Sonny's Blues Thesis

“Sonny’s Blues”:

A Journey Inwards to Self-actualization Despite Unfavorable Circumstances

How can one change his fate of being born into an economically deprived family, living a life encircled by poverty, hardship, social inequality and disadvantage? Sonny’s Blues, a short story by James Baldwin, illustrates the impacts of economic poverty on one’s life, and points out those who have a strong will, can free themselves from economic difficulties to obtain satisfaction and self-actualization, the stage when they overcome all sufferings, accepting all the ugly and the darkest aspects of themselves, living to their full potential and finding meaning in their lives.

Sonny, the main character of the story, is an African-American boy with a

“bright and open” face, “wonderfully direct brown eyes, and great gentleness and privacy” (30), growing up in a rundown housing project in Harlem. In describing the neighborhood, the narrator, Sonny’s brother, draws the contrast pictures of the upper west side of Manhattan with green parks, elegance hotels and apartment buildings versus the rundown housing project uptown Harlem streets where the houses are too small and smothering that children have to “came down into the streets for light and air” (37), and the playground is popular with children taking drugs after dark.
On the research paper relating to neighborhood effects, Kathy Lemon Osterling points out: “Studies consistently find an empirical association between neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage and many other social problems including unemployment, crime, health problems, child maltreatment, low educational achievement, and mental, physical, behavioral, and educational problems–especially among children and youth” (124).
Harlem, getting stuck inside this noxious circle, is filled with “rage” and “darkness,” with the fixation of social barriers, incompetence, distress, discrimination, poverty, crime and heroin. Economic poverty creates Harlem, and Harlem nurtures its dysfunctional citizens, taking its toll on Sonny’s and his family members’ lives.
Sonny’s father, who witnesses the tragic accident that killed his little brother, but failing to demand justice on the man’s death, hides his distress through drunkenness. He runs away from the reality of disadvantage on race, wealth, social and class status, and from the frustration on the justice system which favors white and wealthy spoil kids. The depress turns him into a different person; he loses all his trust on human and the society, living a desperately meaningless life, and cannot express his affectionate care and love to his children and wife - he “never did really get right again” (42). As indicated by Colleen Heflin and John Iceland on their article Poverty, Material Hardship, and Depression: “… A higher incidence of major depressive disorder has been reported among women and men living in or near poverty” (1068), the hardship Sonny’s father has to endure is so enormous that claim his life early, ending all his sufferings, and consequently, leaving his wife and children in destitution.
Raising kids in Harlem, Sonny’s mother and father acknowledge the “danger” of race discrimination, of injustice and inequality, of drug and crime surroundings; but “moving to a neighborhood which might be safer for the children” (38) is out of their financial stretch. And ironically, they both know that they cannot guarantee a safe environment for their children as “Ain’t no place safe for kids, nor nobody” (38).
Sonny and the children in Harlem are “encircled by disasters,” some can “escaped the trap, most didn’t” (37). Sonny cannot make an exception: he is trapped. His first run away from drugs by joining the army does not bring a cure to drug addiction, he starts “working his way back in again” when he comes back from the war: “…nothing had changed. I hadn’t change, I was just – older” (56). The second break is hurtful with over 1 year of jail time and treatment for peddling and using heroin; Sonny walks out more mature, determined and responsible; but sorrowfully, Sonny is well aware of the Harlem trap - that he might not “kick the habit” (34) and “It can come back” (56).
After the death of Sonny’s mother, which is not long after the sudden death of his drunken father, Sonny tries to get out of Harlem to “get away from drugs” (56), but inadequate supply of finance is his hindrance. Leaving with no other choice, Sonny has to move in to his sister-in-law’s house, even though they all know that “the setup is far from perfect” (46). Being lonely, desperately longing for recognition and success, and surrounded by heroin, Sonny runs deeper into drug addiction. The bright and smart Sonny has the courage and the will to pursue his dream as a jazz artist, but does not have enough strength to stay away from drugs. Financially broke and addicted, Sonny the artist puts himself into drug peddling business and ends up in jail. He is “killing” himself going down the dark road of heroin.
The narrator, unlike his brother Sonny, manages to escape the trap and become a school teacher; nevertheless, Harlem is still haunting him with its circle of darkness.
The narrator’s life is a long journal of struggle with economic difficulties.

As a soldier, he cannot provide a better shelter for his younger brother when their parents die; he cannot send his brother away from Harlem and its drug circle. The concern on financial difficulties also guides the narrator in making choices throughout his life. I believe the narrator does not have the luxury to do what he may want to do; instead, his priority in career choice will adhere to the one which guarantees an economically secured and stable life. In spite of supporting his brother’s love and determination for jazz music, the narrator applies the same logic of making a living job towards Sonny; which in turn, creates a huge disagreement.

As a school teacher and with limited income from teaching and a family to take care, the narrator is still stuck with housing project in Harlem, he cannot make a bail or hire the best lawyer to defend his brother. The distress from losing his baby daughter; the feeling of guilt, desperation and failure to care and protect his younger brother from the deadly touch of drugs weight down the narrator’s life. Damaged while getting out of Harlem’s trap, and like his descended father, the narrator sees the darkness in every corner of

Harlem.
Sonny’s Blues glows with a bright note as the story ends. Sonny makes his point when he says: “I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?”(45), and he finally proves it with his magical music. Through jazz music, Sonny can recall all his sufferings, his past, the long and dark path that his ancestor has gone through; by expressing and accepting all these darkness, treasuring his roots, Sonny can free himself and finds the serenity of life. Music is Sonny’s religion and his path to self-actualization; he is now a part of something bigger – his music speaks for the others who are suffering, helping them lighten the burden of their life, releasing all their distress, giving them trust and lifting them up high above all hardships of daily life: “I seemed to hear with what burning he has made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did” (60).