Suffering In Sonny's Blues

Psychologist Robert Berezin says that, “Human struggle is not a brain problem, but a human problem.” (Berezin 1) In the short story “Sonny’s Blues,” the author James Baldwin reveals the dark truth about human nature, and through a psychoanalytic criticism perspective it can reveal how people cope with their suffering and problems. The main character, Sonny, is suffering from the hardships that many people face throughout life. Sonny’s suffering becomes so unbearable that he refuses to accept this inevitable situation, and seeks relief and control through the use of jazz and drugs.

Death is the ultimate escape from the sufferings and hardships which define human nature. In “Sonny’s Blues,” Sonny states that “Nobody just takes it,”(Mays 113)

Death motivates us to live more freely and do something with our lives while we’re still here. This is what Sonny must have been feeling when he said that he felt trapped by his surrounding. He wanted to do something with his life, and he did not want to just sit around and let the hardships of life take it’s toll on him. Life is defined by activity and we all want our work to be finished before we rest. According to psychologist Ulrich Diehl, all forms of human suffering can be a challenge to the meaning of life, the personal conditions of suffering usually are a stronger challenge for life. Among the personal conditions of human suffering it cannot be cancelled, but only accepted and coped with. (Diehl 36) This source is basically saying that a person cannot just forget about something that pains them, but they can learn how to cope and deal with the issue at hand. Every person copes with their pain and suffering differently, like Sonny in the beginning uses drugs as a coping method and then shortly after he is released from jail he uses music as his method of coping. However, the goal in life is essentially death, but because death is so uncertain and everyone fears it we find ways to escape that feeling by using various ways. These escapes, whether it be music, drugs, books, movies, allow one to set reality with all its sufferings. It allows one to feel as if they're in control of things happening in their

Sonny’s escape in music is him moving away from the pain and suffering in his life and moving towards peace and order. In the beginning, Sonny’s brother was not too keen of the idea of Sonny playing jazz music because he thought he could do something more with his life, but he failed to realized that music was Sonny’s escape from life and all its chaos. However, at the end of the story Sonny asked his brother to join him at the jazz club and watch him play. At first his brother was hesitant to go with him, but gives in and goes to watch his brother. When Sonny started playing, his brother realizes how involved Sonny was with his music. The description Baldwin uses to describe how the Sonny’s brother was hearing him play for the first time was a realization for his brother and how exactly music makes Sonny feel and how he puts in every bit of emotion into his music. His brother was now realizing how much music played an important role in Sonny’s life and how it helped him out of his