Amongst siblings there is one that is less happy with their life or less secure in their own skin; thus creating a melting pot of envy. In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin we see two brothers who have trouble seeing eye to eye. The eldest brother tries to put on a shield to attempt to mask the outside world and his struggles in life and place focus on his brother’s problems while putting off his own. While the other brother struggles with drugs and uses music as an escape from reality. This unhappiness amongst siblings is also seen in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, it is brought upon by jealousy and envy of beauty, being an extrovert, and confidence. The younger daughter of two, Maggie, was severely burnt which left her body covered with …show more content…
scars and an awkward shuffle while she walks. Happiness amongst siblings can be brought upon and stricken easily because of one's lack of confidence, success, personality, and/or education.
This often creates a web of jealousy amongst siblings that play out for the rest of their lives. The two authors are criticizing the relationships between siblings and are asking the question: should we have multiple children, if it causes so much drama and conflicts within the family? Walker and Baldwin are being critical of the relationship between siblings by showings how success brings on envy between siblings. All humans have a trait within them that forces them to dislike those who are doing better in life than themselves.This type of jealousy is evident in the relationship between Sonny and his unnamed brother in “Sonny’s Blues”, “I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, …show more content…
how we could cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could us to be ..” the narrator longs for an outlet towards freedom or happiness similar to how Sonny has one with his music (Baldwin 218). He longs for a way out of reality if only for a brief moment to escape from the projects and stresses of life, which would be his form of gaining success. Similarly in “Everyday Use” Maggie is compared to “… a dog run over by some careless person…” by her mother. This characterizes Maggie as pathetic and almost lifeless while Dee, her older sister, is described as “ lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure...” by their mother (Walker 403). Dee is obviously much more attractive than Maggie, and both Maggie and their mother know it, this creates a sense of envy purely based on appearance. This also establishes how outsiders can sense success and resentment amongst people, especially siblings. Envy can be both external and internal and is often brought on by a lack of confidence but is definitely something present in all sibling relationships, often so evident that those around them can sense the jealousy, especially their parents or those very close to the relationship. The authors are comparing and contrasting how siblings function with others and how this affects their views on each other.
Relationships with people or the ability to talk and relate to others is also a prominent issue in why jealousy amongst siblings exist. While Maggie envies Dee’s beauty, Dee covets the relationship Maggie has with their mother, “she used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know.”, Dee’s education is a wall between her and her mother. Mama being so uneducated and Dee being very much educated they have a hard time relating to each other unlike her and Maggie who share the common trait of miseducation (404). Dee longs for an intimate relationship, similar to that of Mama and Maggie. Sonny has a similar dilemma as Dee’s; prior to his mother’s death, his older brother was asked to be his little brother’s keeper. The two often butt heads because of their contrasting personalities. Sonnys wishes to be more like his brother in regards to being able to seem emotionless and not let them get the best of him and lead him to bad decisions and “wild, but not crazy” behavior (213). Besides age, this is probably one of the reasons their mother asked the narrator to look over Sonny after her death, because of the narrator's emotional stability, or at least
the appearance of having emotional stability. One interesting thing to note is the decisions both Dee and the narrator make; Dee attempts to force herself upon her family members after being away for a while, in hopes of rekindling the relationship with them. On the other hand, the narrator, at times, tries to distance himself from his family and Harlem; so it’s very interesting to see how the relationship between being around people and how relationships with them manifest over time. Differences in temperament can lead to jealousy amongst siblings. If one sibling is more social and talkative while the other is shy and timid and wishes they were more like their brother or sister envy can begin to brew. In “Sonny’s Blues” Sonny is a free spirit while the narrator is more of worrywart, “I guess I didn't want to believe this. I guess she saw this in my face”, even those around him can tell the narrator is worrisome. These contrasting personalities lead to numerous falling outs between the two brothers because they are complete opposites of each other and rarely see eye-to-eye. In Everyday Use Walker uses the contrasting personalities of Maggie and Dee to show Maggie’s timidness. These contrasting personalities creates a power struggle between the two because Maggie is too timid to stand up against Dee for what she wants, the quilts. The two authors are illustrating the common theme of sibling rivalry and how siblings are constantly fighting internally with themselves and each other to be the “better” sibling. Envy exists within all of us in some shape or form. Jealousy leads to hurt feelings, an inability to relate to each other, and broken relationships amongst kin. The desire for attention and love also creates another power struggle for acceptance, that children fell is threatened by another child. Contrasting personalities build tension between siblings because when forced to be around someone who you don't necessarily see eye to eye with it is difficult not to clash with. Whether it be appearance and confidence or the ability to relate to their heritage, in “Everyday Use” or passion and happiness or emotional stability in “Sonny’s Blues”, there is always some sort of envy between both siblings no matter their differences in age, sex, education, living standards, or anything else for that matter.
Have you ever had a sibling that you were jealous of or disliked? In “The Scarlet Ibis” The narrator reminisces about his feeble and sickly brother, their time together, and how he felt about. In the short story “The Scarlet Ibis”, author James Hurst uses Doodle’s brother to show that Doodle’s brother can be kind and cruel to Doodle.
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 ...
In both "Sonny’s Blues" and "The Rich Brother", one of the two brothers encounters success through his life whereas the younger one does not follow the same path and constantly disappoints the other. Pete and Sonny’s brother unconditionally love their own brothers for numerous different reasons and they feel an obligation to the other. They believe that it is their duty to take care of Donald and Sonny, but at the same time they cannot or at least in the beginning understand what drives their brothers in life and moreover the reasons that push them to make the choices they are constantly making. Although Sonny’s bad decisions put him through a lot, he finally reinvents himself and proves to his brother his value. Unfortunately Donald does not evolve enough to meet his brother’s expectations. Both young brothers fail in their lives but for very different reasons. Sonny’s drugs addiction puts him to jail and Donald’s quest for the faith of his soul results in many issues with Pete. Nevertheless, Sonny’s brother sees and witnesses what his brother is really capable of, while sadly for Donald, Pete definitely cannot live with his brother’s way of living. "Sonny's Blues" and "The Rich Brother" are perfect examples of how brothers relationships are: full of love but paved with insurmountable obstacles at the same time. At the end of Sonny's story, both brothers can finally "see" each other and are able to live together, while unfortunately for Donald and Pete, it is impossible for them to reach an understanding.
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.
All siblings are cruel to one another in many different ways; but the story written by James Hurst called "The Scarlet Ibis" takes the idea to a whole new level.
In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin presents an intergenerational portrait of suffering and survival within the sphere of black community and family. The family dynamic in this story strongly impacts how characters respond to their own pain and that of their family members. Examining the central characters, Mama, the older brother, and Sonny, reveals that each assumes or acknowledges another's burden and pain in order to accept his or her own situation within an oppressive society. Through this sharing each character is able to achieve a more profound understanding of his own suffering and attain a sharper, if more precarious, notion of survival.
More specifically speaking, Baldwin is assessing through the fictional story the difficulties in understanding and accepting those who do not comply with social norms. Throughout the entirety of the story it is clear that Sonny’s brother cannot understand his brother or his brother’s choices. This inability to identify with and comprehend his brother drives a wedge between the two, until finally, the narrator shows up to a performance put on by Sonny, opens his mind and his prejudices, and begins to finally understand his
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.
Though racial and sexual issues seem to continuously serve a main purpose in James Baldwin’s writings, oppression can be described as a useful theme in both “Sonny’s Blues and Going to Meet the Man”( Murphy 6). In “Sonny’s Blues” we meet the narrator, Sonny’s brother who runs into one of Sonny’s old friends who begins conversing with Sonny’s brother about Sonny’s recent arrest. Sonny’s old friend tells the narrator that he “can’t much help Sonny no more” which upsets him because it makes him realize how much he had given up on trying to help his brother. Sonny was suffering from drug abuse, and was in desperate need of a savior. After the
In conclusion, the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin brings out two main themes: irony and suffering. You can actually feel the pain that Baldwin's characters experience; and distinguish the two different lifestyles of siblings brought up in the same environment. The older brother remaining nameless is a fabulous touch that really made me want to read on. This really piqued my interest and I feel it can lead to many discussions on why this technique was used. I really enjoyed this story; it was a fast and enjoyable reading. Baldwin keeps his readers thinking and talking long after they have finished reading his stories. His writing technique is an art, which very few, if any, can duplicate.
“Sonny’s Blues” is written after the brother discovers what happened to his uncle, his talk with his brother, and his future reunion. The story is not progressive but rather collective. The brother has all the information and then he composes the story. By doing this, the reader has the ability to understand the plot more completely. The reader can see how the discovery of his uncle relates to his care for his brother. It also shows how the death of Gracie leads the brother to realizing the importance of family. “And I didn’t write Sonny or send him anything for a long time. When I finally did, it was just after my little girl died.” (Baldwin 52) Although the events take place during different times, Baldwin portrays the events as if they were happening at the same time. As a result, the brother can emphasize more on the content of the events and their relationship to one another, rather than their sequence or causality. This would be impossible and dulled if the brother did not have selective omniscient information of the past, present, and
“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...
James Baldwin, the author of “Sonny Blues,” is an African American novelist and storywriter. In one of his most famous stories, “Sonny’s Blues,” he writes about a young boy that has an addiction to heroin. The story shows the relationship between two brothers and the problems that they, and their family have to endure. The brothers do not have a close bond during the time that the story takes place. James Baldwin, while growing up also dealt with many family issues. He didn’t know his biological father and had trouble being accepted into society being a homosexual African American. The boy portrayed as Sonny in “Sonny’s Blues” very closely resembles the way Baldwin must have been treated growing up. They both were shunned from society, and both struggled with the way their families interacted with one another. Baldwin could have purposely done this to illustrate what his childhood was like and express it to the world through the story that he wrote.
Family structure is often built on foundations consisting of, trust, principal, and unconditional love. Relatives are often a reflection of the morals, and dignity our guardians instilled in us. The struggle in families arises when an individual does not live up to the standards set for them, by family, and sometimes results in incarceration, or use of narcotics. In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, readers encounter two brothers who are brought up in the rough neighborhood of Harlem, New York. Although Sonny, the younger brother, chooses a different life path in heroin usage, and in being a musician, his older brother, the narrator, becomes an algebra teacher. Despite not being in each other’s lives for a period of time, the knitted fraternal relationship that they share proves to be eternal regardless of their loss of contact. Ultimately, this story is an amazing illustration of how two people are from the same blood and home, are never quite the same, yet the love of a family will always be kindled. In the following articles "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music, by Suzy Bernstein Goldman, explains how people often explain their emotions through music. In another article titled, -“ Black Literature Revisited: "’Sonny's Blues’" by Elaine R. Ognibene, she elaborates on the effects music has to bring two people together. Finally, in “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin's "’Sonny's Blues’" by Richard N Albert discusses, the bound in families and enlightens on the cliché saying that blood is thicker than water. Ultimately, Albert provides the best interpretation of the short story “Sonny Blues,” because it’s more realistic and relatable from my own personal experience.
In conclusion, co-dependency and rivalry is very common in the world today. Though it is not a big issue out in the open, it is an emotional attachment that only one can define. In this short story the two main aspects of having siblings is the theme which revolves around codependency and rivalry. Having siblings is a part of everyday life and problems do occur which sometimes makes a person, or changes a person in ways. In this situation, Pete and Donald are completely different people but they are in fact very dependent upon one another.