sonnys blue by james Baldwin
eview: A Video Introduction
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Part I: James Baldwin Biography
3a#es Baldwin was born on August &, 45&6 in 7arle# to ##a Berdis 3ones, who was not #arried at the ti#e. ti#e. 8hen Baldwin was three, his his #other #arried -avid Baldwin, a storefront preacher who adopted 3a#es and fathered Baldwin's eight younger half)siblings. half)siblings. -espite 3a#es's obedience, his his intelligence, his success success in school and the efforts he #ade to be appreciated by his stern stepfather, -avid Baldwin never accepted the precocious and talented 3a#es and so 3a#es always felt like an outcast outcast in the fa#ily. fa#ily. 7e co#pared his fate as the the unloved, unwanted child of his stepfather to that of the Biblical character 9sh#ael, fro# :enesis &4. 9sh#ael was the first but illegiti#ate son of Abraha# who, with his #other 7agar, the gyptian bondwo#an, was cast out to wander in the wilderness when 9saac, the legiti#ate son, was born. ;
. http!www.ccel.orgbiblebrenton:enesis&4.ht#l >. Scholars have observed that #any of Baldwin's works are a re)writing of this archetypal story that depicts an inscrutable :od's preference for one child child over another. another. 9ndeed, using 9sh#ael's story as a #etaphor for both his own e=perience and for the e=perience of blacks in a racist A#erica, Baldwin co##ents on the feelings of dispossession and alienation that acco#pany African A#erican identity in a predo#inately white society. Baldwin reflects on growing up with a funda#entalist preacher father in an austere religious ho#e in his first se#i)autobiographical se#i)autobiographical novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain,
where he e=plores these feelings of dispossession and
Baldwin, who turned to religion to help hi# alienation. *ike the teenaged Baldwin, understand both his father's disapproval of hi# and the church's e=pectations of
hi#, 3ohn :ri#es, the #ain character of Go Tell It On the Mountain, undergoes an a#biguous religious conversion. Although 3ohn is "saved," he uses uses his newfound religiosity only as a weapon against the ?ealous cruelty of his stepfather. stepfather. As Baldwin hi#self did, 3ohn :ri#es also grapples with his ho#ose=ual leanings. A frank portrayal portrayal of ho#ose=uality also also characteri?ed Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, which tells of the relationship re lationship between a young white A#erican and an 9talian in Paris.
An e=ceptional student, Baldwin began his writing career in 0unior high school under the tutelage tutelage of renowned 7arle# Renaissance Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, Cullen, who taught and advised the school's literary literary club. 9n high school, Baldwin published nu#erous stories for the school newspaper, eventually beco#ing its co)editor with Richard Avedon, who later beca#e a renowned photographer. Baldwin Baldwin graduated fro# high school in 456& and, to support hi#self, took a construction 0ob for the railroad in +ew 3ersey. 3ersey. 9n 4566 he #oved #oved to :reenwich @illage ;a neighborhood in downtown anhattan where #any artists, #usicians and writers lived> lived> and began his first novel. novel. 7is work was appreciated by older writers and editors al#ost i##ediately and he received several i#portant writer's fellowships. 9n addition to fiction, he began to write book reviews and opinion pieces thus Baldwin began his career as a professional writer. 9n 456$, fleeing what he had felt and e=perienced as the poisonous racial at#osphere of the nited States, Baldwin #oved to and Giovanni's
Room ;45(>, Baldwin's novels include Another Country ;45(&>, ;45(&>, Tell Me How Long The Train's Been Gone ;45($>, If Beale treet Coul! Tal" ;45E6>, ;45E6>, and ;45E5>. A#ong his books of essays are are #ust A$ove My Hea! Hea! ;45E5>. The %ire &et Time ;45(&>, &otes of a &ative on ;45>, (vi!en)e of Things &ot een ;45$>, and The *ri)e of the Ti)"et ;45$>. 7is plays include The Amen Corner ;45> for Mister ;45> and Blues for Mister Charlie ;45(6>. Baldwin also collaborated on a book of photographs photographs called
;45(6> &othing *ersonal ;45(6>
with his high)school high)school colleague and long ti#e friend Richard Avedon. Avedon. -uring the last decade of his life, Baldwin taught and lectured freuently at various A#erican universities, universities, including niversity of assachusetts, A#herst, Bowling :reen
State, and niversity of California, Berkeley. Baldwin died of cancer in -ece#ber of 45$E. A 455 3ohn Stevenson essay of appreciation of 3a#es Baldwin in the Boston Boo" Review . 1he &ew +or" Times obituary for 3a#es Baldwin. A review of -avid *ee#ing's #ames Bal!win, A Biogra-hy , by -avid @an *eer of the niversity of California, -avis. FReturn to the Top of this PageG Part II: Plot Overview
"Sonny's Blues" is narrated in the first)person by an unna#ed character, Sonny's brother. An algebra teacher in a high school in 7arle#, this narrator is a stable fa#ily #an with a wife and two sons. 7e is seven years older than Sonny and has tried, at various ti#es during their lives, to parent hi# and to protect hi#. 1he story opens as the narrator, who has been estranged fro# Sonny for over a year, is on the subway, reading about a drug raid in which Sonny has been arrested and 0ailed. As guilt and sorrow wash over hi#, the narrator is approached by one of Sonny's childhood friends, an addict who bla#es hi#self for Sonny's addiction and subseuent arrest. 1he narrator and the friend discuss what has happened to Sonny, and we see the narrator begin, with anger, to try to understand how and why Sonny has beco#e an addict. Pause, Relect, and !hat
Chat H4! Reread the e=change between the narrator and Sonny's friend. 7ow would you characteri?e the narrator's behavior and feelings towards Sonny's friendI 9s the narrator kind, cruel, co#passionate, abrupt, e#pathic, angryI =plain your view and the evidence supporting it. 1he narrator doesn't contact Sonny while he is in prisonrehab until his own daughter, :racie, dies of polio ;see "grace" as defined by Ba"er's (vangeli)al i)tionary of Bi$li)al Theology >. 8hen the narrator does finally Pause, Relect, and !hat contact Sonny, Sonny responds Chat H&! 9n your own dictionary ;preferable>, or i##ediately, asking for via this link, review the theological or religious forgiveness, trying to e=plain #eaning of the word "grace" ;9t has to do with how and why he developed his the #ercy and protection of :od that is granted heroin addiction, and true believers>. +ow consider why Baldwin na#ed e=pressing his uncertainty over the narrator's doo#ed child ":racie." 8hat #ight what will happen to hi# when Baldwin be saying about religion in the lives of he is released fro# prison. his charactersI 9s Sonny religiousI 9s the 8hen Sonny is released fro# narratorI prison, the narrator brings hi# back to live with his fa#ily in 7arle# and begins trying to repair their relationship.
At this point in the story, the narrator flashes back to several scenes that occurred during their young adulthood. 9n one scene, their #other asks the narrator to take care of Sonny and to watch out for hi# when she dies. She tells hi# that his own father had had a brother who was very #uch like Sonny, but who was killed by drunken whites on a rural road in the South. 9n a second flashback, the narrator tells us that following Chat HD! Consider the ways that the narrator's his #other's funeral, the relationship with Sonny #ight be si#ilar to that narrator arranges for the of their father with his #urdered brother. 9n what teenaged Sonny to live with his ways is Sonny like his uncleI 7ow is the fiancJe 9sabel's fa#ily while he narrator's te#pera#ent like his father'sI -o they is at war. 9n a third flashback, share any coping strategiesI Sonny clashes with 9sabel's #iddle)class fa#ily, who don't understand his passion for #usic, his desire to "hang out" downtown with other #usicians ;both white and black> or his re0ection of 9sabel's fa#ily's values and lifestyle. 7e runs away and 0oins the +avy, goes to :reece and returns to live a Bohemian lifestyle in +ew Kork's :reenwich @illage. Presu#ably, he struggles there as a #usician and a heroin addict, #aintaining a fragile and inter#ittent relationship with his brother until he is picked up the final ti#e on drug charges.
FReturn to the Top of this PageG Part III: "ocio#$istorical "etting o %"onny&s Blues% and !haracteri'ation o Brothers (ithin That !onte)t a* +rowing p in $arlem:
"Sonny's Blues" takes place during the #id)&% th century, probably during the early 45%s. 1he action of the story occurs prior to the gains #ade by the Civil Rights ove#ent, during the dark days of segregation and supposedly "separate but eual" acco##odations in public institutions. Kou'll notice that the narrator and Sonny have grown up in predo#inately black and poor neighborhood of 7arle#, the sons of a working)class, e#bittered father whose pride and opti#is# have been worn down by his own brother's violent death at the hands of rural Southern whites and the ensuing years of struggling to support a fa#ily in an overtly racist +orthern urban co##unity. 1he father has given up trying to #ove his fa#ily out of 7arle#! "'Safe2' #y father grunted, whenever a#a suggested trying to #ove to a neighborhood which #ight be safer for children. 'Safe, hell2 Ain't no place safe for kids, nor nobody'" ; &orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6>. As the
brothers reach adulthood and the narrator begins his own fa#ily, their #aterial circu#stances haven't changed #uch though the narrator is not i#poverished hi#self and en0oys the co#fortable trappings of #iddle class life, he and his fa#ily re#ain in i#poverished surroundings, probably due to the !e fa)to segregation of the safer, suburban and largely white co##unities they #ight have been able to afford. 1he narrator is teaching algebra to boys very #uch like he and Sonny had been, full of "actually e=isting though not legally or officially potential but threatened by the established." So " !e fa)to segregation" would be drugs and violence of the urban a separation of the races that "0ust" happens, not ghetto, their futures li#ited by because of a law saying that African A#ericans segregation and #ust live, work, go to school or worship in one discri#ination. 1he narrator place and whites in another. -o you see any !e describes the boys he teaches, fa)to segregation around you, in your school, to who# he likens Sonny and neighborhood or cityI 8hat are so#e of the hi#self as boys, in the following reasons why !e fa)to segregation #ight occurI way! Pause, Relect, and !hat Chat H6! "e fa)to" #eans "in reality," or,
"1hey were growing up with a rush and their heads bu#ped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. 1hey were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on the#, and the darkness of the #ovies, which had blinded the# to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, drea#ed, at once #ore together than they were at any other ti#e, and #ore alone ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6$>. Although he doesn't approve, the narrator begins to understand how such a child can go wrong, or can beco#e addicted to drugs. 7e suspects so#e of his own students to "be popping off needles every ti#e they went to the head," and sur#ises that "#aybe it did #ore for the# than algebra could" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6$>. 1he narrator is aware, then, that in spite of his own success at attaining the valued #iddle class lifestyle, #ost of his students wouldn't be so lucky. FReturn to the Top of this PageG -* .ilitary "ervice
1he brothers' #ilitary service plays an i#portant role in the socio)historical conte=t of the story. 1he narrator refers to being "ho#e on leave fro# the ar#y" during the war he re#arks that his father "died suddenly, during a drunken weekend in the #iddle of the war, when Sonny was fifteen" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6> and he infor#s the reader that both he and Sonny served in the #ilitary. 9t is i#portant to notice and understand these references to the #ilitary service of the brothers.
9n her book Ameri)an *atriots, :ail *u#et Buckley chronicles the history of blacks in the #ilitary. Buckley writes that throughout A#erican history, up until the first efforts at desegregation of public institutions in the 45%s, blacks had had a long and distinguished record of volunteering for #ilitary co#bat, fro# the
Revolutionary 8ar through the Lorean 8ar. But their patriotic efforts were often spurned by white officers ;:eorge 8ashington, for e=a#ple, e=pelled blacks fro# #ilitary service during the Revolution until he needed the #anpower> and the racist at#osphere of the pre)45%s #ilitary was at best inhospitable and at worst lethal to black soldiers ;in 45D, a rash of lynchings of blacks in unifor# finally spurred President 1ru#an into action to desegregate the #ilitary>. Beginning after their liberation fro# slavery, black #en had tried to prove their patriotis# and to i#prove their standard of living by serving in the .S. #ilitary. 7oping that service to their country would prove the# worthy of the sa#e respect and opportunities accorded to whites, black #en readily enlisted in the #ilitary. 1he characters in "Sonny's Blues" reflect this tendency! As a teenager, Sonny yearns to enlist in the ar#y or navy because it would take hi# away fro# the "killing streets" ;&orton Pause, Relect, and !hat Intro!u)tion to Literature D> Chat H! . 1hat about your responses to these fil#s. enlist#ent in the Ar#y during a war #ight see# safer or #ore sane than re#aining at ho#e is part of the cruel irony of this fa#ily's urban e=perience. 1he narrator, too, has struggled in spite of his #ilitary service to his country to attain success and safety at ho#e. 7e dutifully fought the war, returned to beco#e an algebra teacher and a productive #e#ber of the #iddle class, and yet because of segregation and discri#ination, his fa#ily #ust live in a new but already rundown housing pro0ect, "a parody of a good, clean, faceless life" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature D>.
9ndeed, though African A#ericans' service in the #ilitary forces was crucial to A#erican efforts to preserve de#ocracy for herself and for her 8estern uropean allies during the &%th century, A#erica abrogated her de#ocratic pro#ise of eual opportunity for African A#ericans after the conclusion of each #ilitary contest in the first half of the &% th century. 1his continually frustrated desire to prove one's A#ericanness, of wanting to assi#ilate and to e=ercise the privileges that white citi?ens took for granted, contributed to the feelings of dissatisfaction and alienation e=pressed by the narrator in his story and by Sonny and other artists in their blues #usic.
9n his article entitled "Baldwin, Bebop, and onny's Blues"
;in /n!erstan!ing
Others, Cultural an! Cross0Cultural tu!ies an! the Tea)hing of Literature, eds. 3oseph 1ri##er and 1illy 8arnock rbana, 9*! +C1, 455&, 4()4E(.>, Pancho Savery concludes that the story #ost likely takes place during the Lorean 8ar rather than during 8orld 8ar 99. Savery argues that the story's discussion of the 45%s 0a?? #usic scene illustrates a division in the black
co##unity represented by the brothers the#selves. 1o understand Savery's argu#ent, we first #ust understand so#e of the personality and philosophical differences between Sonny and his brother. 1he division within the black co##unity can best be described as between those of #iddle class, like the narrator, who downplay the barriers to their success, who want to believe that they can i#prove their standard of living in the S, who feel confident that through hard work, deter#ination and self)denial, they can #ake their world safe for their children, and who would readily assi#ilate into white society if given the chance. 1he other group, Sonny's group, is #ore radical and less Chat H(! 1his world)view held by the narrator is accepting of the status uo. so#eti#es referred to as "1he A#erican -rea#." 1hey suspect that as blacks -o you believe in the A#erican -rea#I 8hat their struggles will always be evidence #ight you offer to suggest that the fierce, and that, unless drastic A#erican -rea# is possible or i#possible to social change were to occur, attainI they will always be shut out fro# the privileges #ost whites en0oy. Pause, Relect, and !hat
1his opposition can be seen #ainly in several conversations between the brothers. indicating his unwillingness to subordinate his drea#s and goals to so#eone else's standard of success.
9n another conversation, which takes place during the present day ti#e fra#e of the story as the brothers watch an e#otionally arresting street singer, Sonny says "it struck #e all of a sudden how #uch suffering she #ust have had to go through )) to sing like that. 9t's repulsive to think you have to suffer that #uch" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature (>. Sonny here shows the sensitivity and perception of the artist that he is clearly, he feels other people's pain acutely and in thinking about it deeply, is transfor#ed such that he gains an insight into an art for# and how it is produced. 1he brother responds in a practical, al#ost dis#issive way by saying, "But there's no way not to suffer))is there, SonnyI" 1he narrator has essentially #issed Sonny's point ;Sonny see#s to have Pause, Relect, and !hat reali?ed long ago that there's Chat HE An article in the +ove#ber &%%% Atlantic no way not to suffer>. #aga?ine suggests that 0a?? listeners have Sonny's response )) "9 believe always believed that the singer Billie 7oliday can not, but that's never stopped feel their pain. @isit this site to read her lyrics and listen to her #usic to see if you agree.
anyone fro# trying, has itI" )) shows what he understands about art, #usic and even drug use that his brother has not yet understood. 1heir conversation here #irrors the early conversation the narrator has with Sonny's friend by the subway. 1he anguished narrator is only beginning to co#prehend Sonny's drug use, his bohe#ian lifestyle and the risks he takes to e=press his true self. 7e says to Sonny's friend "1ell #e, why does he want to dieI 7e #ust want to die, he's killing hi#self, why does he want to dieI" 1he friend, surprised by the narrator's lack of understanding, responds with "7e don't want to die. 7e wants to live. -on't nobody want to die, ever" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 4>. 8hat Sonny and his friend understand, which the narrator #isses throughout #ost of the story, is that living by another #an's definition of success or, worse, being he##ed in by a discri#ination that deprives one of true freedo#, is like being dead. usic, art, and even drugs are avenues out of that social death, even as they are, in their own ways, dangerous or subversive. See below for a further discussion of Baldwin's attitude towards drugs in "Sonny's Blues." /ne #ight #ake a connection here to the last line of *angston 7ughes's poe# "8eary Blues," in which the 0a?? #usician co#es alive as he plays #usic all night and then, when he's no longer at his piano, sleeps "like a #an that's dead." Baldwin and 7ughes #ight be saying that years of struggle living as an oppressed #inority kills vital parts of one's hu#anity and that that hu#anity can be reclai#ed only through the creation of so#e sort of original art, in this case, blues #usic. 8e #ight use this idea to interpret Baldwin's o=y#oronic description of the "vivid, killing streets of Fthe brothers'G childhood" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature D>. 1his i#portant descriptive phrase, in which "vivid")) #eaning "lifelike," or "full of the vigor and freshness of i##ediate e=perience" )) opposes the word "killing," suggests that the e=perience of growing up as a African A#erican child in a white oriented)society is a parado=ical one it pro#ises suffering, but also offers opportunities to transcend that suffering through #usic and culture. *ooking at yet another conversation between the brothers, critic Pancho Savery ;in his essay "Baldwin, Bebop and Sonny's Blues"> notices the way in which Baldwin uses 0a?? #usic as an analogy for the way the brothers don't really understand each other and for the distinction between those who would give up a great deal of independence and personal satisfaction to stay safe and those who would risk everything to e=press the#selves and to clai# their rights. As the narrator and Sonny discuss Sonny's career plans, the narrator asks Sonny if he wants to be a 0a?? #usician "like *ouis Ar#strong." Sonny's reaction is al#ost violent! "+o, 9'# not talking about none of that old)ti#e down ho#e crap." 9t turns out that Sonny ad#ires a newer, edgier kind of 0a?? #usic, one not yet accepted by #ainstrea# culture, a fresh sound e=e#plified by the #usic of Charlie Parker ;see Parker in -ownbeat aga?ine, 456E>. 1his new 0a??, also called Bebop, had revolutioni?ed #usic by 45& ;Savery 4(E>, but traditionalists like Sonny's brother, who don't place a high value on art, #usic or African A#erican culture, #ight not have heard of Charlie Parker. Bebop fans in the early %s were looking for a replace#ent for, in Sonny's words, "that old)ti#e down ho#e crap" that *ouis Ar#strong had pioneered and that white artists like Benny :ood#an had subseuently populari?ed a#ong #ainstrea# white audiences. Perhaps because #ainstrea# Pause, Relect, and !hat white #usicians were now Chat H$! *isten again to the *ouis Ar#strong and playing Ar#strong's #usic, Charlie Parker sound clips. 7ow do their styles avant)garde, radical #usic fans differI 8hat do you hear that is "radical" in and #usicians felt such #usic Parker's #usicI 7ow is Ar#strong's #usic was watered down, conventionalI
revolutionary. 1hus, dating the rift between Ar#strong fans and Bebop fans to 0ust after 8899, Savery places the story in the early %s.
Savery tells us that Bebop fans appreciated #uch #ore than the new sound in #usic. "Bebop was part of FaG new attitude," one that challenged the status uo. Savery uotes 0a?? critic :ary :iddins! "1he Second 8orld 8ar severely altered the te=ture and te#po of A#erican life, and 0a?? reflected those changes with greater acuteness by far than the other arts." ;:iddins td. in Savery 4E%>. oreover, Savery writes, "when Bebop began in the 456%s, A#erica was in a si#ilar position to what it had been in the 45&%s. A war had been fought to free the world ;again> for de#ocracy and once again, African A#ericans had participated and had assu#ed that this "loyal" participation would result in new rights and new levels of respect. 8hen, once again, this did not appear to be happening, a new #ilitancy developed in the African A#erican co##unity. Bebop was part of this attitude" ;Savery 4E%)4E4>. Savery tells us that this #ilitancy threatened so#e A#ericans ;both white and black> and so#e people feared the #usic as "un)A#erican." 1his response is akin, perhaps, to the way so#e #ore socially conservative groups have historically felt about other new trends in #usic, including punk rock, grunge, rap and heavy #etal. Savery points out that Pause, Relect, and !hat "the threat represented Chat H5! Can you re#e#ber your first reaction when you by Bebop was not only fist encountered one of these types of #usicI -id you felt by the white world, i##ediately e#brace and en0oy itI but by the assi#ilationist black #iddle class as well. FA#iriG Baraka Fa conte#porary black poet and criticG offers these perspectives! 8hen the #oderns, the beboppers, showed up to restore 0a??, in so#e sense, to its original separateness, to drag it outside the #ainstrea# of A#erican culture again, #ost #iddle)class +egroes ;as #ost A#ericans> were stuck they had passed, for the #ost part, co#pletely into the Platonic citi?enship. 1he willfully harsh, anti)assi#ilationist sound of bebop fell on deaf or horrified ears, 0ust as it did in white A#erica ;Baraka, td. 9n Savery 4E4, originally fro# Blues *eo-le1 &egro Musi) in 2hite Ameri)a. +ew Kork! orrow, 4$4)&>. Bebop rebelled against the absorption into garbage, #onopoly #usic it also signified a rebellion by the people who played the #usic, because it was not 0ust the #usic that rebelled, as if the #usic had fallen out of the sky2 But even #ore, dig it, it signified a rebellion rising out of the #asses the#selves, since that is the source of social #ove#ent )) the people the#selves ;Baraka, td. 9n Savery 4E4 , originally fro# "8arPhilly Blues-eeper Bop" in ele)te! *lays an! *rose of Amiri Bara"a3LeRoi #ones,
+ew Kork! orrow, &D(>
8hat #ade bop strong is that no #atter its pretensions, it was hooked up solidly and directly to the Afro)A#erican blues tradition, and therefore was largely based in the e=perience and struggle of the black sector of the working class. ;Baraka, td. 9n Savery 4E4, originally fro# "8arPhilly Blues-eeper Bop" in ele)te! *lays an! *rose of Amiri Bara"a3LeRoi #ones ,
+ew Kork! orrow, &64>
9n light of this historical conte=t, Sonny's brother's never having heard of Bird
FCharlie ParkerG is not 0ust a re0ection of the #usic of Bebop it is also a re0ection of the new political direction Bebop was representative of in the African A#erican co##unity" ;Savery 4E4)E&>. 1o su##ari?e, Pancho Savery has observed the way Bebop, the innovation in 0a?? #usic Sonny favors, represents figuratively the personal and philosophical rift between the narrator and Sonny. Conservative, safe, hopeful that he will ulti#ately be accepted and respected by #ainstrea# society, the narrator plods along dutifully, enduring, but not really uestioning his lot in life. 9n contrast, Sonny fights against the "low ceiling of FhisG possibilities," refuses to "go along to get along," and follows with his art those who would challenge the conservative status uo. 9f you would like to read Savery's e=cellent essay in its entirety, you'll find it in /n!erstan!ing Others, Cultural an! Cross0Cultural tu!ies an! the Tea)hing of Literature,
eds. 3oseph 1ri##er and 1illy 8arnock rbana, 9*! +C1, 455&, 4()4E(. 1o see Audio and @ideo of Charlie Parker playing with -i??y :illespie, scroll to the botto# of the Audio@ideo section of "ras in Black 7istory." FReturn to the Top of this PageG IV: !haracteri'ation
*ike with so #any other stories, in "Sonny's Blues," the dra#atic action #ainly concerns the characters' changes or lack of the#. 1he character changes in "Sonny's Blues " are particularly interesting, and subtle, in part because the plot features a character's battle with heroin addiction, and the narrator's efforts to co#e to grips with this character's addiction and recovery. 8e #ight begin thinking about characteri?ation in this story by asking ourselves what we think Baldwin wanted his story to be about, or #ore specifically, what Baldwin wanted to say about drugs and addiction in his story. 9s "Sonny's Blues" a
story! M 1hat #orali?es against drug useI M 1hat tries to e=plain why people beco#e addicted to drugsI M About a #an's struggle to kick a drug habitI M About an artist's struggle to kick a drug habitI M About the effects of drug use on a fa#ilyI M About the ways in which drug use and self)e=pression can so#eti#es serve the sa#e purposes. /f all of the bulleted ite#s above, only the first is wholly unlikely. +ot that Baldwin or his characters in "Sonny's Blues" approve of dr ug use or advocate it, but the story is far #ore than si#ply a cautionary tale warning readers against drugs or e=horting the# to "0ust say no." 9n fact, through the characteri?ations of the brothers, we see that Baldwin wants to illustrate the answers to the other bulleted ite#s. 1hat is, "Sonny's Blues" helps us to understand the various ways people e=perience pain and suffering. As a #usician and artist, Sonny tries to #ake known, to speak through his #usic, the pain he sees around hi#. =tre#ely sensitive to that pain hi#self, Sonny beco#es an addict to try to dull his perception of it.
Pause, Relect, and !hat
1he narrator, on the other hand, denies his own pain and hardship, and that of those around hi#. But when he is finally forced to see it, he begins to understand Sonny as
Chat H4%! Read Sonny's speech on page ( of the &orton Intro!u)tion to Literature and write a short paraphrase in your own words. 7ow would you describe Sonny's attitude towards addictionI both an artist and as a recovering addict.
FReturn to the Top of this PageG
a* "onny, the artist: As readers, we reali?e that our knowledge of Sonny co#es only through the narrator, who has acted largely as Sonny's guardian, a father figure, rather than a brother)peer. 1he narrator describes Sonny as "wild," but not "cra?y." 7e says Sonny had "always been a good boy, he hadn't ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful, the way kids can, so uick, so uick, especially in 7arle#" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6$>. 7e co#pares Sonny to his students! drea#y, disenchanted, and obedient, but struggling against the hopelessness their i#poverished lives pro#ise. Sonny's one hope is that he can beco#e a #usician. -iscouraged fro# that goal by his practical #inded brother, Sonny agrees to finish high school living with 9sabel's fa#ily, only because the fa#ily has a piano. But he cannot change who he is to satisfy their e=pectations. At so#e level, the narrator writes, all of the adults understood that "Sonny was at that piano playing for his life" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature (4>. 8hen 9sabel's #other discovers Pause, Relect, and !hat Sonny is truant, and "that he'd Chat H44! 8hat does this uotation #ean to been down in :reenwich youI 7ow is Sonny "playing for his lifeI" @illage, with #usicians and other characters in a white girl's apart#ent" ;(4>, she is frightened for hi#. 1he ensuing confrontation, in which Sonny reali?es that they have not appreciated or understood, but only endured, his efforts to create so#ething fro# his #usic, so saddens and angers hi# that he flees and enlists in the +avy. 1his pivotal flashback scene tells us a lot about Sonny and his fa#ily. Sonny is desperately trying to e=press hi#self, first to his brother when he reveals his aspirations, and then, through his #usic. +either the narrator nor 9sabel's fa#ily really hear hi# or understand hi#! "9t was as though Sonny were so#e sort of god, or #onster. 7e #oved in an at#osphere which wasn't like theirs at all. 1hey fed hi# and he ate, he washed hi#self, he walked in and out of their door he certainly wasn't nasty or unpleasant or rude, Sonny isn't any of those things but it was as though he were all wrapped up in so#e cloud, so#e fire, so#e vision all his own and there wasn't any way to reach hi#" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature (4>. Perhaps so#e of you #ight think that this description suggests that Sonny was already using drugs at this point people who are under the influence of #ind)altering substance are often described in such ter#s. But we have no hard evidence that suggests that Sonny was already using drugs. 9n fact, later in the story, Sonny tells his brother that he left 7arle# as a teenager to escape the lure of the drugs thus we can reasonably assu#e that #usic was Sonny's only drug at this ti#e, his only way of e=pressing his hopes and dulling his pain. Rather than seeing Sonny's difference here as evidence of a drug altered #ind, we should see Baldwin as si#ply depicting a sensitive, artistic #ind and how it e=presses what it perceives. Sonny has a radically different world view
than that of the narrator and 9sabel's fa#ily, who are frightened of the disorder, uncertainty, and suffering his artistic nature represents. Sonny wants to confront his pain and those of others like hi#, while the narrator wants to deny it.
Because he is arrested for drug use, goes to prison, kicks his drug habit, and returns to society to live with his brother, we #ay think of Sonny as the character who changes the #ost in the story. 9n fact, it would be easy to assu#e, after a cursory reading of the story, that Sonny, the addict, is the character who #ust change. But Sonny's atte#pts to change are not really the focus of the story. Readers never gli#pse Sonny "high," or actively struggling with his addiction we #eet hi# only after he's served prison ti#e and co#e ho#e clean. 8e also never find out whether he continues to #aintain control over his addiction. 1herefore, we #ight conclude that to Baldwin, the uestions of how Sonny beca#e addicted and how or whether he refor#ed are secondary. ore i#portant to Baldwin is how the narrator changes as he begins to listen to and understand Sonny. Pause, Relect, and !hat
Chat H4&! -oes the narrator ever co#e to understand Sonny's #usic and his addiction and what they have to do with one anotherI FReturn to the Top of this PageG
-* The narrator: 1he narrator of "Sonny's Blues" is an upstanding #an. 7e's a dutiful son to his parents, and a caring husband and father. 7e has worked hard to attain the trappings of #iddle)class success. p until Sonny's arrest, he has tried not to think about things that bother hi#. 9t's logical that the narrator would e=hibit this particular trait, as his parents have set a good e=a#ple for hi# by not telling hi# and Sonny about their uncle's #urder by a group of drunken white #en. Certainly the boys had felt the effects of their father's great sorrow )) the father appears to have been an alcoholic hi#self, as "he died suddenly, during a drunken weekend" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6>)) but the root of this sorrow had never been spoken in their fa#ily. Pause, Relect, and !hat
Because of this generational silence, Sonny grows up virtually alone. 1hough the narrator and his parents are physically there for #ost of Sonny's childhood, they never really hear hi# or listen to hi#. After Sonny returns fro# #ilitary service, the narrator begins to harbor unspoken suspicions about Sonny's lifestyle and the brothers fight whenever they see each other. As we saw in the scene where the narrator discourages Sonny fro# beco#ing a #usician, he refuses to accept Sonny for who he is! "9 didn't like the way he carried hi#self, loose and drea#like all the ti#e, and 9 didn't like his friends, and his #usic see#ed to be #erely an e=cuse for the life he led. 9t sounded 0ust that weird and disordered" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature (4>. 8e #ight understand this reaction if the narrator were disapproving the drug use. But notice how the brother never e=plicitly
Chat H4D! -o you think it was right for their parents not to tell the# about their uncle's deathI 8hat are the benefits of keeping such a secretI 8hat are the dangersI
articulates his fear that Sonny is a drug addict. 9n fact, we know fro# the opening paragraphs that the brother has always pushed that reali?ation aside, never allowing hi#self to believe it. /nly when he reads about Sonny "being picked up for peddling and using heroin" does the narrator accept the facts! "9 couldn't believe it! but what 9 #ean by that is that 9 couldn't find any roo# for it anywhere inside #e. 9 had kept it outside #e for a long ti#e. 9 hadn't wanted to know. 9 had had suspicions, but 9 didn't na#e the#, 9 kept putting the# away" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6$>. 1hus, we get a picture here of the narrator as shutting Sonny out, not because 0ust he's a drug addict, but because he can't face pain and uncertainty of the way Sonny lives. 1he narrator does as #any of us #ight do, were we to walk in his shoes. Afraid of the dangers or #isfortune that #ight befall hi#, he tries to keep safe. But in trying always to stay safe, the narrator is always afraid. 1he story opens with the narrator feeling an icy dread as he reads about Sonny in the paper. 9#ages of darkness surround hi# in the subway he feels "trapped in the darkness that roared outside" ;4(56>. 9n the first flashback to his childhood, he re#e#bers fa#ily gatherings on Sunday afternoons not with war#th and nostalgia, but with a recollection of silence and a darkness that settles over everything. 7e says, "1he darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. 9t's what they've co#e fro#. 9t's what they endure. 1he child knows that they won't talk any #ore because if he knows too #uch about what's happened to the#, he'll know too #uch too soon, about what's going to happen to hi#" ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature >. 1he narrator as a child and now as an adult has tried to ignore or deny those feelings of dread and despair because he is afraid of the#. But Sonny has tried through his blues #usic to face the#. Sonny doesn't understand his brother's fearful reaction, 0ust as the narrator doesn't under stand Sonny's drug use as a way of coping with his terror. Sonny accuses the narrator of "soundFingG so )) s)are! "
at the thought of Sonny beco#ing a #usician ;E>.
1he narrator begins to end his silence toward Sonny and to try to understand Sonny's pain when his own daughter dies. "y trouble," he says, "#ade his real" ;(&>. 8e see here the narrator beginning to appreciate not only Sonny's e=perience, but also the #eaning and purpose of blues #usic, the #usic he had scoffed at and dis#issed when Sonny first #entioned to hi# his interest in it. A blues #usician sings of his sorrow and trouble listeners are transfor#ed, and their pain is at least #o#entarily assuaged when Pause, Relect, and !hat they hear another's blues. Chat H46! Recall the preview uestions about the function of the artist in society. 7ow, specifically, 1he narrator begins to reali?e does the blues #usician fulfill a social functionI the i#portance of breaking his silence toward Sonny and sharing his own feelings and receiving Sonny's. FReturn to the Top of this PageG c* The story0s inal scenes and how they develop the narrator0s changes:
9n the pivotal penulti#ate scene of "Sonny's Blues," the narrator agrees to go with Sonny to the 0a?? club and the brothers finally talk about SonnyNs addiction. 1his scene is pivotal because it de#onstrates the e=tent of the narratorNs changes, particularly when
co#pared with the flashback of the narratorNs last conversation with his #other. 9n the flashback scene, the narrator is cautioned by his #other! OKou got to hold onto your brotherand donNt let hi# fall, no #atter what it looks like is happening to hi# and no #atter how evil you gets with hi#. Kou going to be evil with hi# #any a ti#e. But donNt you forget what 9 told you, you hearIQ ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature E>. 9n this scene, the narrator perfunctorily pro#ises! O9 wonNt let nothing happen to Sonny.Q 7is #other s#iles as if a#used at his naivetJ. She knows he canNt prevent SonnyNs struggles, but she wants the narrator to be there for Sonny, to help hi# get through life by listening to hi#. 9n al#ost the ne=t sentence, the narrator ad#its that once he left for the war, he Opretty well forgot FhisG pro#ise to a#a.Q 8hat we understand, though, when we see how the narrator interacts with Sonny, is not so #uch that heNs forgotten his pro#ise, but that heNs never really understood that pro#ise or what his #other was asking hi# to do. As a #an who denies or tries to ignore what frightens hi#, what #akes hi# unco#fortable, and what he doesnNt understand, he has believed that Otaking careQ of Sonny #eans trying to get Sonny to live the way he does. 8hen this strategy doesnNt work, he essentially breaks his pro#ise to his #other and gives up on Sonny, letting years pass between their #eetings. 9n the penulti#ate scene, the narrator shows how far heNs co#e since Sonny has co#e back into his life. As weNve discussed previously, here the brothers discuss the nature of suffering and how different people try to overco#e it through song, or art, through drug use, and through denial. 7ere the narrator begins to see that his way denial is not effective. 1he narrator thinks to hi#self that he wants to reassure Sonny that with Owill powerQ he can conuer his addiction, that Olife could be well, beautiful,Q and that he Owould never fail hi# againQ ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature ()(>. But the narrator finally reali?es here that these pro#ises, because they deny and ignore SonnyNs true nature and needs, would have been Oe#pty words and lies,Q like his first forgotten pro#ise to his #other. 9nstead of #aking these pro#ises publicly, then, the narrator O#ade the pro#ise to Fhi#Gself and prayed that FheG would keep it.Q 7e begins right away to keep his pro#ise as Sonny describes his loneliness and alienation. O9tNs terrible so#eti#es, inside,Q he said, OthatNs whatNs the trouble. Kou walk these streets, black and funky and cold, and thereNs not really a living ass to talk to, and thereNs nothing shaking, and thereNs no way of getting it out that stor# inside. Kou canNt talk it and you canNt #ake love with it, and when you finally try to get with it and play it, you reali?e nobodyNs listening. So youNve got to listen. Kou got to find a way to listen.Q ;((> SonnyNs use of the pronoun OyouQ in the speech above is generic that is, he is referring to hi#self and to addicts and artists in general. But he is also e =horting the narrator hi#self to listen, and the narrator does. 7e draws Sonny out for the first ti#e, asking hi# O8hat have you been, SonnyIQ SonnyNs response describes the worst #o#ents of his dr ug addiction, the way in which heroin see#ed to pro#ise a way Oto listenQ to hi#self and to what he, as an artist, wanted to say about his world. But as his addiction tightened its grip on hi#, Sonny reali?ed that its pro#ises ;like those of the narrator> were really 0ust false pro#ises that drove hi# to depths he hadnNt i#agined. 7e ends his speech
by warning his brother ;and hi#self> that his dependence on heroin Ocan co#e again.Q 9n the narratorNs response, we see how far the narrator has co#e! ONAll right,N 9 said, at last. So it can co#e again, All rightNQ ;(E>. 7ere, the narrator finally accepts that SonnyNs addiction needs to be faced before it can be dealt with, that Sonny will continue to struggle with it and with his artistic goals and te#pera#ent. 1o truly help Sonny, the narrator #ust accept this bitter battle and fight it with Sonny. As the scene ends, Sonny has turned, as if toward a lodestone ;a #agneti?ed stone used by sailors to find their way on the sea>, to the window that looks out onto the 7arle# street. 1he lodestone i#age suggests that Sonny is and will be continually drawn to street life, to e=plaining the sorrows of the people. 1he scene ends with Sonny e=pressing his #ain concern, the wonder that #otivates his #usic! ONAll that hatred down there,N he said, all that hatred and #isery and love. 9tNs a wonder it doesnNt blow the avenue apartNQ ;(E>. 1he narratorNs reali?ation that he #ust accept Sonny as he is sets the stage for the narratorNs first trip to the nightclub where Sonny has played. 7ere he #eets SonnyNs #usician friends, who appreciate Sonny in a way the narrator never has, as a Oreal #usicianQ ;(E>. 1he tables are turned on the narrator and he begins to understand the value of 0a?? and blues #usic. Rather than trying to #ake Sonny fit into his world, he is now Oin SonnyNs world. /r, rather! his kingdo#. 7ere it was not even a uestion that his veins bore royal bloodQ ;(E>. 9n the ensuing scene the narrator begins to understand Chat H4! 7ow does this uotation about Sonny's the language of 0a?? #usic, the veins bearing "royal blood" connect to the way in which it helps artists narrator's first assu#ption on page E that being e=press their tor#ent and their a #usician was "beneath" SonnyI fear. As he describes the #usical scene, the narrator uses another analogy of the sea, with its threatening deep water. Pause, Relect, and !hat
F1he band leader CreoleG was having a dialogue with Sonny. 7e wanted Sonny to leave the shoreline and strike out for the deep water. 7e was SonnyNs witness that deep water and drowning were not the sa#e thing )he had been there, and he knew. And he wanted Sonny to know. 7e was waiting for Sonny to do the things on the keys which would let Creole know that Sonny was in the water. ;($>
1hus, as Creole tries to get Sonny to put everything into his #usic, to really e=press a true e#otion, to ab0ure his fear, the narrator hi#self finally sees the benefit of such risk)taking. 7e learns what the blues were all about. 1hey were not about anything very new. 7e and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, #adness, and death, in order to find new ways to #ake us listen. . Pause, Relect, and !hat
Chat H4(! 8hat does the narrator #ean by "the tale of how we suffer . . . #ust be heard"I -o you agreeI 8hy or why notI
1hus, #usic has a co##unal function it tells the stories of a co##unity of people, it evokes feelings in perfor#ers and in listeners, helping the# to heal fro# the #isfortunes of their lives or to at least find solace in the co#pany of others who are si#ilarly afflicted. 1he narrator sees that OSonnyNs fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so #any othersQ ;(5>. 1he #usic #akes the narrator re#e#ber the tragedies that befell his parents, the death of his own daughter and the sorrow of his wife, and he is #oved to tears as he feels the power of the #usic to evoke his own pain. So#ehow, this e=perience is transfor#ative, helping the narrator to see into hi#self at the sa#e ti#e as he connects with Sonny and the other nightclub patrons. 8e #ight wonder about the final i#age of the story in which waitress puts a OScotch and #ilk on top of the piano for SonnyQ ;E%>.
Pause, Relect, and !hat
Chat H4E! 9s Baldwin saying that Sonny #ust depend on so#e sort of drug)induced release fro# his pain, even as he has given up heroinI 8hat is the connotation of the co#bination of hard liuor and #ilk ;a wholeso#e childNs drink>I
8e #ight wonder whether a recovering heroin addict should be drinking an alcoholic beverage.
And what, we #ight wonder, is the Ocup of tre#blingQI 1his biblical allusion is to 9saiah 4! 4E)&&, which reads as follows! 4E Awake, awake, stand up, / 3erusale#, which hast drunk at the hand of the */Rthe cup of his fury thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of tre#bling, and wrung the# out. 4$ 1here is none to guide her a#ong all the sons who# she hath brought forth neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. 45 1hese two things are co#e unto thee who shall be sorry for theeI desolation, and destruction, and the fa#ine, and the sword! by who# shall 9 co#fort theeI &% 1hy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net! they are full of the fury of the */R-, the rebuke of thy :od. &4 1herefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine! && 1hus saith thy *ord the */R-, and thy :od that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, 9 have taken out of thine hand the cup of tre#bling, even the dregs of the cup of #y fury thou shalt no #ore drink it again! &D But 9 will put it into the hand of the# that afflict thee which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we #ay go over! and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to the# that went over. 9n these passages, :od tells the 9sraelites that 7e knows they have suffered 7is fury, that they have been afraid of his wrath and of their ene#ies ;Odrunken the dregs of the cup of tre#blingQ>. :od pro#ises here that they will no longer drink fro# the cup of tre#bling or feel 7is wrath and that the cup of tre#bling will instead be put into the hands of their ene#ies. As an allusion at the end of the story, this passage i#plies hope that those, like Sonny and his brother, who have been afflicted with fear and suffering, will no longer be tor#ented.
As you can see, the passageNs i#ages of drunkenness and of the street resonate with the plot and setting of SonnyNs Blues. 9n the Biblical passage, :od speaks to those Oafflicted, and drunken, but not with wineQ ;verse &4> and pro#ises to assuage their pain by taking away the cup of tre#bling. Pause, Relect, and !hat SonnyNs drink is likened to a Chat H4$! 8ho or what in "Sonny's Blues" #ight Ocup of tre#blingQ which he be analogous to the "ene#ies" referred to in the sips fro# as he plays. 1his Biblical passageI see#s an a#biguous i#age. Baldwin #ay be saying that the artist#usician can never escape the Ocup of tre#bling,Q that his #usic depends on feeling, understanding and e=pressing the fear and sorrow of his people. /r, Baldwin #ay be saying that Sonny, in taking fro# the cup of tre#bling hi#self, allows his listeners to abstain that is, his suffering translated into #usic inoculates his audience fro# feeling the sa#e depths of suffering. 8e #ight see a connection here to the last verse of the Biblical passage! 1he artist is he w ho Ohast laid FhisG body as the ground, and as the street, to the# that went over.Q 1aking the analogy further, we can see that, as the artist, Sonny perfor#s a sort of sacrifice he internali?es and then e=presses all of the anguish and 0oy of his listeners, as though he were laying his body down for the# to walk over fro# a stor#y e#otional state to a place of peace and content#ent. -on't #iss the religious, Christ)like i#plications of this depiction of the artist's sacrifice. Another very persuasive interpretation of the final i#age of the drink appears in the article "8ords and usic! +arrative A#biguity in 'Sonny's Blues.'" 7ere, Leith Byer#an co##ents on this final a#biguous i#age. 7e writes that the Scotch and #ilk drink is "an e#ble# of si#ultaneous destruction and nurture to the syste# it cannot be reduced to one or the other. Sonny's acceptance of it indicates that he will continue on the edge between the poison of his addiction and the nourish#ent of his #usic" ;DE4>. 1he rest of this article can be found in tu!ies in hort %i)tion 45 ;45$&>, D(E)E&.
9n SonnyNs Blues, Baldwin relies on the opposition between i#ages of darkness and light. 8e first see this i#agery in the opening scene, where the narrator is conte#plating SonnyNs fate in the dark subway. 1he Oswinging lights of the subway carQ allow hi# to read about SonnyNs arrest, while the
Odarkness roared outsideQ ;&orton Intro!u)tion to Literature 6E>. 1his i#age sets up a #a0or plot develop#ent in the story, which is the narratorNs growth as he reali?es his duty to Sonny. 1he co#ing of a reali?ation or the dawning of knowledge and understanding is often described as a Olight going on.Q -epression and fear are often described as OdarknessQ or Onight.Q 1he narrator has to find Chat H45! 7ow does the i#age of the piano, a way to absorb and live with which Sonny plays, with its co#bination of black this new understanding of and white ;or dark and light> keys, reflect Sonny as an addict and as a Baldwin's interest in black and white i#ageryI blues #usician. Si#ilarly, in the 7ow is Baldwin's approach to this the#e #ore final scene of the story, the co#ple= than that of the 45$%s pop song "bony narrator notices Sonny and the and 9vory"I Also, see +at Ling Cole at the piano. other 0a?? #usicians standing behind the light of the bandstand. O9 had the feeling that they were being #ost careful not to step into that circle of light too suddenly! if they #oved into the light too suddenly and without thinking, they would perish in fla#e.Q Perhaps this description suggests that the #usicians like Sonny #ust be careful with how they approach the truths of their lives full awareness of their suffering can be painful and dangerous. Pause, Relect, and !hat
8e #ight also consider i#ages of darkness and light in ter#s of race and the historical conte=t of the story. 1he narrator refers to his own students and the Odarkness of their livesQ ;6$>. Pause, Relect, and !hat
Chat H&%! Can you find other places in the story where Baldwin #akes use of the i#ages of darkness and lightI *ook at the seasonal setting of the story. *ook also at the flashback scene in which the narrator describes the hour at dusk on a Sunday. Pause, Relect, and !hat
Chat H&4 7ow does Baldwin use the following i#ages or groups of i#agesI T 9#ages of addiction, or the way heroin is described, on pages (6). T 1he i#age of the sea, in the final scene in the nightclub. T 1he i#age of the world, Ohungry as a tiger,Q on page E%.
FReturn to the Top of this PageG Part VI: Themes
A storyNs the#es are best and #ost specifically e=pressed as co#plete sentences. 1hus, rather than saying Oone the#e of SonnyNs Blues is sufferingQ or even Ocoping with sufferingQ we should be #ore precise and say! 2One theme o "onny0s Blues is that tragedy and suering can -e transormed into a communal art orm such as -lues music*3 8e #ight even go further to clai# that -lues music can -e viewed as a catalyst or change, as the narrator
-egins to understand not only the music -ut also himsel and his relationship with "onny. Si#ilarly, we #ight e=plore the the#e of brotherhood in SonnyNs Blues, and suggest that the story implies that we are 2our -rother0s 1eepers,3 and that a -rotherly support amounts to more than control or coercion* It re4uires listening and true understanding* Pause, Relect, and !hat
Chat H&&! 1he lecture above contains #uch of the proof for the the#es articulated here. 8hat other proof can you find for these the#esI 8hat other the#es do you see in the storyI +otice how the the#es elaborated above are si#ilar to thesis state#ents. 1hat is, they #ake an assertion about the story, one that is not i##ediately obvious and one that reuires develop#ent and e=planation with evidence fro# the te=t.
Chat H&D! 8hat does it #ean that an idea about a literary te=t is not i##ediately obvious. -oes it #ean #erely that an idea is surprisingI 8hat parts of "Sonny's Blue" surprised youI
Plot Summary "Sonny's Blues" opens as the narrator learns from a newspaper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been arrested for dealing heroin. The narrator is taking the subway to his high-school teaching job. t the end of the school day, the "insular and mocking" laughter of his students reminds him that as youths he and Sonny had been rilled with rage and had known "two darknesses"!the one of their lies and the one of the moies that made them momentarily forget about their lies. #eaing the school, the narrator comes across an old friend of Sonny's in the school yard. $hile Sonny's friend and the narrator talk about Sonny's arrest, they tell each other some of their fears. %n front of a bar that blasts "black and bouncy" music, the friend, who is not gien a name,.....
This article is about the short story. &or the album, see Sonny's Blues album(. "Sonny’s Blues" )*+() is a short story by /ames Baldwin. %t later appeared in the )*0+ short story collection, Going to Meet the Man .
Contents hide
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) 1lot summary 2 3haracters 4 5eferences to other works 6 llusions to actual history + 7ajor themes
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0 5eferences
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[ edit ] Plot summary The story opens 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 day8 he is a teacher at a school in 9arlem. 9oweer, he cannot get his mind off Sonny. 9e thinks about all the boys in his class, who don:t hae bright futures and are most likely doing drugs, just like Sonny. fter school, he meets a friend of Sonny:s, who tells him that they will lock him up and make him deto;, but eentually he will be let out and be all alone. uiet8 while their father pretended to be big, t ough, and loud-talking. The narrator then thinks back to the last time he saw his mother alie, just before he went off to war most likely fought in $orld $ar %%(. She told him the story of how his uncle died was run oer by some drunken white kids(, how his father was neer the same, and that the narrator has to watch oer Sonny. The narrator was married to %sabel two days after this talk, and then he went off to war. The ne;t time he came back to the states was for his mother:s funeral. $hen he was back for the funeral, he had a talk with Sonny, trying to figure out who he is, because they are so distant from one another. 9e asks Sonny what he wants to do, and Sonny replies that he wants to be a ja?? musician and play the piano. The narrator does not understand this dream and doesn:t think it is good enough for Sonny. They also try to figure out his liing arrangement for the remainder of his high school career. Both of these subjects lead to an argument. Sonny calls his brother ignorant for not knowing who 3harlie 1arker is, and argues that he does not want to finish high school or lie at %sabel:s parent:s house. @entually, howeer, they find a compromise8 %sabel:s parents hae a piano, which Sonny can play wheneer he wants, proided he goes to school. Sonny, begrudgingly but somewhat e;cited about the piano( agrees. Sonny stays at %sabel:s and supposedly is going to school. $hen he gets home, he constantly plays the piano. Sonny, howeer, is more like a ghost8 he shows no emotion and doesn:t talk to anyone. %t is soon found out that Sonny is not going to school. %nstead, he is going oer to =reenwich Aillage, and hanging with his ja?? friends and most likely doing drugs(.
They both got back from the war and lied in ew Cork for a while. They would see each other intermittently, and wheneer they would they would fight. Because of these fights, they did not talk to each other for a ery long time. %t then flashes forward, and he talks about =racie and her polio affliction. %t was then that the narrator decided to write to Sonny. %t seems that the narrator could better understand his brother now. D7y trouble made his real.E( %t then flashes forward to what we would assume is the present. %t:s a Sunday and %sabel is gone with the children to isit their grandparents. The narrator is contemplating searching Sonny:s room and begins to describe a reial meeting that both he and Sonny are watching. There is a woman singing, which seems to hypnoti?e them both. Sonny comes into the house, and asks the narrator if he wants to come and watch him play in =reenwich Aillage, and the narrator, unsurely and somewhat begrudgingly, agrees to go. Sonny then begins to talk about his heroin addiction in somewhat ambiguous terms. 9e says that when the lady was singing at the reial meeting, it reminded him what it feels like when heroin is coursing through your eins. Sonny says it makes you feel in control, and sometimes you just hae to feel that way. The narrator asks if he has to feel like that to play. 9e answers that some people do. They talk about suffering. nd the narrator asks Sonny if it :s worth killing yourself, just trying to escape suffering. Sonny says he is not going to die trying not to suffer faster than anyone else. Sonny diulges that the reason he wanted to leae 9arlem was to escape the drugs. They go to the ja?? club in =reenwich Aillage. The narrator reali?es how reered Sonny is there. 9e hears Sonny play. %n the beginning, he falters, as he hasn:t played for seen months, but after a while, it becomes completely magical and enchants the narrator and eeryone in the club. The narrator sends a cup of scotch and milk up to the piano for Sonny and the two share a brief connecting moment.9is brother finally understands that it is through music that Sonny is able to turn his suffering into something worthwhile.
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Sonny is the main character. The reader sees him through his brother:s eyes, as a >uiet, introspectie person who he could not reach. Sonny is also described by the narrator as wild and dreamy. 9e has a heroin addiction, which led him to jail, but because of his passion for ja??, he became a musician. Sonny’s brother is the narrator8 his name is neer mentioned throughout the story. 9e is a high school algebra teacher and family man. Fnlike Sonny who is constantly struggling with his feelings, he chooses to ignore his own pain. Isabel is Sonny:s sister-in-law, she is open and talkatie. fter Sonny:s mother died, he lied in her house with for a while, while his brother was in the army. Creole is a bass player who leads the band that Sonny plays in at the end of the story. 9e functions as a kind of father figure for Sonny.
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#ouis rmstrong and 3harlie 1arker are mentioned during a conersation between Sonny and his brother. %n the final scene 3reole, the band and Sonny play m % Blue. reference to a passage in the Bible is made by the end of the story, when Baldwin compares the Scotch and milk placed in front of Sonny as the Dcup of trembling.E This is an allusion to %saiah +)G).
[ edit ] Allusions to actual history Throughout the short story there are seeral mentions to the war, although it is not stated which one. 3onsidering the story occurs during the mid-2Hth century, critics argue it could be either Iorean $ar or the Second $orld $ar .
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Suffering -
[ edit ] References