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

In every work of literature, the presence of a narrator and a protagonist is crucial to the development of the story. According to the style authors have when writing fiction, narrators may appear as a first person narrator, a third person narrator or an omniscient narrator, among others. The protagonist of a story is the person whom the story is about and who creates the whole story through actions. However, sometimes it may be difficult for the reader of the story to identify whether the protagonist is the narrator or another character who is present in the narration. Besides, there are times when the main character actually is not the protagonist of the story. To recognize the main character of a story, readers have to look for the character involved with the plot throughout the whole story and who is impacted by the protagonist and the main conflict. Occasionally, readers cannot identify who the main character of a story is because the way the author chose to build up the narration confuses them. This seems to be the case of the short story ‘Sonny’s Blues’ written by James Baldwin, which is an example of an atypical story. Since its main events seem to pertain to Sonny, the readers may infer that he is the main character, but the opinions, thoughts and emotions that appear in the story are from another character of

the story who is at the same time the narrator.
Although the story seems to be about Sonny and his conflicts, it is most significantly about his older brother, the narrator of the story. Having the point of view of the narrator throughout the story and knowing how his inner conflict regarding the relationship with his brother found solution, suggest that ‘Sonny’s Blues’ is basically focused on him.
When the reader first approaches ‘Sonny´s Blues’, he may infer the short story will be mainly about Sonny. As he reads, the focus on Sonny and on his conflicts may lead the reader to believe Sonny is the main character. The author gives to the character of Sonny focus on the story by using his name in the title, involving his emotions and feelings towards his brother in several dialogues and also by being Sonny the person whom his brother mainly narrates about throughout the whole short story. Moreover, the author seems to deal with Sonny’s conflicts in a more explicit manner. Sonny’s drug addiction and his constant struggle against not falling into the habit again is manifested in the story. This clues the author apparently gives, most probably lead the reader to think the main character of the short story is Sonny.
While the short story seems to deal mainly with Sonny, the narrator, even if less clearly so, turns out to be the main character in the story as his perspective is the only one the reader can appreciate and the conflict he has to deal within the relationship he has with his brother is finally solved.
In the short story, the reader explicitly finds the narrator’s point of view as the pronoun ‘I’, occasionally a ‘we’, is used throughout the narration to speak from his subject position. As the narrator is the one who knows the story which he is part of, the reader only gets the narrator’s version of the events. For instance, in one occasion when the narrator says: ‘When I saw him many things I thought I had forgotten came flooding back to me’, the reader can see the narrator’s interactions with other characters, his thoughts and his emotions.
Having Sonny’s feelings in the dialogues he has with the narrator may make the reader feel empathy towards him. Yet, Sonny’s feelings are only illustrated in those dialogues, while the narrator as the storyteller shares his thoughts and emotions not only in the dialogues but also throughout the whole narration, producing a more immediate emotional appeal for the reader. This literary resource used by the author lets the reader hear and see what takes place in the story only by the angle of the narrator and thus, readers would probably think the story could be mainly focused on the narrator.
As the reader is able to learn the story through the perspective of the narrator, he also gets to know how the inner conflict of the narrator about the bond with his brother is solved.
Despite the fact that the characters are brothers, they don’t have a close relationship.

The reader learns through Sonny’s wordings that the narrator has difficulties to understand his brother’s wishes and desires to become a musician. This situation, for instance, is shown when Sonny says to his brother: ‘you never hear anything I say.’ What is more, the narrator feels guilty for not being able to strengthen the bond with his brother and for not keeping the promise he made to his mother about taking care of Sonny. When the narrator has the chance to spend a few days with his younger brother, little by little, his inner conflict begins to

disappear.
Being Sonny’s conflicts explicit may lead the reader to infer that Sonny could be the main character of the story. Yet, Sonny’s issues relating to drug addiction may make the reader predict that he might never give up the habit of taking drugs. In contrast, the reader can find the resolution of the narrator’s conflict as the story unfolds. In addition to that, the reader is able to identify the marked change of attitude the narrator undergoes in order to overcome his significant internal conflict. The element of fiction used by the author, plot, in which the main events are described and cause an effect in the main character’s life, may lead the readers to consider the narrator as the central character of the story.
To conclude, it can be a difficult task for a reader to assign the character of a story the role of protagonist or main character. However, once the notions of the elements of fiction come to the reader's mind, it is not so complicated to identify them. As we have seen in ‘Sonny’s Blues’, the main character is also the narrator, who shares his emotions, thoughts and opinions causing the reader to feel empathy towards him. Moreover, the narrator is the character that after solving his inner conflict, goes through a transformation and finally understands his brother’s situation and thus, builds up a friendly and harmonious relationship with him. The author may confuse the readers regarding their perception of the characters, but this confusion is likely to be solved if the reader is able to truly identify the crucial but different roles these characters play.