Johnathan Duffie Report on Failure

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Failure Johnathan Duffie “Sonny Blues,” by James Baldwin, is a story about an aspiring African American jazz musician named Sonny from Harlem, who gets addicted to heroin, and now is in a vigorous fight with himself to avoid another darkened path of destruction. Sonny’s brother is determined to help Sonny get his life back on track while at the same time battling his own emotional rollercoaster. The central idea is failure; the conflict overshadows the story as it shows how both brothers are scared to fail. Baldwin uses failure as a central theme, a physical setting and internal conflicts to tell this story. The central idea is failure. Before Sonny starts using heroin he is already frightened of the fact that something will get in his way of being a great jazz musician; “Look brother I don’t want to stay in Harlem no more, I really don’t” (104). Sonny has to be afraid of something that is yet to come, because besides the fact that his mother has just passed, he has no other logical reason to leave Harlem. Also, Sonny gives a very irrational response when his brother asks where he wants to go: “I want to join the army. Or the navy, I don’t care” (104). Although Sonny appears to be sincere, in his dreams of becoming a great jazz musician, he is obviously scared that if he stays in Harlem, something will have direct impact on his failure. Sonny’s brother is also haunted with failure. He says: “When I saw the papers this morning, the first thing I asked myself was if I had anything to do with it. I felt sort of responsible” (95). This guilt correlates with failure, although Sonny’s brother hasn’t physically put Sonny in jail, he definitely thinks he could have prevented it. Sonny’s brother makes a promise to their mother that he fails to keep: “Don’t you worry, I won’t forget. I won’t let nothing happen to Sonny” (101). The warning signs of Sonny’s
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