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How is Sonny characterized in the story Sonny's Blues
Literary elements of Sonny's Blues
Theme of death in literature
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Suffering is a part of life and dealing with it is always the hardest part. The short story, “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, describes how each individual character tries to deal or cope with certain happenings that occur throughout the story or their lifespan. These happenings include death, misunderstandings, and the ability to finally deal with hidden suffering. Sonny, Sonny’s older brother, who is also the narrator, Isabel, Sonny’s parents, and Gracie are all a part what creates this short story and essay. Death is something that is sometimes misunderstood and hard to accept. In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, the reader learns of four deaths that had occurred during the narrator’s life time. One of the deaths that the …show more content…
In “Sonny’s Blues”, a character by the name of Sonny goes through certain emotions and situations throughout his lifetime. Sonny is first introduced through a newspaper article that tells the reader about his capture due to the use of heroin. As the story progresses, the reader learns that Sonny has always felt trapped throughout his life. In his feeling of being trapped, the reader learns that he uses two ways to get out. The first is with drugs and the second is through music and playing the piano. ’When she was singing before,” said Sonny, abruptly, “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. And distant. And- and sure.” He sipped his beer, very deliberately not looking at me. I watched his face. “It makes you feel-in control. Sometimes you've got to have that feeling’ (Baldwin 94). “Neither did they dare to make a great scene about that piano because even they dimly sensed, as I sensed, from so many thousands of miles away that Sonny was at that piano playing for his life” (Baldwin 90). The two quotes that are being used help express Sonny’s emotions and show how strong Sonny was fighting to get the freedom he wanted to have in his life. Drugs and music was Sonny’s “get away card”. Those things were his way of handling the suffering feeling of being trapped. It was his way of holding himself together with the reality that surrounded
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.
"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.
“Sonny's Blues” by James Baldwin is told by the narrator, Johnny about his brother and their family. The story shows how the two brother relationship changes over time, while growing up in Harlem New York. Music brings Sonny out of the darkness and show Johnny the light. James Baldwin uses the blues and the imagery of light and dark to showcase, the trials and hardship of the two brothers and Harlem itself.
A compressed and intriguing plot is an essential element in short fiction. The reader gains suspicion and curiosity if the main characters inhabit a believable and interesting situation such as in “Sonny’s Blues.” A young jazz musician who addicted to heroin is arrested for using and selling drugs, but then returns to his childhood neighbourhood after his release from prison where he tries to mend relationships with members of his family. This story compacts family, music and trying to overcome life’s struggles throughout the plot.
In James Baldwin's, - ''Sonny's Blues'' - The narrator tells the story of the complicated relationship with his brother, Sonny. Although they seem to be distant - at the same time they also maintain the love, brother's share for one another. The story really hit home with me because of the similarities in the relationship between the narrator and his brother. I found they were really similar to the one with me and my older brother. While I filled more of the role of Sonny, my brother played more of the role of the narrator. They both grew up in the inner-city (like ourselves) and also shared a fairly large age gap. In the story the younger brother - Sonny, struggles with a sense of direction in life and in doing so gets lost in the world of heroin addiction - While at the same time battling those demons with his music. I also struggled with a sense of direction in my own life and let myself be consumed by my vices.
The short story “Sonny's Blues” written by James Baldwin, is a powerful example of struggle and sufferings in life when one wants to go against society's acceptable choices. Sonny wants to be a decent musician in an era when it wasn't considered as a respectful profession and wasn't suitable to make a reasonable earning. So he faced a lot of problems in his life before getting recognition as a musician. James Baldwin effectively utilises setting, symbolism and characterisation to convey a man's struggle to achieve his goal against society's norms. Sonny is mainly conditioned by his physical and social environment. To prove this Sonny's life can be divided in four stages before parent's death, living with brother's in-laws family, joining navy and going jail for using and selling drugs, becoming a successful musician.
James Baldwin is a renowned author best known for his work of essays, books and short stories, particularly those which dwell deeply into important social and psychological issues of discrimination, gender inequality, homophobia and so on. One of Mr. Baldwin's most appreciated literary works is the short story 'Sonny's Blues' which focuses on two brothers who grew up together but take different paths in life. The story follows the narrator learning about his brother Sonny's incarceration due to the use and selling of drugs until his brother gets parole. Throughout the story, we learn about the relationship between the pair and are able to witness the narrators ultimate understanding of Sonny and his ambition. As we continue to observe the
James Baldwin’s, “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story from an older brother’s point of view of his brother’s life. Throughout this story there are a lot of detailed settings. This story is based in New York, and most of the setting is in Harlem. I enjoyed the detailed places, it gave me a more in depth visual and understanding. The narrator gave the readers more than just physical settings. There a few distinctive settings that I find important in this story. Although the older brother (narrator) wants the best for his little brother, the streets of Harlem get to him first.
Sonny frequents questions, “Why do people suffer?” to those important to him, such as our nameless narrator, but answers his own thoughts. He again repeats that there isn’t a way to not suffer. To him, it’s a part of the life that he and his brother are living in.
The story Sonny’s Blues begins with the narrator who’s younger brother Sonny went to jail for a heroin use, and has not written to his brother or checked up on him until his daughter died of Polio he remembers his brother at last and as he tries to get through the day he cannot forget his brother no matter how hard he attempts to. He then later on encounters his brother’s
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" tells the story of two brothers who come to understand each other. More specifically, it highlights, the distress from its two main characters, and the two sides of a black man in a Harlem World. Sonny must find an outlet for the deep pain and suffering that his status as an outsider defines him. Sonny channels his suffering into music, especially bebop jazz and the blues, developed by African-American musicians. Because we sympathize with Sonny, the drug addict in the story, rather than with his brother, the narrator, "Sonny's Blues" presents a different concept of a picture of drug use as a means of coping with sorrow and fear.
He explains to his brother how playing the piano makes him feel and all he wants to do is play. He tries to explain to his brother the narrator how and what lead to him being on drugs, but the brother doesn’t want to hear Sonny and feels that the music is what lead to the heroin, and tell Sonny how angry he is that he chose to end his life by being addicted. Sonny gets angry as well and lets his brother know how he felt about not reaching out after he was arrested, not accepting how people have different ways of dealing with things, and not understanding that the music or being a musician did not lead him to drugs. After the two express their feeling and cool off the narrator realized that he was just worried about his little brother and made a promise to himself that he would take care of him from here on
Sonny’s suffering complements the expression of real suffering and a protest against it passionately and inescapable. Suffering is symbolized throughout the story by use of darkness. Darkness is believed to have encroached lives of the narrator's family and the entire Harlem community. Members have accepted to live by it as something to be borne and endured. Although Sonny is an addict, he defends his state as an attempt to cope up with the suffering that would otherwise have paralyzed him. Suffering has caused the narrators family a lot of pain and is therefore, essential to engage art and redemption measures. However, Sonny explains the much suffering revival musicians must have had to go through in order to sing a nice song so well. One has to out darkness to sing good songs like Sonny does. Suffering which is symbolically presented as darkness, if applied creatively, can yield great achievements. It also helps individuals to understand and have compassion for each other, the two essential attributes of redemption. It is indeed the death of the narrator’s daughter that dramatically changes the narrators view to revert to a path that leads to his
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story about the entangled lives of two African American brothers from Harlem. The narrator is a military veteran and high school algebra teacher. His brother, Sonny, seven years his junior, is a lost soul with a heroin addiction and a talent for playing the piano. Although the narrator appears to be successful, the story eludes constantly to the darkness, gloom, and despair of growing up in Harlem. The brothers go through periods of estrangement and in the end, they develop a new respect for each other. James Baldwin’s choice of the word blues in the title appears to be related to the state of mind of the characters, rather than the music Sonny played.
“Sonny’s Blue’s” is a first-person, point of view story by an unknown and nameless narrator, found to be Sonny’s brother. While on the surface it appears to be a story about Sonny and his decisions, the true depth of the story lies in the brother’s narration, which details how his brother’s choices and ultimate struggles affected the narrator. Ultimately, “Sonny’s Blues” is two stories in one. One provides an in-depth view of brotherhood, family, and the relationship between the narrator and his brother, while on the other edge of the sword, it is Sonny’s story.