The Healing Power Of Music In Sonny's Blues, By James Baldwin

The short story "Sonny’s Blues" by James Baldwin has many deep meanings that are found throughout the story this includes the concepts of the healing power of music, the bond between brothers, and being a captive both physically and mentally. These are the main themes which are shown throughout the story as the characters develop further. The story starts off in Harlem New York.

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

friend and they discuss Sonny’s drug addiction and the difficulties he has had and will continue to have. Later on after he talks to Sonny’s friend he now begins to reach out to Sonny by writing a letter to him for the first time since he was first taken away.

He is finally beginning to fulfill his role of his brotherly bond with Sonny which his mother had told him of back when she was still alive saying shortly before her death, "Oh, honey," she said, "there’s a lot that you don’t know. But you are going to find it out." She stood up from the window and came over to me. "You got to hold on to your brother, " she said, "and don’t let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him. You going to be evil with him many a time. But don’t forget what I told you, you hear?"( .He had neglected this role for a long time before his daughter died and he finally wrote a letter to his younger brother, despite the neglect his brother responds and comes to the narrator when he is finally let out.

There is also the theme of captivity both in the flesh and in the mind as well both forms of captivity are shown in the story the initial form physical captivity is shown early on with Sonny currently serving in prison as well as his being admitted into rehab, while the physical prison can be left behind with his release the prison of his mind cannot be escaped from so easily because his psychological drug addiction and his emotional struggles have caused him a physical dependence on drugs and has damaged him emotionally , " Listen. They’ll let him out and then it’ll just start all over again. That’s what I mean." You mean-they’ll let him out. And he’ll just start working his way back in again. You mean he’ll never kick the habit. Is that what you mean?" "That’s right," he said cheerfully." His dependence on drugs despite the fact that he wants to live puts him in a mental prison where he cannot get better so easily despite his desire to live putting him in a trying situation where he must escape the addiction before he can be truly free.

The third major theme I found was the healing power of music, there are examples of this throughout the story the first major one was when Sonny first gets let out of jail and he tells his brother his dream of becoming a jazz pianist.

He constantly practices the piano which annoys Sonny’s wife’s family who he is living with until his schooling ends. Sonny looks to music as a means to obtain freedom from his suffering to find the light so to speak. This passion for music makes Sonny go to the extent that he skips school to hang out with Jazz musicians. His sister in law’s mother eventually finds out and then Sonny leaves shortly afterwards and joins the navy. Sonny does not send any word to his brother for a long time leaving his fate uncertain to the narrator until eventually he sent him a postcard from Greece. Sonny eventually returned to New York and a after a while the two brothers eventually get back in touch. When the two brothers finally do see each other again the narrator has his brother live with him, one night when Sonny comes home he invites his brother to come and see him play at a Jazz club where everyone knows Sonny and has respect for him. Then as he watches Sonny play he sees all of Sonny’s struggles get put into his music as his passion is pouring out of him, and he realizes how the music helps Sonny with throughout all of his suffering and he sees how it can help himself, "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. Yet, there was no battle in his face now. I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth. He had made it his: that long line, of which we knew only mommy and

daddy."
The story Sonny’s Blues has several rich meanings to it that will be helpful to many people throughout the struggles that they may go through in their lives. These struggles through themes of unbreakable bonds, freedom, and music help the two main characters of the story to make their suffering bearable. There are the men without these comforts and their struggles are felt by many people.