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Analysis of sonny's blues by james baldwin
Analysis of sonny's blues by james baldwin
Thematic statement for sonny's blues
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The third and final part states, that we should analyze characters within the story as well as their actions. In Sonny’s Blues, we have the Narrator, Sonny, and the Mother. The Narrator, helps give the reader insight on the setting (Harlem), his occupation and family (teaching), Sonny, and the situations happening within the community (drugs). The Narrator, seems to be a guide to Sonny. He wants to help Sonny get away from the drugs and focus on better things in life like school. He does not fully understand Sonny’s passion for music. (Baldwin, pg. 67) Sonny, seems to be having hard times in life. He has problems with drugs within the city and he has gone to jail. He believes that to better himself, he needs to leave the city. Within
Sonny has had to deal with many troubles in life, and he turns to drugs for release, but this is just another one of his problems. Sonny is not very old when his
James Baldwin portrays the narrator and Sonny as the significance of having a strong relationship with family and the ability to succeed the battle of your personal demons fighting with your beliefs. The narrator or ‘big brother’ is a responsible
As "Sonny's Blues" opens, the narrator tells of his discovery that his younger brother has been arrested for selling and using heroin. Both brothers grew up in Harlem, a neighborhood rife with poverty and despair. Though the narrator teaches school in Harlem, he distances himself emotionally from the people who live there and their struggles and is somewhat judgmental and superior. He loves his brother but is distanced from him as well and judgmental of his life and decisions. Though Sonny needs for his brother to understand what he is trying to communicate to him and why he makes the choices he makes, the narrator cannot or will not hear what Sonny is trying to convey. In distancing himself from the pain of upbringing and his surroundings, he has insulated himself from the ability to develop an understanding of his brother's motivations and instead, his disapproval of Sonny's choice to become a musician and his choices regarding the direction of his life in general is apparent. Before her death, his mother spoke with him regarding his responsibilities to Sonny, telling him, "You got to hold on to your brother...and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you get with him...you may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you're there" (87) His unwillingness to really hear and understand what his brother is trying to tell him is an example of a character failing to act in good faith.
According to his brother, who narrates "Sonny's Blues," Sonny was a bright-eyed young man full of gentleness and privacy. "When he was about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he'd had wonderfully direct brown eyes, a great gentleness and privacy. I wondered what he looked like now" (Baldwin 272). Something happened to Sonny, as it did to most of the young people growing up in Harlem. His physical journey growing up in the streets caused a great deal of inner turmoil about whom he was and what kind of life he was to have. One thing for sure, by the time his mother died, Sonny was ready to get out of Harlem. " 'I ain't learning nothing in school,' he said. 'Even when I go.' He turned away from me and opened the window and threw his cigarette out into the narrow alley. I watched his back. 'At least, I ain't learning nothing you'd want me to learn.' He slammed the window so hard I thought the glass would fly out, and turned back to me. 'And I'm sick of the stink of these garbage cans!' " (Baldwin 285).
A.Freewrite: I am going to write about the point of view used in Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues.” In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin does not use Sonny as the narrator but instead uses his brother. I believe Baldwin used the brother as the narrator to give to give readers the idea that Sonny and his brother do not communicate well with each other. While Sonny listens but does not speak, his brother speaks but does not listen. Baldwin uses the brother as the narrator to highlight the idea that Sonny’s addiction to heroin, love of jazz music, and his melancholy are associated to Sonny’s lack of voice as well as control over his own life.
In the story, Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin uses music, jazz, and hymns to shape the story and show how it shapes Sonny’s life and how music is inherent to his survival. All of this is seen through the older brother’s eyes; the older brother is the narrator and the reader begins to understand Sonny through the older brother’s perspective. Baldwin writes the story like a jazz song to make a story out of his father’s past and his brother’s career choice and puts them together, going back and forth, until it creates a blending of histories and lives. He shows how the father’s past is similar to the narrator’s life; the older brother has conflicts with his younger brother, Sonny. Music heals the relationship.
With the narrator having a responsibility to take care of his brother, he consistently forces the fact that he wants his brother to be well off and not care about his passion in music. The older they got, the more they drove away from each other because of the fact the narrator becomes overly protective with Sonny, and uses a “tough love” strategy though it does not making any positive effect. After they took some time apart, they both realized they cannot emotionally make it in this world without one
Conflict is opposition between two forces, and it may be external or internal,” (Barker). There are two styles of external conflict that can be examined within the plot of “Sonny’s Blues”. The first of these is character versus society. This is the outer layer of the external conflict observed between Sonny and the society, which his life is out casted from. The meat and potatoes of the external conflict however, is character versus character. Sonny lives a lifestyle that his brother seems to be incapable of understanding. The internal conflict lies within the narrator. It is his struggle to understand his brother that drives the plot. The climax occurs when Sonny and the narrator argue in the apartment. The argument stems from the narrators complete inability to understand Sonny’s drug usage and life as a musician, and Sonny’s feeling of abandonment and inability to make his brother understand him. This conflict appears to come to a resolve at the resolution as the narrator orders Sonny a drink following hearing Sonny perform for the first time. It appears as though this is the moment when the narrator begins to understand, perhaps for the first time, his brother the
All three of these symbolical details are woven together in "Sonny's Blues" to create a non-literal meaning directly beneath the words. The end result is an enriched message about urban struggles for expression, happiness, and chemical independance. Ultimately, Sonny's revival concludes the readers' literary tour of world in which he lives. What is begun with a presentation of hardships is finally concluded with Sonny's triumph, a chance at a better future.
“Sonny’s Blues” is written after the brother discovers what happened to his uncle, his talk with his brother, and his future reunion. The story is not progressive but rather collective. The brother has all the information and then he composes the story. By doing this, the reader has the ability to understand the plot more completely. The reader can see how the discovery of his uncle relates to his care for his brother. It also shows how the death of Gracie leads the brother to realizing the importance of family. “And I didn’t write Sonny or send him anything for a long time. When I finally did, it was just after my little girl died.” (Baldwin 52) Although the events take place during different times, Baldwin portrays the events as if they were happening at the same time. As a result, the brother can emphasize more on the content of the events and their relationship to one another, rather than their sequence or causality. This would be impossible and dulled if the brother did not have selective omniscient information of the past, present, and
First of all, the identity of Sonny is contrasted sharply with his brother, the narrator. The most obvious difference between the two is their names. Sonny's name is prominent and part of the story's theme. Sonny's brother, on the other hand, is never given a name. Despite being the voice and the perspective of the story, the narrator does not have a distinct identity. He is known solely by his relationship with others, his status as a brother, a son, a husband and a father.
Music speaks to every generation of teenagers, adults, and even kids. It becomes a language that once heard, transforms strangers into friends. Throughout “Sonny’s Blues” the music played by Sonny becomes his escape from the drugs, the day, and even his life. Sonny struggles with drugs, a fear of rejection, and the fact that he is a man. Having people there during a time of solitude is nice but one day, growing up is a part of being an adult. Whether life draws people towards becoming a jazz musician or an algebra teacher, everyone is dealing with the same hell, just different
He was a man that had many struggles and obstacles in life. If he was to tell his story, the accounts might be deflected and the memories might be tainted. Even if the story was to change into many points of views, we could have Sonny’s, the brother’s, and the mother’s. We have all the characters in the story with all their accounts of what happened, but we would just have different problems, responsibilities, and effects. Everyone had their moments in the story with their accounts, but it’s most effective with one person’s point of view. The narrator was able to tell his story and the story of Sonny’s to where it was most
Unlike Sonny, our narrator doesn't even deal with his problems at all. He doesn't cope with them in either a positive or negative way. We can see this very clearly in the way that he discusses the death of his daughter. It really only mentioned how his wife felt about the situation, not how he coped with it. The story even opens up with him talking about how he pushes the news of Sonny so deep inside of him almost so he doesn't feel it at all, or at least he attempts not to. There is a sort of irony in how our narrator and Sonny both deal with their feelings, Sonny is looked down upon for escaping his issues in a destructive way although his brother is being just as destructive just in a more internal
is only after Sonny's brother hears Sonny play that it all seems to make sense. In Sonny's music