In life, we never know what a person may be challenge with or going through. You may
have those that may know how to handle the challenges or those that uses different things to
cope with. Growing up in an environment such as Harlem where there is poverty, drug addict,
unemployment and crime can be challenging. In the story “Sonny Blues” describes the different
ways on how two black boys attempted to escape the Harlem ghetto during the 50’s; some tried
music and drugs, others attempted to adapt or adjust into middle-class society. Unfortunately,
Sonny chose a dark path in life by being a victim to drug abuse, while his older brother was able
to dodge the same fate by getting an education and moving out of the old neighborhood.
In
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“Sonny Blues” music helped different characters in many ways, through suffering, pain, drugs and communication. Through music Sonny was able to share his feelings, his life, with others.
Music gave Sonny purpose in his life and an optimistic outlook on his future.
Sonny’s brother the narrator had a different opinion; the narrator lacks listening to Sonny’s
desires of becoming a musician, and does not oversee his brother’s drug addiction because he
was too caught up on his career as a mathematics teacher. He thinks Sonny is irresponsible and
doesn’t approve of Sonny love for music. The narrator doesn't really know much about jazz. He
associates it with certain "element" of people, people he doesn't want his brother hanging out
with. He compared jazz together with drugs and Sonny's addiction, blaming the jazz lifestyle for
turning Sonny into a heroin addict because he knows that some musicians have to get high in
order to play. Jazz music makes the narrator angry and bitter.
-"Well, look, Sonny, I'm sorry, don't get mad. I just don't altogether get it, that's all. Name somebody-you know a jazz musician you admire."
-James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues
But for Sonny, jazz music is like an escape from reality. He loves playing it and listening to it.
Music is the one really positive thing in his life. Jazz music represents passion and escape for
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Sonny. Sonny stated, "When she was singing before, her voice reminded me for a minute of what heroin feels like sometimes – when it's in your veins. It makes you feel sort of warm and cool at the same time." –James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues Sonny was really trying so hard to explain to the narrator what it feels like to be high on heroin.
It makes sense that he would compare shooting up to music, the language he knows best.
At the end, Sonny brother had the opportunity to see Sonny perform at a nightclub. Ultimately, it
is only after Sonny's brother hears Sonny play that it all seems to make sense. In Sonny's music
there is sorrow born of suffering, but there is also a freedom—freedom born out of Sonny's
music for all those who have suffered. Sonny’s music touches his brother, the narrator,
especially. Their relationship is reborn, just like Sonny is redeemed. With his blues, he saves
himself, his relationship to his brother, and those who truly listen
“It's the only light we've got in all this darkness”
- James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues
From Sonny’s viewpoint, music feeds his brother's soul and helps him to cope with his personal
suffering. He realizes that he's just Sonny's brother in the club – he's not special when he's in
Sonny's world. As he settles in to watch Sonny play, he finally sees what an amazing musician
he is. He finally understands a little better what Sonny has been trying to explain to him about
music. As a kind gesture, the narrator sends Sonny a drink, as if to tell him that he finally gets it. As the story concludes, the narrator watches Sonny with a mixture of new understanding, pride, and love. Grace helps the two men reconnect and she also illustrates the strength of family ties.
From the first lines of the story the reader gets the impression that Sonny’s brother tries to block out, ignore the truth about his brother and his troubles. The reaction the character has to the newspaper article about Sonny was: “It was not to be believed and I kept telling myself that” (Baldwin 292). At this stage his relations with the younger brother remind of the way a teacher walks across the playground full of potentially troubled kids “though he or she couldn’t wait to get out of that courtyard, to get those boys out of their sight and off their minds” (Baldwin 293). Having some suspicions concerning Sonny’s ...
" Sonny had been wild, but not crazy, he had always been a good boy and had never turned hard or evil or disrespectful the way the kids did and still do in Harlem."…His face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he had wonderfully direct brown eyes, and a great gentleness and privacy…." (66).
The narrator realizes that it was his responsibility to be there for his younger brother for all the years that Sonny needed him, even if it was just to talk or listen. He doesn’t know if Sonny will be able to forgive him, or if too much time has passed to be any forgiveness. Although the narrator is there for his brother now, he could have been an influence to him for his entire life, just as any brother should be.
The narrator's disapproval of Sonny's decision to become a musician stems in part from his view of musicians in general. His experiences with musicians have led him to believe that they are unmotivated, drug users, seeking only escape from life. He does not really understand what motivates Sonny to play music until the afternoon before he accompanies Sonny to his performance at a club in Harlem. That afternoon, Sonny explains to him that music is his voice, his way of expressing his suffering and releasing his pent-up feelings.
The first moment music is introduced in the story is while the narrator is teaching at school. He has just learned of his brother arrest. He overhears a schoolboy whistling and it drowns out the “mocking and insular laughter of the other boys” (44). The narrator listens and is, for a moment, reminded of the fate that could meet his students; the same fate that met Sonny. He describes the whistling as “pouring out of him as though he were a bird” (44). It is innocent, pure, and drowns out the bitterness of his peers. It is reminiscent of a much younger Sonny. A Sonny that is still hopeful and still believes he can escape the demons that lurk in Harlem. The young schoolboy is creating this music to avoid and protect him from the dangers of his life, much like the way Sonny did in his younger years when he was playing for his life on Isabel’s piano.
With the narrator having a responsibility to take care of his brother, he consistently forces the fact that he wants his brother to be well off and not care about his passion in music. The older they got, the more they drove away from each other because of the fact the narrator becomes overly protective with Sonny, and uses a “tough love” strategy though it does not making any positive effect. After they took some time apart, they both realized they cannot emotionally make it in this world without one
...open, Creole wishes him Godspeed and allows Sonny to musically weave the tale of his past: "Sonny's fingers filled the air with life, his life" (94). This high plateau of expression is the untainted counterpart to the effects of heroin. This is the major turning point in the story: the point at which Sonny triumphs over the dark side and finally finds a firm grip among the freedom-fighting soldiers of Harlem.
After discovering what has happened to Sonny, the narrator makes it seem as if he does not care and does not want interference in the life he has worked so hard to create. This is proven when the narrator discusses what has happened to Sonny with one of his brother’s friends. As shown through this quote, the narrator is not concerned about what has happened to his brother and believes it is not his responsibili...
"Sonny's Blues" is filled with examples of music and how it makes things better. The schoolboy, the barmaid, the mother, the brother, the uncle, the street revivalists, all use music to create a moment when life isn't so ugly, even though the world still waits outside and trouble stretches above. Music and the tale it tells provide hope and joy; instead of being the instrument of Sonny's destruction, introducing him to the world of drugs, music is his way out of some of the ugliness. For Sonny and the other characters in this story, music is a bastion against the despair that pervades stunted lives; it is the light that guides them from the darkness without hope.
He still buys him an alcoholic drink at the end of the story because, he has accepted his brother for who he really is. Harlem is the setting of this story and has been a center for drugs and alcohol abuse. The initial event in this story shows that Sonny is still caught in this world. Sonny says that he is only selling drugs to make money and claims that he is no longer using. In the story the brother begins to see that Sonny has his own problems, but tries to help the people around him by using music to comfort
This issue becomes a conflict for the two siblings that grows tension among each other. Sonny expresses to the narrator that he wants to become a jazz musician. For example, the narrator explains, “It seemed- beneath him, somehow. I had never thought about it before, had never been force to, but I suppose I had always putt jazz musicians in a class with what Daddy called “good-time people” (pg. 86). In my opinion I think the narrator feels appalled that his brother wants to become a jazz musician because he thinks of them as people who hang around clubs and clown around. Both siblings don’t see eye to eye, the narrator sees it as Sonny wasting his time and Sonny sees it as being his career. The exposition of the narrator finding his younger brother in a newspaper resulted on reconnecting their relationship. Also, the conflict of the two siblings was their argument of not seeing the same
He practiced diligently, day in and day out in order to communicate his pain. When Sonny played jazz, he worked hard and looked troubled. When Sonny played the piano, he moved deep within, exactly like someone in torment. He filled his instrument with the breath of his own life. Sonny played blues music unhurriedly yet very intensively, making himself soaking wet. Finally when he let out his breath, he made himself grin. This is the way Sonny utilizes music to communicate his pain.
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is full of practical themes and supporting proofs of those themes. A common theme found in “Sonny’s Blues” is: in order to move forward in life, one must understand and forgive past mistakes. Baldwin supports this theme with numerous supporting proofs. A prevalent proof found supporting this theme is anger. Baldwin uses anger in many ways to show the importance of forgiveness in life. He shows how anger affects the characters in “Sonny’s Blues” and restricts them from being able to get along in life. He shows it in the narrator’s dad’s backstory, the narrator’s grudge held against Sonny, and the narrator’s use of anger in order to not seem vulnerable or afraid. “Sonny’s Blues” uses an everyday emotion, anger, to prove that no one can move forward in life without forgiving and understanding prior choices and mishaps.
He fails to Parent Sonny as he promised to his belated mother. As a result Sonny indulges himself into drugs to avoid the pain of loneliness and his brother abandoned him. He ends up being in jail and rehabilitation. But Sonny shows his undying morals in reply to his brother’s letter when he says, “I’m glad mama and daddy are dead and can’t see what’s happened to their son and I swear if I’d known what I was doing I would never have hurt you so, [...] and who believed in me”(254). Eventually Sonny becomes a jazz musician as he always wanted to be. Music is his salvation from the darkness he put himself into. When the narrator saw his younger brother trying hard to shape his identity as he once struggled to achieve, the narrator states, “he seemed to have found, right there beneath his fingers, a damn brand new piano” when music and his family helped Sonny get back to his healthy
And after supper he went back to the piano” -(pg577). When sonny was living with Isabel and her parents all he would do is play the piano in his free time. This shows the persistence that sonny has when trying to accomplish his dream of being a jazz pianist. He takes every single second he had and dedicated it towards perfecting this instrument. Sonny learned this instrument by himself without the help of his brother. Sonny was forced to encourage and push himself to accomplish his dream. “I couldn’t tell you when mama died but the reason I wanted to leave Harlem so bad was to get away from drugs” -(pg584). This was said by sunny when talking to his brother about why he wanted to leave Harlem when he was still in school. This shows how sonny has a lot of drive in his life to accomplish his dreams. He knew about the dangers of drugs and he wanted more for himself but was incapable of leaving because his brother prevented it. Sonny wanted more out of his life than living in Harlem and he was the only person who was going to make that happen. “He lit a cigarette and nodded, watching me through the smoke. I just wanted to see if I’d have the courage to smoke in front of you. He grinned and blew out a great big cloud of smoke to the ceiling. It was easy”- (pg576). This was done by sonny in front of his brother when he returned back from war for his mother’s funeral. This was a bold move by Sonny and shows how much of a risk taker he is. It shows how he is willing to take risks to do things in life like accomplish his dreams. Sonny channels this kind of energy into his music and it is this energy that helped him accomplish his goal of being a Jazz