Theme Of Resentment In Sonny's Blues '

Dusk settles over the city of New Orleans erasing the brilliant hues of pink and orange intricately woven in the magnificent sun set. Sultry jazz resonates down the street inviting to all to join the festivities. The sweet fragrance of honeysuckle and jasmine permeates the air resurrecting spring’s promise of new beginnings. Laugher echoes in the distance as family and friends gather at day’s end to visit and enjoy an evening meal. Few could imagine the full extent of deceit, betrayal, violence, and lust concealed within such a picturesque scene. In A Streetcar Named Desire Blanch portrays a life that is as deceiving in appearance as this late May evening in New Orleans. This play and the short story of “Sonny’s Blues” uniquely illustrate the

fact things are not often as simple as they appear to be on the surface. In A Streetcar Named Desire and “ Sonny Blues” Blanch and Sonny came from different social economic backgrounds, but were similar in the fact that resentment and imprisonment had an enormous impact on their lifetimes.
First consider the different backgrounds of Blanch and Sonny. American writer Tennessee Williams, an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, gives us our first clue as to Blanche’s background when Eunice tells Blanch, “She showed me a picture of your homeplace, the plantation” (2154 ) as they were talking about Stella. Blanch had grown up as an authentic southern bell with all the advantages of wealth and privileges of a southern aristocrat. In stark contrast, American novelist, James Baldwin acknowledges that Sonny in “Sonny’s Blues” was from a poor background, but he “hadn’t turned hard or evil or disrespect the way kids can, so quick, so quick, in Harlem” ( 101). Kids from his neighborhood were often on the streets surrounded by drugs and violence. Blanch was accustom to wearing nice cloths and living on a plantation, whereas, Sonny lived in a housing project with his mother and father who was often drunk. The affluent background of Blanch did not make her immune to lives challenges and difficulties nor did Sonny’s poor background serve as an excuse to expect the worst in life. These stories should serve as a reminder to everyone that trials, tribulation, and hardships do not consider a person’s financial circumstances. Blanch and Sonny were from vastly different social economic backgrounds and both experienced pain and disappointments; how they met these challenges would ultimately determine their survival.
Next, consider how the lives of both Blanch and Sonny were significantly affected by resentment.

Resentment tends to fill a person’s heart and often clouds a person’s concept of compassion and forgives. Resentment festers and grows to a point that it can be self-destructive, which is what it appears Sonny and Blanche’s lives. Sonny resented being treated like a child when his mother died. The narrator informed him, “We already decided that you was going to go and live at Isabele’s” (Baldwin, p. 105). Sonny reacted by telling his brother that he never decided anything; his wishes were never considered. Sonny resented the fact that his brother was forcing him to go to school and did not take his desire to become a musician serious. Sonny resented being passed off like a possession. When he realizes that he has been a burden on Isabel an her family he leaves searching for a place he feels wanted and accepted. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanch was harboring resentment of her own. Blanch resented that the young man she loved more than anything merely used her in trying to overcome his homosexuality. She resented the fact that when she confronted him he committed suicide in a manner that she was forced to witness the outcome, leaving her to blame herself. The full extent of her resentment becomes clear when she reminds Stella,” you left! I stayed and struggled! You came to New Orleans and looked out for yourself! I stayed at Belle Reve and tried to hold it together!” (Williams, 2158). Blanch resents that she stayed and cared for their sick father and ultimately witness his horrid death while Stella just breezed in for the tidy, neat funeral. Then due to the indiscretions of male family members had to endure the loss of the family plantation where she had sought comfort after the suicide of her young husband. Finally, with no other recourse, Blanch goes to New Orleans to stay with Stella. It only takes a few minutes to realize that her husband, Stan, is a

controlling, abusive, low class, jerk. Stella’s refusal to leave with Blanch seems to accelerate Blanche’s episodes. It becomes increasingly difficult to follow Blanches thoughts and decipher if she trying to manipulate others or if she is losing grip on reality. Arguably, Blanch and Sonny have both allowed their resentment to control their actions. Both are at a crucial crossroad and there may be no return from the pathway they choose.
Lastly, let’s consider how their personal backgrounds, and the resentment they allowed to build within themselves lead to their own personal imprisonment. The two of them were equally vulnerable, life had dealt each of them blow after blow leaving the weak, numb, and weary. Each of them was searching for something to make them feel good, or at least alive. Little did they realize what they found would only serve to imprison them. Baldwin points out, that Sonny turned to heroin acknowledging that he had once asked a friend how it felt, and is friend replied, “it felt great” (94). The drug dulled the pain and gave him the peace that he was searching for. Heroin became a personal prison for Sonny and lead to him being held in a physical prison for a period. Sonny’s personal prison was not only his addiction to heroin, it was the fact that he was he could not face life without his passion, music. Instead of facing reality and the challenges life dealt him he chose to hide behind drugs that took control of his life. Blanch chose to go down the road of deceit using promiscuity to deal with her pain. Ultimately, her chosen pathway lead to the loss of her job and basically being ran out as Williams admits penning, “she’s practically told by the mayor to get out of town”! (2195). Blanche’s initially used deceit to portray her life as she longed for it to be. She depicted herself as a virtuous woman of high character and morals, who has lost Belle Reva despite of her extensive efforts save it. The most ironic fact that in deceive others she deceived herself.
It was only a matter of time before Blanch was a captive in the world she had created in her mind. She totally lost touch with reality and lived in an internal prison fabricated by her web if deceit. Blanch and Sonny had allowed painful events of their past to determine their present and future. Their only means of escape from their personal prison was to work through their individual pain and accept circumstances as they were. They could not change the world, but they could change how they reacted to it.
Blanch and Sonny were from vastly different social economic backgrounds, but neither were exempt from life’s adversities that produced resentments and personal imprisonments. The road that both choose lead to an internal struggle that lead down a pathway of self-destruction. In the end, Sonny accepted the fact that he would never be what his brother wanted him to be. He forgave his brother and himself and let go of his resentment. It was only then that he finally broke free of his personal prison and experienced inner peace. Blanch completely lost touch with reality and remained tenant in her own personal prison. She was uncapable of distinguishing reality from fairytale; maybe, in a way she did find peace. She succumbed to the world she had created in her mind. Sonny and Blanch both reacted differently to their circumstances resulting in vastly futures. Their stories only illustrate the fact, that how people respond to adversities does not build character it merely reveals their character.