“Sonny Blues” by James Baldwin is a story between two brothers from Harlem who confront their pain and suffering in altered ways. Sonny is arrested at the beginning of the story due to heroin use, while his brother the narrator is a school
“Sonny Blues” by James Baldwin is a story between two brothers from Harlem who confront their pain and suffering in altered ways. Sonny is arrested at the beginning of the story due to heroin use, while his brother the narrator is a schoolteacher trying to better his students and the community. Throughout the story, the reader views numerous points with the lives of the characters seen as the narrators point of view.
The story ends with Sonny playing the blues in the club, while his brother is listening.Music helps them deal with the pain and suffering. The story advises that sometimes music can help people represent pain, passion, and suffering, while dealing with problems and understanding one another. Sonny is presented as a troubled youth who grows into a troubled man: “These boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual 371 Suffering can come In many shape and forms, with the young boys in Harlem having the mindset that they have a little chance of “making something” of themselves.They are living in a community where it has perished with to many opportunities to become successful. Sonny has ambition of becoming an exceptional and musician, but unfortunately the drug environment In Harlem haunts him into falling into a stereotypical African-American who is not successful but lives poor and does drugs trying to make in Harlem. The narrator feels deficient because he is trying to teach high school math to students who might never get out of Harlem.
He knows that drugs Is not the answer to anyone’s problems but he understands that there might be something more pleasurable then learning algebra: It had appended and here I was, talking about algebra to a lot of boys who might, every one of them for all I knew, be popping off needles every time they went to the head. Maybe It did more for them than algebra could” (Baldwin 367). Even though the narrator knows’ he Is trying to better his community, he gets discouraged of what all is surrounding him and his students while living in Harlem.Sonny has been using the heroin to conceal the pain and issues he has within himself. Once he is released from Jail Sonny must face his problems, and he uses the Jazz to accomplish this. As the reader. E see that Sonny changes by being able to deal with his pain and suffering through music instead of drugs.
Music was Sonny’s dream at a young age he wanted to become phenomenal musician. Laurie Champion states, “The narrator continues to question Sonny about his goals, asks him what type of musician he desires to be, and demands that Sonny answer him seriously.Sonny says he wants to be a jazz musician” (Champion). The narrator wonders if his brother will have what it takes to become a musician. He says, ;l think people ought to do what they want to do, what else they are alive The narrator wants to understand why e wants to make this career choice and lifestyle, Since he cannot understand, the reasoning behind Sonny’s decision he feels as though he does not know him. “He FIFO graduates” (Champion). The narrator feels agitated with Sonny’s fate in life.
He wants him to have a stable and secure lifestyle.The Harlem resistance was an era where jazz music was becoming popular in America but was not always accepted the type of music was considered foul in some social society classes. A European director states: “The teaching of Jazz is not only the right but also the duty every up-to-date musical institution. ‘So far, so good. He continues, ‘An infusion of negro blood can do no harm. It will help to develop a wholesome sense of rhythm, which after all constitutes the life element of music” (Salomon 734).Harlem is rich in history and culture, throughout the years it has seen everything from poverty to urban growth.
The community stayed strong throughout its rough times and this became a model for other black urban areas. Although the Harlem Renaissance was short lived, it changed the face of black America forever. The word Renaissance brings to mind a rebirth of art, music, and culture. Sonny is in desperate need of a rebirth in his life to be able to make himself and his family proud of him.Sonny’s brother the narrator has struggled with pain throughout his lifetime. He has learned how to deal with his struggle of pain through interactions with others and family. Throughout the story, he is distant towards Sonny, but does not do it initially: “He and Sonny hadn’t ever got on too well.
Moreover, this was partly because Sonny was the apple of his father’s eye. It was because he loved Sonny so much and was frightened for him, that he was always fighting for him” (Baldwin 374). A family happiness is based on a successful and strong bonding between the members.Relationships between father and son are often conflicted while the son is growing up, but on the other