Sonny was getting better. He was on the verge of releasing his very own jazz music record, recorded by him and his friends. All I could think about was the words that Sonny’s childhood friend had once told me “Sonny had such a death wish; "He don't want to die. He wants to live. Don't nobody want to die, ever”.
Sonny’s Blues This story is about regret and heartache between to brothers. This story is meant to tell the story of a younger brother and his struggles with life and how decisions he made affected those around him. The problem I found with the story is that it never really explained exactly what took place in his life to drive him to where he was in his adult life. The story talked a little about the relationship that he had with his father and the hardships he endured because he wanted Sonny to be a better person. It talked about his mother and her protective ways.
The main step of this conversation was not to tell him about the drugs but to tell him about his feelings. The real moment when you find Sonny’s brother understands him is in the nightclub. He met Sonny’s friends and realized it was Sonny’s “Kingdom” and he had “Royal blood”. This was Sonny’s world and he would never be nobility here like Sonny. All he could do was accept it, and he showed Sonny that by buying him the drink.
As Sonny took control the other musicians gathered around him and they seemed to be encouraging him on, saying amen every now and then, as if he were speaking some words they desperately believed in. In “Sonny's Blues” while the title character is playing, the narrator says that his brother's “fingers filled the air with life, his life” (Baldwin 183). Then he goes on to say something that something that has great significance. He says that within his life there is so many others. Sonny is not only playing for himself.
Mayo 1 Angela Mayo Brian Linville English 103 September 13, 2011 Sonny’s Blues Sonny's Blues is a story about two brothers lives shown through extreme circumstances of growing up in the ghettos of Harlem, who struggle to understand each other. James Baldwin writes about the brothers ultimate goal to repair their relationship, that has been turned upside down ultimately because of their harsh surroundings. Over time, they begin to understand each other for who they are, rather than who they want each other to be. The overall theme of the story is not necessarily to be your “brothers keeper”, but to just be there for your brother. Not just in the physical regards or controlling ways, but mentally and emotionally available.
Flashbacks of his mother saying, “Watch over your brother”, and “Protect your brother”. Sonny later goes back to New York for the death of his mother, and asks his brother what does he think he should do with his life. He responses “you should play the piano” because of his love for jazz music. Playing Jazz music was a big risk in the 1950’s, and not to any people wanted to risk
This can be interpreted as Ron’s way of “coming out of the closet” and embracing his identity as a gay, black male. Even though Ron has a lot of status through the play, he also seems to have put on a permanent mask for the outside world while falling out of his roots as an African American. At the start of the play when the family was partying, and eating food yet Ron was not interested because his paper had taken priority over family time. Also on the eve of Nat Turner’s rebellion as Turner was getting the
The songs or hymns lyrics “Tis the old ship of Zion...it has rescued many a thousand” (425) that the narrator hears outside his window as he is about to search sonny’s room, relates to both the narrator and Sonny. This song relates to It relates, also, to the narrator because it saved the narrator from making a mistake that would have cost him the trust of his brother, who is trying to change his life. However, it is not until the narrator goes to see Sonny perform, in which he plays Am I blue, that the narrator understands his brother and his passion for jazz. He writes: “I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would
Sonny’s blues The effect of art on to the audience The acceptance came into full circle when he was listening to the music and watching Sonny play and express himeself on the piano. Where the older brother was disappointed in Sonny's choice of being a musician, he now embraces it. The narrator loves his brother and his love is unconditional. By listening to Sonny play the jazz music, the narrator was able to change his attitude about life, himself, and most of all, Sonny's choice He watches all his brother’s struggles come pouring out as he plays, and only then does he finally realize who Sonny is and what he’s made of. nlike Sonny, the narrator has a difficult time expressing his ideas and emotions, and only when his young daughter dies
He started off with an average jazz band of ten people but through the thirties and forties that number greatly expanded. He started playing in small nightclubs, theaters, and on the radio. His biggest break is considered to be when he got the chance to play at one of the most popular nightclubs of the time in Harlem, The Cotton Club, when another performer (King Oliver) turned down the offer, from that day forward Duke Ellington became well-known name