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

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

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.”

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. Him being “punished” like this by god is what pushes him to keep going and try to live because he wants to prove to god that there wasn’t a reason to give up on him.

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. The narrator may love his brother but is in general judgmental of the direction of Sonny's life struggles and decisions.

In the book Night, Elie Wiesel describes his struggles as a Jew in a concentration camp using a depressing and serious tone, meant to reflect the horrific conditions the Jews were forced to face and the theme that adversity can cause a loss in faith. From the time Elie first arrived at the camp and heard everyone saying prayers, to when the young pipel was hung, and even when the Jews had to make the long, arduous, trek to the other camp, the reader could see his faith dwindling as he continued to question where his God was and why he wasn’t helping the Jews. Not only was a lack of faith evident in Elie himself, but the other Jews around him, even the priests, were having trouble believing in their God. Elie’s disheartened and somber tone

When everyone in camp was crying and asking where God was as they all watched the boy struggle to cling on to life, Elie had thought to himself that God was there “hanging…from [the] gallows”, symbolizing his loss of faith in God. From then on, as Rosh Hashanah passed, Elie felt intense hatred for God as He did nothing to help the thousands of people suffering and being murdered. Elie refused to sanctify God’s name because of the immense pain He was causing, and felt angry that others in the camp continued to worship Him. Elie felt “terribly alone in a world without God, without man” and “without love or mercy”. As everyone prayed, Elie felt like “an observer [and] a stranger” because he had disconnected from God, and as he defiantly continued to eat instead of fasting for Yom Kippur, Elie “felt a great void opening” inside him as his last bit of trust in God faded.

His environment was a negative impact in his life growing up. As the nature and nurture perspective, Kuklisnky inherited anti-social personality disorted from his abusive parents. His father violence reinforced violence and the lack of conscience and love. He also was diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder, but he never seeks for treatments. Kuklinski was the byproduct of his

He allows his dad to control the direction of his faith, but through his death, it becomes clear that he can’t live without faith or, humanity. Eliezer’s faith in this story is controlled by his dad. Elizar feels unfaithful to God, and his dad is the closest most available resource so he relies on him to help maintain his faith. In Night there is a chain reaction effect between Eliezer and his father: if Shlomo is

In James Baldwin’s story “Sonny’s Blues” it is showing that there is an obligation toward brotherly love. The love between brothers is something that doesn’t fade away. When Sonny was in jail it showed that what his older brother was trying to tell him the difference between what is right and what is wrong, before Sonny got caught was not to do drugs. Doing what is wrong can have a negative impact on our families, friends, our communities and the relationships with our siblings. By watching out for our younger siblings after a parent passes away is the biggest responsibility for the oldest child to have to bare.