Sonny's Blues Summary
Sonny’s Blues is a story telling about how the author and his younger brother, Sonny, who had been jailed for drug deal, conflict to each other, communicate with each other and finally understand each other through music. Although it is a short story, however, it includes several interesting and deep themes inside its content. Before starting to summarize the story, it is necessary to introduce the background of the author. In order to better analysis the story, the summarization will be divided into three parts according to the plot.
The first part of the story is generally telling the settings,background and basic events of the story. It starts with the narrator shocked by the news that his younger brother, Sonny,
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has been sent to the jail for dealing with drugs. While describing how shocked the narrator is, it is also telling audience the basic background of the story such as it happens at Harlem and the narrator is an Algebra teacher teaching in high school. Then the narrator meets the guy who has been Sonny’s friend (notice that he also deals with drugs). They walk together and talk about Sonny. This character serves to present a peer of Sonny who shares with a similar background. And the conversation between them helps audience better understand the narrator and Sonny’s characters. After the narrator’s daughter Grace dies because of polio, he writes a letter to Sonny. It should be noticed that the narrator hasn’t written to Sonny for a long time. Then Sonny writes back thus they continue to keep touch with each other. After Sonny gets out of the jail he starts to live with the narrator and they have a family dinner together. During the dinner a flashback about their parents is inserted into the story. Until here the first part of the story is finished. As mentioned above, the second part of the story starts with a flashback about their parents in that dinner.
The second part serves to reveal the history of the narrator, Sonny and their parents, especially how those factors interact with Sonny and the narrator thus influence them in the future. Their father died when Sonny was fifteen. Although it seems that his father and Sonny has different personalities: his father seems very loud-talking while Sonny is quite most the time, they have the same privacy. And from the narrator’s mom talking we know that his uncle died of run over by some drunken white men driving a vehicle. This is also the reason why his father pretended to be looking big and tough, but actually was very weak in front of narrator’s mom. His mom also told the narrator to watch over Sonny. It can be inferred here that his mom doesn’t want Sonny to be hurt like his dad did. Thus the narrator gets the responsibility for Sonny and this becomes one factor causes the future plot. After their mom’s funeral the narrator and Sonny talks and tries to figure out what Sonny will do in the future. The answer from Sonny surprised the narrator very much — Sonny plans to become a jazz musician and play the piano, however, the narrator doesn’t understand and thinks it is a bad idea so they have an argument about this. From this point the relationship between Sonny and the narrator gets worse. At last they both make a compromise that Sonny will live with Isabel's parents who have a piano in their house. However, Isabel’s parents figure out that Sonny actually doesn’t go to school, instead, he goes to hang with his music friends. Then Sonny leaves hometown and goes to navy. Thus the relationship between them gets even worse and they don’t write to each other for a long time. The part two generally tells audience the details of the past which kind of clarifies the cause of the conflict between Sonny and the narrator — the latter doesn’t understand Sonny’s dream and
thinks it is not a proper career for Sonny. After the long flashback the story returns to the present. Sonny comes to the narrator’s house and invites him to watch him play pinao in Greenwich Village. The narrator agrees. Sonny and the narrator talks about Sonny’s addiction to drugs. Sonny tolds the narrator that drugs make him to feel like in control of everything. They also talk about the people’s suffering in this world. Then they go to the jazz club in Greenwich Village. In there the narrator finds that Sonny is the center of the club. Af first Sonny doesn’t play very well because he hasn’t played for a year. But after a while Sonny starts to find the feeling and plays magically and attracts everyone in the club including the narrator. Then the narrator asks the waitress to send a cup of scotch and milk up to Sonny and they eye connected to each other briefly. The narrator then understands that the how important is music to Sonny and how it turns Sonny’s suffering into some meaning of his life.
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.
Sonny has troubles in his life, but music keeps him sane as he tries to communicate his troubles through the piano, and his art invokes emotion to those who hear it. Sonny has had to deal with many troubles in life, and he turns to drugs for release, but this is just another one of his problems. Sonny is not very old when his
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.
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.
James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues tells the story of the narrator and his brother and the hardships that they must endure. As Kahlil Gibran States “Out of suffering have emerged the strangest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars.” (Gibran). In that very quote the real light is shown as it informs the reader that with suffering comes growth and once the person whomever it may be emerges out of the darkness they may have scars but it has made them stronger. The theme of light and darkness as well as suffering play a vital part in this story. For both men there are times in which they have the blues and suffer in the darkness of their lives but music takes the suffering from them.
A.Freewrite: I am going to write about the point of view used in Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues.” In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin does not use Sonny as the narrator but instead uses his brother. I believe Baldwin used the brother as the narrator to give to give readers the idea that Sonny and his brother do not communicate well with each other. While Sonny listens but does not speak, his brother speaks but does not listen. Baldwin uses the brother as the narrator to highlight the idea that Sonny’s addiction to heroin, love of jazz music, and his melancholy are associated to Sonny’s lack of voice as well as control over his own life.
Sonny’s Blues By James Baldwin Sonny’s Blues the author is presenting the past from the perspective of the present in order to understand his own feelings concerning the role of a father. The two brothers in the story had different life choices. Both Sonny and the narrator have found their own mode of escaping the violence and harshness of the ghetto, different though those modes might be. After the death of the mother the narrator feels he is his brother’s keeper, because of the promise he made to the mother. He is not exactly happy about it and especially Sonny’s life style. Nevertheless, this is his only brother and he made a promise not to turn his back on him. Sonny was more like his uncle a music lover. Before the mother died she told him about his father and the pain he went through after the death of his brother. His father’s brother was a music lover and somewhat like Sonny. So, by telling this story it would help the narrator to understand Sonny. Now he knows a little about his family background and roots. At the end the narrator was finally able to see and understand what music did for Sonny; it allow him to be himself and express himself to other. Explore the implications of the allusion to the Book of Isaiah 51:17-23 in the concluding sentence. What has the narrator learned as the result of his experience? All of the desolation, destruction, famine, sword things that we (the narrator) go through in this life, are learned through other who have shared these same experiences. Our oppressor (Satan spiritually, mankind physically) causes a trembling in our lives; but just like Jerusalem, who was and still is oppressed; God has already taken our “cup of trembling”. We are delivered through the sharing of our experiences with one another, freeing ourselves from one who causes the trembling.
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.
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.
"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.
We all have fears and risks we face everyday. In Sonny’s Blues there are numerous accounts of genuine fear and unbelievable risks. The narrator of the story is the elder brother to Sonny. Sonny and the narrator go through hard times when their lives separate because of Sonny’s heroin addiction. He was arrested and the narrator resented him and his choices.
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood.
The narrator took this as to be the father of sonny and care for him in that perspective. She states “If anything happens to me he ain’t going to have nobody to look out for him”. When she eventually dies, the narrator cannot keep his promise and Sonny is left on his own. Finally, when Grace dies, the narrator goes to Sonny for help. A connection is made when, after Sonny is left out of jail and they can finally comprehend each other, and sort out each other’s problems. The narrator has been suffering for as long as he’s been in Harlem and after Grace’s death. The difference is that he’s been in denial about his suffering the entire time. Baldwin writes: “He didn’t answer me and he wouldn’t look at me. “Sonny, you hear me?”. He pulled away. “I hear you”. “But you never hear anything I