do in life and who he was as an individual, the brother was in the darkness with his brother and himself. Through flashbacks and the characters, we were able to see how their life was before their mother and father died and what actually forced Sonny to take drugs. This story showed that without acceptance, people have difficulties to continue their life in happiness, so they stay in the darkness until they accept themselves and the people surrounding them.
The theme of "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin focuses on whether a person should be conventional in making decisions for their life, or if they should follow their heart and do what is right for them. A person begins with strengths, many of which they lose along the way. At some point along their heroic journey a person may regain their strengths and develop new ones. Each phase of this journey will have an effect on them and others around them.
In James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" the symbolic motif of light and darkness illustrates the painful nature of reality the two characters face as well as the power gained through it. The darkness represents the actuality of life on the streets of the community of Harlem, where there is little escape from the reality of drugs and crime. The persistent nature of the streets lures adolescents to use drugs as a means of escaping the darkness of their lives. The main character, Sonny, a struggling jazz musician, finds himself addicted to heroin as a way of unleashing the creativity and artistic ability that lies within him. While using music as a way of creating a sort of structure in his life, Sonny attempts to step into the light, a life without drugs. The contrasting images of light and darkness, which serve as truth and reality, are used to depict the struggle between Sonny and the narrator in James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues."
Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories 1992: 409 - 439.
James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” illustrates the inner struggle of breaking the hold of lifestyles unfamiliar to those normally accepted by society. Through the use of common fictitious tools such as plot, characters, conflict, and symbolic irony, Baldwin is able to explore the complex difficulties that challenge one in the acceptance of differences in one another. This essay will attempt to understand these thematic concepts through the use of such devises essential in fiction, as well as to come to an understanding of how the particular elements of fiction assist the author in exploring the conflict.
James Baldwin, author of Sonny’s Blues, was born in Harlem, NY in 1924. During his career as an essayist, he published many novels and short stories. Growing up as an African American, and being “the grandson of a slave” (82) was difficult. On a day to day basis, it was a constant battle with racial discrimination, drugs, and family relationships. One of Baldwin’s literature pieces was Sonny’s Blues in which he describes a specific event that had a great impact on his relationship with his brother, Sonny. Having to deal with the life-style of poverty, his relationship with his brother becomes affected and rivalry develops. Conclusively, brotherly love is the theme of the story. Despite the narrator’s and his brother’s differences, this theme is revealed throughout the characters’ thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue. Therefore, the change in the narrator throughout the text is significant in understanding the theme of the story. It is prevalent to withhold the single most important aspect of the narrator’s life: protecting his brother.
Several passages found throughout "Sonny's Blues" indicate that as a whole, the neighborhood of Harlem is in the turmoil of a battle between good and evil. The narrator describes Sonny's close encounters with the evil manifested in drugs and crime, as well as his assertive attempts at distancing himself from the darker side. The streets and communities of Harlem are described as being a harsh environment which claims the lives of many who have struggled against the constant enticement of emotional escape through drugs, and financial escape through crime. Sonny's parents, just like the others in Harlem, have attempted to distance their children from the dark sides of their community, but inevitably, they are all aware that one day each child will face a decisionb for the first time. Each child will eventually join the ranks of all the other members of society fighting a war against evil at the personal level so cleanly brought to life by James Baldwin. Amongst all the chaos, the reader is introduced to Sonny's special secret weapon against the pressures of life: Jazz. Baldwin presents jazz as being a two-edged sword capable of expressing emotions like no other method, but also a presenting grave danger to each individual who bears it. Throughout the the story, the reader follows Sonny's past and present skirmishes with evil, his triumphs, and his defeats. By using metaphorical factors such as drugs and jazz in a war-symbolizing setting, Baldwin has put the focus of good and evil to work at the heart of "Sonny's Blues."
Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The Oxford Book of American Short Stories 1992: 409 - 439.
The Life of James Baldwin James Baldwin states, “I knew I was black, of course, but I also knew I was smart. I didn't know how I would use my mind, or even if I could, but that was the only thing I had to use” (PBS 2). This quote from James Baldwin from an article by PBS sums up the challenge he had to face because he was black. Through his personal life, his work and his accomplishments, James Baldwin has been considered one of the most prestigious writers in American Literature. Growing up an African-American in the early 1900s, James Baldwin didn’t have it easy.
After reading the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, I find there are two major themes that Baldwin is trying to convey, suffering and irony. The first theme that he brings out and tries to get the reader to understand is the theme of suffering. The second theme that the author illustrates is the theme of irony.
The short story Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is written in first person through the narrator. This story focuses on the narrator’s brother sonny and their relationship throughout the years. This story is taken place in Harlem, New York in the 1950s. The narrator is a high school algebra teacher and just discovered his brother in the newspaper. This story includes the traditional elements to every story, which consist of the exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution.
James Baldwin was born in Harlem in a time where his African American decent was enough to put more challenges in front of him than the average white American boy faced. His father was a part of the first generation of free black men. He was a bitter, overbearing, paranoid preacher who refused change and hated the white man. Despite his father, his color, and his lack of education, James Baldwin grew up to be a respected author of essays, plays, and novels. While claiming that he was one of the best writers of the era could be argued either way, it is hard to argue the fact that he was indeed one of the most well-known authors of the time.
Baldwin, James. “Sonny's blues.” Baldwin, James. Going to meet the man. New York: Dial Press, 1965.