Plot: Summarize the story. What are the main incidents in the story? What is the climax of the story? How does the story end?
The story commenced with the narrator reading about the arrest of his brother in a newspaper for selling and using drugs. This is one of the main incidents of the story. He reminisces on their early childhood growing up as siblings. He has been there for every mile stone that was accomplished by Sonny during their early years. “I was remembering, and it made it hard to catch my breath, that I had been there when he was born; and I had heard the first words he had ever spoken. When he started to walk, he walked from our mother straight to me. I caught him just before he fell when he took the first steps
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he ever took in this world. (Baldwin, pg. 2008). Another main incident was the death of the narrator’s daughter, Grace. After her death, the narrator writes to Sonny in prison after which both brothers then stay in communication, until Sonny’s release from prison. He takes Sonny back to his own family’s home and Sonny is well received by the narrator’s wife. Another main incident was towards the end of the story as Sonny invites his brother to watch him perform at a club later that evening. They both went to a small jazz club where Sonny is popular and well respected, the narrator watches Sonny play and struggle with the music, he finally understands who his brother actually is. 2. Structure. How are the incidents in the story arranged, chronologically? Are there any instances of flashbacks? The incidents in the story were not arranged chronologically. There are several incidences of flashbacks as the narrator remembers their mother’s last request that he takes care of Sonny when she dies. “I don’t know” she said, “if I will ever see you again, after you go off from here. But I hope you will remember the things that I have thought you.” (Baldwin, 2008). He had flashbacks of this discussion with his mother and vowed to take care of Sonny regardless of the poor choices he had made. 3.
Characters. Sonny is the story's main character, we read about his love for music, his struggles and inner turmoil, his suffering throughout the story, the hopelessness that he felt during his struggles, as he attempted to escape his troubled life by turning to drugs. Sonny attempted to defy the stereotypes by moving away from Harlem, in search of a career in music. His quest for freedom and escape from Harlem, lands him in confinement. The story clarifies the reason for his imprisonment, and the abandonment he felt from his brother while in Prison. “I am glad Mama and Daddy are dead and can't see what's happened to their son”. (Baldwin, pg. 2008). He admits his failure as he writes to his brother from prison. We are made to believe that he justified his choices due to the challenges of the environment and the racism and poverty that surrounded his growing up. It seems like Sonny and some of his friends try to justify their drug use and addiction, a life style which his brother did not approve and invariably, caused so much pain to his family. He admitted this as we read the following quote by Sonny. “I was all by myself at the bottom of something, stinking and sweating and crying and shaking, and I smelled it, you know? My stink, and I thought I'd die if I couldn't get away from it and yet, all the same, I knew that everything I was doing was just locking me in with it. (Baldwin, …show more content…
2008) Although Sonny’s drug addiction choices contributed to his suffering, he can be admired for conquering this addiction and actually turning his life around despite all that he went through. Sonny is a character that can be viewed from various stand points. He could be viewed as a failure as he succumbed to drug addiction and spent time in Prison, he could equally be viewed as a hero since he was able to overcome despite all the challenges and obstacles he encountered before turning his life around. I would characterize Sonny as a conqueror. The narrator.
Through the narrator is Sonny's older brother. He reads about his brother’s imprisonment in the newspapers and was overwhelmed with sadness. He had promised their mother that he would look after Sonny, before she passed away. “I was remembering, and it made it hard to catch my breath, that I had been there when he was born; and I had heard the first words he had ever spoken. When he started to walk, he walked from our mother straight to me. I caught him just before he fell when he took the first steps he ever took in this world”. (Baldwin, 2008). He clearly disapproves of Sonny’s lifestyles and tried to redirect him without success. The family bond is great as he truly has Sonny’s interest at heart, however, he disapproves of his music. The narrator abandons Sonny when he was sent to prison, and needed him the most. The narrator serves in the military and goes off to war at some point. The narrator struggles with situation in his community on the poverty, crime, and drug abuse that plague the entire community, as he tries his best to avoid getting entangled with the dark side of his community. Towards the end of the story, both brothers had an argument after which Sonny invites his brother to come hear him play piano at a club that night. The narrator is a dynamic character because his view about his brother changes at the end of the story as he watches Sonny perform on the stage. I would characterize him as
protective. Mother The mother in this short story, though dead, is seen as a guide for her children. She was a comforter to her husband during the period of his brother’s tragic death his brother’s death, thereby living up to the biblical challenge to be “your brother’s keeper. Before her passing, she entrusted the care of Sonny to her elder son. She is compassionate, and sees her impending death. “I don’t know” she said, “if I will ever see you again, after you go off from here. But I hope you will remember the things that I have thought you.” (Baldwin, 2008). Her request before her death enables the narrator accept and care for Sonny even though he disapproved of his lifestyle. I would characterize mother’s character as protective. Other characters. Creole. This character appears at the end of the story. He is seen as an important figure who was able to welcome Sonny back to the jazz world after his ordeals. Creole helps guides him and leads him through his first performance after being arrested. This is an important character to Sonny as he leads him to do what he always wanted to do, play music. He is a musician and a character that helps link the gap between Sonny's and the narrator's worlds. He is a teacher, full of wisdom and can be described as a father figure to Sonny. Finally, Creole leads us through Sonny’s performance in the club. I will characterize Creole as a guide. Isabel is the narrator's wife, and illustrate one of the story's main themes: the strength of family. She plays an important role in Sonny’s life as the one who makes Sonny and the narrator feel comfortable, especially after Sonny is released from prison and moves back in with them. She is truly caring as she genuinely welcomes Sonny into her home and back into the family. Isabel displays a type of kindness to Sonny as she accepts him whole heartedly with unconditional and familial love that is much needed during his road to recovery from his drug addiction. I would characterize Isabella as caring. Grace is Sonny’s niece. She is the narrator's young daughter who lost her life as a result of Polio disease. She died while Sonny was still in prison. After her death, her father decided to communicate with Sonny who was still in prison. He informs Sonny about Grace’s death. Grace’s role is significant even in death. The impact of her death is that of a bridge that reconnects the two brothers, and illustrates family bonds and brotherly love. I would characterize Grace as a gentle soul. Description of the ways the characters spoke. The characters spoke in a funny way. Sometimes, their speech seemed angry and other times, they spoke slowly, softly and lightly. The characters are clearly angry at the situation in the slum, they are unhappy about racism and all the suffering that they are experiencing. The area was referred to as boiling severally in the story. Charlie Parker Sonny’s decision to become a musician started at a young age, to his brother’s disapproval. His music of interest was jazz. He solicited for jazz musicians, Charlie Parker, a renowned jazz musician during that time. He decides to solicit Charlie Parker, who was notable at the time and, whose musical expression was somewhat liberal and instinctive. He played a role in making Sonny’s dream come true. . Finally, he was able to create music freely, based on originality. At the end, he is observed playing music and doing what he loves to do best by his brother and all his struggles and rage is translated in his music all through the help of Charlie Parker. . 4. Historical setting. Where does the story take place? At what time does the story take place? Is the setting symbolic? What adjectives would you use to describe the setting? Explain the setting vividly. The setting of this short story was post World War II, New York. During this time, there were important cultural and political issues that threatened to change the country. It was known that Greenwich Village, in New York, was the center of music and Artists flocked into this area with success in mind. Sunny happen to live in this Village. Various artists converged in this location, shared ideas and made music. Their music was diversified in style due to the events of the era. During this time, America was experiencing cultural and political issues, after the end of World War II. Despite this fact, Sonny was inspired to create unconventional music and expressed freedom in his music. He opted for a more radical form of music in the creation of his music. The return of African American soldiers to housing project homes in Harlem, without job opportunities, caused an uprising for equal rights. Harlem was ready to explode at this time in history due to the increased frustration, experienced by the poor in the slum. The people feels trapped by their surroundings. The streets of Harlem have a life which contain within them an inherent danger that to the awareness of the people. Sonny’s brother fears for his life as he returns from prison to the very streets of Harlem that he got in trouble years back, "back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape" (Baldwin, 2008). The setting of the story is within a smaller world in Harlem. The dark nightclub where Sonny plays towards the end of the story, is a sort of sanctuary for the likes of Sonny. It's a source of escape from the outside world and a place to look forward to He is popular in the club. While he is there, be forgets about drugs and concentrates on music. The adjective that would be used to describe the setting is despair and feeling of hopelessness, and anger and triumph.
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.
In “Sonny’s Blues” the story starts with the narrator who is Sonny’s brother. Sonny’s brother first knew about Sonny’s arrest by reading the newspaper. While reading it, he was angry and in pain because he was thinking about how Sonny got himself into a bad place. After running into Sonny’s old friend, the narrator is talking to him and the friend is explaining how it was his fault that Sonny is in jail and he is the reason why Sonny started selling and using heroin. After talking to Sonny’s old friend, the narrator is mad and upset that Sonny would do that. Sonny’s brother looks back and thinks that Sonny is a troublemaker, but never to that extent.
James Baldwin portrays the narrator and Sonny as the significance of having a strong relationship with family and the ability to succeed the battle of your personal demons fighting with your beliefs. The narrator or ‘big brother’ is a responsible
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.
According to his brother, who narrates "Sonny's Blues," Sonny was a bright-eyed young man full of gentleness and privacy. "When he was about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he'd had wonderfully direct brown eyes, a great gentleness and privacy. I wondered what he looked like now" (Baldwin 272). Something happened to Sonny, as it did to most of the young people growing up in Harlem. His physical journey growing up in the streets caused a great deal of inner turmoil about whom he was and what kind of life he was to have. One thing for sure, by the time his mother died, Sonny was ready to get out of Harlem. " 'I ain't learning nothing in school,' he said. 'Even when I go.' He turned away from me and opened the window and threw his cigarette out into the narrow alley. I watched his back. 'At least, I ain't learning nothing you'd want me to learn.' He slammed the window so hard I thought the glass would fly out, and turned back to me. 'And I'm sick of the stink of these garbage cans!' " (Baldwin 285).
There was a point in the story where Sonny and the older brother are watching a church revival group. The older brother does not see Sonny until later in the song; that was the starting point when the older brother realizes how important music is to Sonny. Sonny escapes from everything when he plays piano. The older brother meets Sonny back at the apartment and they watch the church scene through the apartment window.
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
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
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."
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.
The narrator allows Sonny to move into his apartment. By allowing Sonny to live with him he has allowed to trust him again. For example, the narrator explains, “The idea of searching Sonny’s room made me still. I scarcely dared to admit to myself what I’d be searching for. I didn’t know what I’d do if I found it. Or if I didn’t” (pg. 91). This shows how the narrator had the opportunity to search his brother’s room, but had the ability not to. Tension grew among brothers while living under one roof. This starts the climax of both arguing in the apartment. The narrator doesn’t understand why his brother wants to be a musician. This argument was built of emotion both had and not yet discussed among each other. Such as the narrator expressing his anger towards his brother’s drug use and Sonny’s frustration towards the narrator not understanding his plan to become a jazz musician. For example, the narrator states, “I realized, with this mocking look, that there stood between us, forever, beyond the power of time or forgiveness, the fact that I had held silence – so long! – when he had needed human speech to help him” (pg.94). The argument with his brother made him realize that he abandon his younger brother when he needed him the most. He realized that if he would have spoken out and talk about his drug use that he wouldn’t have to go
“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...
The narrator is older to Sonny and quite different from him as well. He has a clear and simple aim in life and because Sonny is not the same way, he doesn’t understand him and is always worried for him. Through flashbacks, we are given reason why the narrator is like this. When he was younger he had a serious conversation with his mother in which she said, “I want to talk to you about your brother, if anything happens to me he ain’t going to have nobody to look out for him.” (pg.103) She goes on by telling a story about the narrator’s father and how his brother was killed and how it was a traumatic experience. This in a way creates a sense of responsibility in the narrator and makes him aware of the facts that he must look out for his brother. His realization of this justifies his questioning and paranoia for his brother in the present. Sonny’s character and current life shown in the present is also based off the insight readers are given through flashbacks. Unlike the narrator, Sonny’s ambitions were unclear and complicated and he was still trying to figure himself out. In the flashbacks, readers are shown that Sonny wanted to pursue music and the narrator didn’t approve of his passion. Sonny skipped school to play the piano and do something that he loved but after receiving no support from the narrator and Isabel’s mom, Sonny goes away to join the navy. In the present, Sonny had been arrested of heroin dealing and readers are shown that Sonny is in a confused and sad point in his life probably due to the confusion and unclarity in his past. At the end of the story, he and the narrator come to terms with music and Sonny’s hopeful and bright future in music is displayed as it relates back to the happiness and passion he felt towards music in
As a young child growing up, James Baldwin experienced many hardships. He battled through social segregation and had a hard time finding a place where he truly fit in. Although since he knew what he loved in life and pursued that one goal, he was able to over come the hatred of his peers. This story of his life can be seen through a short story written by Baldwin himself, which is “Sonny’s Blues.” Sonny, the main character of the story, exemplifies many of the qualities and traits that Baldwin had in his younger years. Sonny and Baldwin lacked a true father figure, had a difficult time fitting in as black men, and also had an addiction that made life that much harder. Baldwin himself wasn’t actually addicted to drugs like Sonny but he was a homosexual, and the hardships that came with this equal what Sonny had to go through with his family and friends.