Theme Of Darkness In Sonny Blues

“A bookworm with strong homoerotic urges, a fascination with guns and crime and a natural inclination to break every rule he could find, there seemed to be no way [William] Burroughs could ever fit into normal society” (Asher). The Midwestern (St. Louis) and upper class lifestyle did not fit who Burroughs really was. After graduating from Harvard, Burroughs’ parents accepted their son’s need to find his place in society, so they “continued to support him financially as he experimented with various lifestyles” (Asher). Burroughs was a rebel figure who had trouble finding his way. He traveled around a lot and fell into drugs and substance abuse to free himself from the built-up conventions of society.

In this essay, I will discuss how poverty, drugs, prisons and death contribute to the inescapable boundaries of suffering. The narrator—who is not named—begins the story by finding out his brother Sonny, was arrested “in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin” (Baldwin 1969). Not wanting to believe it because Sonny had “always been a good boy” (Baldwin 1969), yet, deep down in his soul he was sure the city of Harlem had a firm grasp on Sonny’s life from an early age. As the narrator states “I was sure that the first time

Imprisonment was a very repetitive and perpetual theme in "Sonny's Blues." Sonny was physically imprisoned when he was incarcerated for distribution of heroin. Being incarcerated was extremely detrimental to Sonny because his desire for freedom. Although a great amount of the imprisonment in the story is abstract. Harlem is referred to as a trap several times, insinuating that those of lower class must struggle to escape.

He tried so hard to get out of the poverty, violence, drugs, and gangs, but he became influenced by the wrong people and fell into heroin. Baldwin wanted the show the readers that people cope with pain and suffering in different ways. However, Sonny had a passion for music and wanted to become a jazz musician. This was also his way of coping with

After hearing that his younger brother, Sonny, has been put in jail due to drug use, he remembers his childhood, and how they both never did really get along. Both Sonny and the narrator feel a sense of “darkness outside”, and this “darkness” is what creates the miscommunication between the brothers (Baldwin 338). Sonny changed his normality due to not being noticed during his childhood, and the drastic change causes the older brother to feel uncomfortable seeing his brother, because Sonny told him that “he was dead as far as [he] was concerned” (351). Their struggles caused them to lose contact, and to slowly build that invisible barrier between their

And Sonny fell into the stereotype of what a musician does by drinking and doing drugs. Sonny says, “I guess I was afraid of something or I was trying to escape from something and you know I have never been very strong in the head” (Baldwin 269). He explains how he tried to run from his problems but that he wasn't strong enough to do it on his own. They both choose different paths but they never got out of the ghetto Harlem. They couldn't leave because their past was holding them back no matter what they did they were stuck

The narrator seems to take on the responsibility of Sonny's fallen actions because he was off in the Army and left Sonny with Isabel's parents. However, there are more than one character in this story. Sonny struggles internally with the pull of a drug addiction. While at Isabel's parents house he used music as much of a release as he could, but that didn't help fully. To him heroin was an outlet because it made him feel alive and eased his

Suspense is a feeling of anxious uncertainty about the outcomes of events. “Jonathan and his family were now completely paralyzed by terror. Maria and the children sobbed inaudibly like lost souls. Jonathan groaned continuously. The silence that followed the thieves’ alarm vibrated horribly.” (448).

During the time Elie was there with his father, he began to lose his faith in god, his family, and humanity through all of the experiences he had to go through while being in the Nazi concentration camp. Eliezer begins to lose faith in god. He starts to struggle a lot, physically and mentally, and he feels like god is punishing him. Elie tried very hard to help his father and also himself and he even asked god to take him out of his misery. He becomes very confused because he doesn’t understand why god would let such a thing happen and why the Germans are wanting to kill all of the jews.

Sonny separates from his brother to become a Blues musician, though becomes addicted to drugs, such as heroin, in order to control his own feelings. In contrast, the narrator internalizes his feelings by repressing them as his father did after his brother passed away. As it was the relationship of their father and uncle, Sonny and his brother grew up in Harlem, a district replete with hopelessness and poverty. Yet each individual reacts to his environment in unusual ways. On the one hand, the narrator distances himself from his community in Harlem, including his brother Sonny.