Eulogy For Sonny

The narrator simultaneously hates and pities Sonny’s friend, who, despite his problems, makes it painfully clear to the narrator just how difficult Sonny’s drug-addicted life has

A mother is a role model that every child should look up to, so with the death of Sonny’s mother, he had no parent figure to look up to other than his brother who was not really there for Sonny in the right moments. Sonny was definitely impacted deeply by this event

“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

Consequently, all Sonny got throughout his recovery was a brother who told him what to do and a brother who put himself before Sonny. Though the older brother’s selfish and controlling characteristics are the major reasons why the older brother is at fault, one could argue that these character flaws root from the taxing habit of holding in emotions. Second, the older brother had a horrific habit of holding

Once the narrator arrives to Sonny’s apartment they are reunited but get into an altercation. It ends with the narrator exiting the room filled with sorrow and anger. “I started down the steps whistling to keep from crying. I kept whistling to

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 Sonnys Blues, the narrator hesitates to see Sonny in jail and critiques his music; it is clear that he does not trust him. Nevertheless, when the narrator goes to one of Sonny's concerts and appreciates the beauty of his music, his preconceptions are disproved. The image of Sonny was portrayed by the actions his brother had seen growing up together, “It does not do any good to fight with Sonny. Sonny just moves back, inside himself, where he cannot be reached” (Baldwin 70). Throughout the story, the narrator struggles to understand his brother's choices and fears for his safety; he has created a burden between himself and Sonny.

Everyone needs rescuing sometime in life? The narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” struggles with his own identity and finding himself. He has a sense of insecurity and conformity to escape his past and from where he comes. The narrator finds himself focusing on his brother’s mistakes in life when in reality; he is questioning his inner insecurities. The narrator believes he must rescue his brother but realizes first he must find rescue himself.

Sonny had not fully communicated his troubles he has always been the one to bottle up his emotions. The end of “Sonny’s Blues” the two brothers go to a small jazz club everyone knows and loves Sonny. He walks on stage knowing that he had not been by a piano for a year. Starts to play the piano hitting the keys and he gets scared stop and stared again. Everything that was bottle up poured out of Sonny through the piano he was playing Sonny’s blues.

Furthermore, they were in a household with a father who dealt with stress through addiction to alcohol. The narrator did not view the mother’s death with the same level of stress as Sonny did, possibly in large part to not living at home by that time. Sonny however, dealt with the death of his mother much the way his father dealt with the death of his brother, substance abuse. The mother, a female, was greatly affected by both the death of her brother-in-law and the drinking of her husband, yet she handled the stress entirely differently. Like many, parenting did not cause Sonny to become an addict, but his gender and genes may have played a

"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin is a harrowing tale about a boy's struggle to overcome his drug addiction. The central plot isn't the most relatable topic but Baldwin expands the plot by touching up on different themes that further explicates the story to the point where any reader can find a way to relate to the characters. The story is told from the first point of view of the brother of Sonny. The narrator states his account from the commencement of Sonny's drug use to his fall out. James Baldwin does not focus only on the central theme of drug abuse.

For example, the narrator talked about how Sonny stayed at his sister-in-law's house and played his heart out on their piano. This flashback showed his love for music anywhere he was. It helped him escape the pain he was feeling in Harlem and some of his responsibilities of school by staying home and playing. Baldwin also used stereotypes to get his message across. Harlem was not a friendly, rich, white town, so the fact that he chose this setting it made the reader automatically assume that these brothers did not grow up in a stable environment.

The narrator says that Sonny’s trouble became surreal when the narrator was put in the position of losing someone dear to

Before the narrator gets married his mother asks him to help Sonny “and don’t let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him” (Baldwin, 165). Yet time brings memories to a close and the narrator soon forgets his promise. On the subway he reads the paper to discover that Sonny was in jail but doesn’t immediately write him a letter. After the narrator’s daughter, Gracie, dies he writes a letter to Sonny. Sonny writes back and they continue to exchange letters until Sonny comes back to New York.

In James Baldwin's short story, Sonny’s Blues, the reader should understand and visualize the historical context in order to understand the world being presented. The reader has to comprehend the harsh life of a male African-American who struggles with his dreams and drug addiction sometime around early 1957. I will discuss Baldwin's writing style, the life/value of an african american's life during this time, and the relationship between Sonny and his brother. Baldwin’s short story illustrates the hardships a person faces while searching for themselves in a world full of people or obstacles that stand in their way. Some of these obstacles are self inflicted, present from the beginning of their existence or appear as though they are random.