Sonny's Blues is a first person narrative that tells the story of a relationship between the narrator and his younger brother Sonny. Set in the middle of Harlem the story takes place during the early 1950's. The story begins with the narrator learning about his brother getting arrested for the use and selling of heroin. This creates a flashback to major events in the childhood of the two brothers. The narrator remember his brother at the age of the boys in his algebra class, how Sonny’s face was bright and open, but back to reality the narrator wonders how his brother looks as a prisoner. The narrator new life, his marriage, leaving Harlem has caused distance between him as his brother. The narrator recalls the death of their parents, how his …show more content…
It explores all the problems that black Americans were faced with throughout the 1950’s in Harlem, drug addiction, imprisonment discrimination. Through the story you can see the two different version of Harlem’s which is expressed through the main characters. The story sonny's blues starts out with the narrator feeling fear after he finds out his brother has being arrested. “A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra.” Ice is repeated many times throughout the story which suggests fear. With seven year lost between the two brothers due, the narrator marriage, moving, he final reaches out to his brother after his young daughter died. “When I finally did, it was just after my little girl died, and he wrote me back a letter which made me feel like a bastard.” The bond between the two brothers is great even though the brothers lack communication and understanding. Sonny tries to get his brother to understand his pain and suffering and why he does music. But the narrator never really wanted to believe and understand until when he went to sonny’s first show. “I was in Sonny's world. Or, rather: his kingdom.” Sonny began to play and the narrator could now understand what sonny has being trying to say. In the final lines the narrator understand and sees the light in his brother’s music. “it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of
The story is a first-person story that is narrated by Sonny ‘s brother who provides not only insight into their lives, but also the environment they lived in. The narrator addresses their storyline including the dark sides of his community although he does so with a lot of cautious. With the manner in which the narrator is narrating the story, it is clear that he has got some difficult time when he is expressing his ideas and emotions. The narrator writes after the death of her daughter where he is writing back to his brother.
“These boys, now, were living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities” (pg#). The suffering in Harlem that the boys are going through comes in many different forms. The boys have to suffer from the limits that the circumstances that have to deal with. “The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from.
The story tells the story of two sibling. Though attached to anguishing experiences and unpleasantly that makes people shun away from, pain and suffering can also bring good in people. ‘Sonny Blues’ begins by a brother narrating a story of his younger brother Sonny, a musical artist with a drug problem. Sonny feels like everyone is trapped. Therefore, throughout the story, sonny suffers both internally and externally trying to liberate the people around him.
The narrator feels he should be there for his younger sibling as I do for both of my little brothers that brings the question of Am I my brother’s keeper. I am not perfect but through being the first of my family to attend college I feel that I am going through the narrower path. In this story you also learn the importance of music and how it has played a tune in our souls for many a year’s. Dating all the way back to slavery when slaves hum a song it essentially got them through the day it can also be related to the blues. Not many will get the meaning of how spiritual music can be how it lifts the
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story depicting the relationship of two brothers, Sonny and an unnamed narrator. The story takes place in the project of Harlem, New York in the early 1950s. The narrator is a high school math teacher. His younger brother Sonny is a troubled musician struggling with his addiction to drugs. Before their mother dies, she asks the narrator promise to her he’ll look after his younger brother when she is gone.
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.
He hasn’t seen his brother in about a year, but as he is walking out of his school he notices a familiar face and it turns out being one of his brother’s old friend. The old friend spoke to the narrator about how hard Sonny’s struggle is now and how it will still be a struggle later. The narrator went
He knew he was in a different world, one all its own. The musicians gathered on stage, everyone watching them, waiting for the first notes of music to begin. He was listening, thinking, wondering and now beginning to understand all that Sonny was about. The music had been explained to him by Sonny as powerful based on the things a person had lived through; this power gave them the depth of great music. His brother was seeing the life of torture of Sonny, the battle within was coming from the tips of his fingers.
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues Lesson: Read 1. How does Baldwin's real-life experience connect to his short story, "Sonny's Blues"? Read Baldwin's biography for more background on his life. - James Baldwin’s real-life experience connects to his short story by demonstrating that in the story his father had passed away when he was a young age. In real life, he didn’t even know his father.
“Sonny’s Blues” is not just about Sonny's decisions and struggles but also about how they affect the narrator. This story is as much about family and brotherhood and the relationship between these two men as it is about the character of
Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin was a short story about the struggles of living in a tough, rundown neighborhood and looking to drugs as a way out. Baldwin’s intent on writing this piece focuses on pain and suffering. The author stresses that not everybody is born in the best circumstances. Sonny was one of those people who grew up in a rickety town where people often did not make it out successful.
The narrator says that Sonny’s trouble became surreal when the narrator was put in the position of losing someone dear to
James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blue’s” makes great use of different literary devices throughout the story. The author utilizes conflict, symbolism, and the narrator’s point of view to give the story a deeper meaning and significance to the story. Sonny’s Blue’s is about an older brother’s relationship and differences with his younger brother, Sonny.
This particular paragraph in “Sonny’s Blues” is incredibly important to the development and resolution of the story. At this moment, the narrator is watching his brother play the piano for the first time. He is overwhelmed by the sensations he receives from the music and also gains insight on his brother’s life. The narrator realizes that music is how Sonny expresses his feelings and how he copes with the struggles of everyday life. Without this paragraph, we lose the breakthrough moment the narrator has regarding his relationship with his brother.
One will constantly face temporary conflict throughout life, but ultimately they can overcome through a will to on and pursue what makes oneself happy. Baldwin was able to create a picture in the reader's mind due to his personal relation to his characters, he was able to understand the harsh times for an African-American male. It also reflects on the care that siblings have for one another and how even though they have good intentions, they can't always help their loved one follow a positive