Historically speaking Harlem has been known to be a historically African American society. In this society, nothing came easily to the residences. During the time of the story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, the society was not only impoverished but they also had to endure oppression in their daily lives. In this story, Baldwin depicts Harlem as a jailed community where the residences are trapped. In this environment, the people are not given the opportunity to succeed for themselves not to even mention their families. These people are trapped for generation after generations with no outlet or change. Baldwin creates an environment where the two main characters, brothers cannot escape from the impoverished and oppressed society in order to …show more content…
In the story the narrator is an algebra schoolteacher, and older brother to Sonny. He wants to escape Harlem but is unable to. the narrator constantly struggles with a combination of guilt and anger when his brother, Sonny, is arrested for possession of heroin. You can see when the narrator says he felt “like a bastard” for not writing to him sooner (47-49) The narrator was so frightened and guilty of what Sonny has become he was never prepared to face him because the narrator feels he failed his obligation as brother it only takes him losing his daughter to contact Sonny. Although the narrator hates the society of Harlem he tries to find the bright side he also feels like he’s trying to better society by mentoring and teaching at his school to keep the kids from the corruption and drugs of Harlem. The narrator is frequently confounded by Sonny’s reactions to troublesome life events because he doesn't understand Sonny's underlying internal struggles. For instance, when Sonny tells the narrator he wants to be a musician the narrator doesn’t really understand, “I sensed myself in the presence of something I didn't really know how to handle, didn't understand” (110-112) The narrator did not understand what sonny was going through he did not realize that sonny was passionate about music in till the end, when we see the narrator develop when Sonny invites him to watch him play he realizes he’s in "Sonny’s world” he sees what an amazing musician Sonny is. He finally understands a little better what Sonny has been trying to explain to him about
His emotions deeply took him over all at once. When, Sonny received the letter from his brother in prison and responded his brother was impatiently waiting for him to be released. The letter had a profusion of significance and deep meaning to their relationship. Once a person becomes dependent on any substance, the only needs or feelings that they are concerned about are their own. It took Sonny to going to prison and rehabilitation to finally realize he hurt his family.
The story is a first-person story that is narrated by Sonny ‘s brother who provides not only insight into their lives, but also the environment they lived in. The narrator addresses their storyline including the dark sides of his community although he does so with a lot of cautious. With the manner in which the narrator is narrating the story, it is clear that he has got some difficult time when he is expressing his ideas and emotions. The narrator writes after the death of her daughter where he is writing back to his brother.
His first reaction to the news is anger at Sonny, and at the state of Harlem where they both live. In his anger he decides to not write to his brother in jail, or to visit him at all. He remembers all of the events leading up to his brother’s arrest: their father’s death, the narrator going off to war for the navy, his return home to find that his brother had gotten kicked out of his wife’s house, his mother’s death and her wish for him to protect Sonny, his brother’s confession that he wanted to become a jazz piano player, and the birth and raising of his
After his daughter's tragic death the narrator finally writes to his brother Sonny and the two develop a correspondence. When he is released, Sonny returns to Harlem to stay with the narrator. The narrator reminisces about the brothers' past. He recalls the promise he made to his mother to look after Sonny. He had kept this promise in mind when he returned for her funeral.
The narrator is prosperous, he has a wife, two children, and a good job as a high school teacher. While his brother is a homeless drug addict on the erroneous side of the law. The Narrator insists that Sonny’s struggles is him being a product of his own environment.
Near the beginning of the story, along with flashbacks of the narrator, the reader learns about the Harlem neighborhood in which the narrator and his brother were raised. The unnamed narrator characterizes the individuals on the street as being populated with individuals suffering from poverty, prostitutes, and drug addicts. The narrator felt guilty for returning his ex-heroin addicted brother “back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape” (76). Elise Miller, a Ph.D. and professor, transcribes in her journal about James Baldwin a parallel that connects the use of drugs in “Sonny’s Blues” as well as in James Baldwin early childhood. Miller suggests in her journal, “[Baldwin’s] concerns about being contingent or derivative give rise to a number of psychological and literary innovations”, due to his use of a negative environment (Miller
“Sonny’s Blues” is a first person narrative written by James Baldwin, a former African American author. The story is focussed on many different concepts of life and the author's life clearly defines the reason to writing the story. Born in Harlem, the setting of “Sonny’s Blues,” James saw various forms of living as he grew. The author used his younger experiences and time with the church to create this significant writing. In “Sonny’s Blues,” the narrator, an unnamed character shown as an algebra teacher, and his brother, Sonny, grew apart when Sonny found a pull towards both music and heroin.
Throughout the story of “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin develops a theme that can still be related with today. The misunderstanding and lack of knowledge that the narrator experiences, about his brother, is something that many today feel, as their own family members are being prosecuted and they do not comprehend why. Within the story, there are numerous subtle ideas that are used to progress the story and theme along to the ending that is given. James Baldwin advances the theme of his story, that misfortune and anguish can be renovated into a unique art form, using characterizations, settings, and symbolisms. One of the main literary devices that is used to express the theme is characterization.
What is one to do when ones kin is the obstacle in finding ones true identity? In “Sonny’s Blues,” the two main characters, Sonny and his brother, the narrator, grow up facing many perilous customs in the ghetto of Harlem, ultimately changing them, and eventually causes the two brothers to head towards different paths in life, allowing conflict to emerge between them. Sonny chases towards a life filled with jazz and heroine, while his brother turns to a more luxurious life with a respectable teaching position. The eldest brother, the narrator, has dubiousness over Sonny’s way of life, worrying that this will be the origin of him falling into a life emerged in darkness. However, towards the end of the short story, the narrator comes to the conclusion that it was he who was in the darkness, in which Sonny helps him escape for a brief moment.
In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin uses symbols and changes in tone in the perspective of Sonny’s brother to detail how difficult it was growing up in Harlem in the 40’s and 50’s, and how to overcome the negative environment. The story is not told by Sonny because that would promote some bias, and what happens to him is better off being told by a caring family member. Sonny’s struggles can relate to everyone at some time or another, and his growth throughout the story is very motivating to its readers. After Sonny’s brother, the narrator, finds out that Sonny had been arrested for selling and using heroin, his opinions towards his high school students dramatically changed.
Still out of money and still surrounded by the drugs he went into a life of crime that took him straight to prison. It was then that the narrator knew Sonny was really in bad shape, but it wasn’t until the narrator’s daughter died that he knew he had been a bad brother. Lacking the brotherly love was supposed to give Sonny as the favor to his mother was a major role towards why Sonny ended in prison. Poverty in Harlem was harsh and unforgiving for Sonny and the narrator not being there for him was what ultimately led Sonny into such a badly influenced life. The narrator wasn’t a bad person though he just wasn’t conscious of his actions he was a busy man with a family to take care of and even though he felt for his brother he didn’t have the resources to spend to help his brother.
For example, the narrator talked about how Sonny stayed at his sister-in-law's house and played his heart out on their piano. This flashback showed his love for music anywhere he was. It helped him escape the pain he was feeling in Harlem and some of his responsibilities of school by staying home and playing. Baldwin also used stereotypes to get his message across. Harlem was not a friendly, rich, white town, so the fact that he chose this setting it made the reader automatically assume that these brothers did not grow up in a stable environment.
The narrator took the role of being a big brother serious; however going to the military and keeping distant from Sonny affected his brother in many ways. Sandy Norton states that the narrator was in awe when it came to his brother, he didn’t know how to help Sonny, which is why he chose not to think about his brother’s addiction to heroin. “He is, in fact, A man full of fear, trying to use his relatively privileged social position to protect himself from social reality” (Norton 175-192). This quote explains how the narrator tries to avoid thinking about his little brother being hooked on
Moreover, in the passage where the narrator and Sonny observed both side of the city, “…the green of the park and the stony, lifeless elegance of hotels and apartment buildings, toward vivid, killing streets of our childhood” (Baldwin, 128), while setting in the taxicab, the author makes a comparison between the typical African-American lifestyle and the rest of the society.
In James Baldwin's short story, Sonny’s Blues, the reader should understand and visualize the historical context in order to understand the world being presented. The reader has to comprehend the harsh life of a male African-American who struggles with his dreams and drug addiction sometime around early 1957. I will discuss Baldwin's writing style, the life/value of an african american's life during this time, and the relationship between Sonny and his brother. Baldwin’s short story illustrates the hardships a person faces while searching for themselves in a world full of people or obstacles that stand in their way. Some of these obstacles are self inflicted, present from the beginning of their existence or appear as though they are random.