Sonny's Blues, By James Baldwin

The 1950s are an era that focuses on the civil rights movement and new forms of music such as blues and jazz. Before this movement forms, there is oppression and discriminatory behavior throughout this time period. However, this is met with the joy and excitement of jazz and blues music. Through the use of music, it helps the African American race to rise above discrimination, continue to push for equal rights, and thus form the civil rights movement. In the short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” by James Baldwin, Baldwin suggests how music has a hopeful effect through the way it uplifts and brings Sonny, the narrator, and the community together. As Baldwin’s story progresses, there is a clear shift in the relationship between Sonny

For example, in the middle of the story, Sonny is by the window and hears a woman singing in the crowd of people, and reminds Sonny “of what heroin feels like.”(p. 15) Sonny then goes into detail that music makes people feel warm and cool and attracts large crowds of people and thus forsaking the darkness away. By also referring to music as heroin, it represents a means of escaping from the dark hardships of life. Towards the end of the story, Sonny is playing at the jazz club, and his music "fill[s] the air with life, his life. But that life contain[s] so many others.”(p. 20) As the crowd hears Sonny play, the people come alive and are filled with a sense of hope due to Sonny’s music reflecting the lives of so many. Through Sonny’s music, it tells the crowd that everyone has hardships but that does not mean they must suffer through them alone. Also as the story is ending, the narrator finds out the importance of music in the lives of society after Creole explains the meaning of the blues at the jazz club and now knows that music is “the only light we [have] got in this darkness.”(p. 20) With this in mind, it is clear that music is a vital aspect of keeping society’s happiness and hope at a steady rate. It also signifies that without music there would be only darkness, and society would crumble because of