The Role Of Racism In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

1300 Words3 Pages

For many Americans the thought of paying for their freedom sounds irrational. However, throughout time, history has shown us that freedom has not been free for a group of people. Sonny’s Blues, paints the life’s of two African American brothers whom lived in the 1950’s, where segregation was ruled illegal, but many people still practiced it. Even though, the two African American brothers engaged and tried to adapt their lifestyle to their Caucasian environment, they were still the target of what segregation had engraved on their environment’s culture. Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, details how racism makes those who have a darker skin pigmentation pay for their freedom; causing them to suffer, socially and physically. America has often been thought as the “land of opportunities”, however, the majority of the people who enjoy those opportunities are light skin Americans. Even after the civil war, African Americans suffered socially. An example of how Africans Americans suffer socially is found in Sonny’s Blues. The narrator, a teacher in Harlem, has escaped the ghetto, creating a stable and secure life for himself despite the destructive pressures that he sees destroying so many young blacks. He sees African American adolescents discovering …show more content…

He was born in New York City and grew up in Harlem. During 1920’s there was mostly black people living in that area. His literature is eloquent because it related to the social events that happen during that time. In “Sonny’s Blues,” the narrator and his brother each attempts to survive post-Korean Way Harlem in his own way: the former by “respectability” of teaching algebra and ignoring the struggles within his own community, the latter by seeking musical membership in a society which allows him some sort of agency not only in his own life, but also in the narrative of the lives that compromises the history of African Americans (Sherard,

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