Sonny’s older brother is the narrator. He is a successful man working as a math teacher and raising a family. However, he also feels trapped in Harlem, where he has lived his whole life. He knows he has an obligation to Sonny, but it takes him a while to get over his uncertainty and so he decides to devote himself to helping Sonny. Sonny is the narrator’s unruly younger brother.
In “Sonny’s Blues” James Baldwin uses imagery and the theme of music to help strengthen the relationship between the narrator and his younger brother, Sonny. Throughout the story there is a continual struggle for the two brothers to understand each other. The narrator, who is the older brother, is an algebra teacher. He thinks that musicians and bar workers are the bottom of the barrel. The younger brother is Sonny, who at the beginning of the story is arrested for heroin and is also a jazz pianist.
Whereas Sonny had an addictive personality, his brother had his own internal struggles with understanding. When the brother learns of Sonny getting arrested for heroin, he immediately reflected on how life was when he was a boy which was very similar for the boys he taught in his algebra class, “Children growing up with a
That evening they went to a nightclub downtown where Sonny’s brother realizes that this is the place where Sonny has been spending his time. Everyone in the nightclub knew Sonny and was anxiously awaiting his arrival to hear Sonny play his music. “Here it was not even a question that his veins bore royal blood.” (98) Sonny initially could not find his way on the piano and made many mistakes as he stammered through the first set, but afterwards a man named Creole reminded them that they were playing the blues and gave them a lesson on what blues is all about. “For while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.” (100) Creole then seemed to be saying listen-listen to Sonny’s Blues.
While reading through the short story, Sonny’s Blues, the reader can agree that it touches upon racism, heavy drug use, and the importance of amending family relationships. Throughout the story the narrator develops from an emotionally withheld stranger to a emotionally intact brother whom is ultimately able to understand his younger brother’s dependence on jazz music and the piano. Towards the end of the narrative, Sonny has also come to terms with himself and has learned to become a better, drug-free, person. He has also learned to replace heroin with his love of jazz
There is an internal and external conflict within Sonny and Baldwin. The internal conflict is self doubt within Sonny, questioning his own ability to succeed in the music industry. The external conflict as well as the climax of the story is for Sonny and his brother to be able to understand one another, so they both can succeed in life together. Flashback as well plays an extremely pertinent role in this story. When a flashback occurs, the true compassion and understanding of the brothers rekindle and surface; enabling the both of them to become a family again.
Symbolism in Sonny’s Blues In "Sonny's Blues," a short story by James Baldwin, the narrator paints a picture of a Harlem full of turmoil and sin. The story is told by Sonny's brother, a high school algebra teacher, who is a helpless witness to Sonny's struggling drug addiction and his need for music. The narrator believes that he “escaped the trap,” while in actuality no one can escape the ties that firmly bind them to their past. Throughout the story, the audience is presented with a down trodden community consumed with drugs and hardships, the same drugs and hardships that the narrator and Sonny were forced to deal with during their childhood. It seems no matter what the characters do they cannot escape their past.
It starts at the beginning of your life and it will end with your life. “Blues is an art in process and in that respect alien from any conception of fixed and ideal forms. This will not justify weaknesses in an artist’s work, but insofar as Baldwin identifies his writing with the art of the singers of Blues it suggests why he is devoted to representation of successive moments of expressive feeling and comparatively less concerned with achieving a consistent overall structure” (Reilly, 145). Once again music is the art of communication between the brothers. Once the narrator actually listens to Sonny play he finally understands Sonny’s pain and what is going on with him.
Apply the process of perception, starting on p. 64 to explain the interaction between Jim and his father. The process of perception starts with Selection and in Jim’s case his Dad feels the one thing that Jim’s average grades could be blamed on is his lack of studying due to partying with his friends. The organization and cognitive schemata that was used Jim’s dad being the prototype of the perfect college student. Jim believed that his dad
“Sonny Blues” written by James baldwin is a story written in 1957 told in first-person singular narrative style. The story begins with the narrator, who reads about his younger brother named Sonny who has been caught in a heroin bust. The narrator then goes about his day However, he cannot get his mind off Sonny. He thinks about all the boys in his class, who don’t have bright futures and are most likely doing drugs, just like Sonny. Throughout the story the unnamed narrator struggles to embrace sonny for who is, its not until the end of the story when the narrator goes to one of Sonny’s Jazz shows, where he fully understands and truly fathoms who Sonny really is as a person and musician.