I'm not talking about none of that old-time, down-home crap."). In conclusion, the author serves best in presenting several issues in society by his writing of the story Sonny Blues. The story helps to understand the type of life and suffering in African American neighborhoods in the 1950s motivated by factors such as race and racial discrimination, segregation, poverty, and violence. When he was about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and hed had wonderfully direct brown eyes, and great gentleness and privacy (Baldwin, 1957, pg. In the black society setting, particularly the 1950s on New York streets, music served as the foundation of African American populations culture. Read our full plot summary of Sonny's Blues.. "Some guys, you can tell from the way they play, they on something all the time. Sonnys Bebop: Baldwins Blues Text as Intracultural Critique.. Sonny never wanted drugs, he wanted. The Essay Writing ExpertsUS Essay Experts. #31. To avoid conflict Sonny decided to join the navy and disappear for a long time, which is also seen as a moment of peace in the story until his return from war. The Playwright focused a lot of his works on issues relating to racism and people's social problems. James Baldwins Sonnys Blues uses Sonny as an antagonist character to the protagonist, his eldest brother. So you've got to listen. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? I heard somebody laugh in the room and then the tears came to my eyes. ThoughtCo. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness. The narrator was also able to realize that Sonny was talented in music as opposed to his thoughts. Wonderful writing depicting its time and how we probably havent moved that much forward. Then they all came together again, and Sonny was part of the family again. #8. Only contained the short story "Sonny's Blues". The supportive older musician Creole "erupt[s] out of all that atmospheric lighting" and tells Sonny, "I been sitting right here waiting for you." Sonny is the main character in the story who has been through a lot in life. Sonny's Blues is a short story by James Baldwin that was first published in 1957. He came by the house from time to time, but we fought almost every time we met. It considers the possibility of . ", I first read a small passage in ECC.and created a essay about it. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the However, as the story progresses, the death of grace enables the narrator to come in touch with reality, which prompts him to contact his brother setting the journey to the path of redemption. I wanted to write you many a time but I dug how much I must have hurt you and so I didn't write. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. The historical background that shapes up the setting of the story is relevant and perfect in presenting the relationship between characters and the contextual environment that forces them to behave the way they behave in the story. #21. Sustana, Catherine. Sonny wanted so desperately to please his brother, but couldnt find a way to avoid Jazz but still get that feeling he craved. I wanted to say more, but I couldn't. In "Sonny's Blues", the narrator, whom is an unnamed brother of Sonny and protagonist of the story, explains his life in Harlem. The narrator is a high school algebra teacher and he is a responsible husband and father. JUNE 25, 2020 The prophetic power of James Baldwin's explorations of race and America's unfulfilled promise has never been more illuminating or more necessary. 99. . It is also evident that the narrators mother had asked him to take care of Sonny, I want to talk to you about your brother, if anything happens to me he aint going to have nobody to look out for him (Baldwin 26). 4.3 Discussion #5: Baldwin: "Sonny's Blues" Discussion #5: Baldwin: "Sonny's Blues" Consider James Baldwin's story, "Sonny's Blues" and answer the following questions in detail, using text to support your discussion. SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. I would have given this story 5 stars, but the story had three too many "it's" (18 on the first page alone, and that drives me crazy!). You'll also receive an email with the link. I couldnt believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldnt find any room for it anywhere inside me. ", Yet when the musicians start to play, "the lights on the bandstand, on the quartet, turned to a kind of indigo. I started collecting my stuff. I saw this boy standing in the shadow of a doorway, looking just like Sonny. Sonny's Blues James Baldwin Full Audiobook Du Bon Mot 2.06K subscribers Subscribe 1.1K 99K views 2 years ago If this video helped you, please consider donating to my audiobook career so I. The author chooses this method of presentation to bring out the main idea of the story. James Baldwins short story, Sonnys Blues, tells the story of two brothers living in 1950s Harlem. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/analysis-sonnys-blues-by-james-baldwin-2990467. Catherine Sustana, Ph.D., is a fiction writer and a former professor of English at Hawaii Pacific University. The most important ideas in the story are family, home, suffering, and drugs. "Analysis of "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin." Sonny did not welcome the idea, but reluctantly agreed to avoid another conflict, you decided it, look brother, I dont want to stay Harlem no more, I really dont (Baldwin 33). Sonny is a musician and chosen music as a career, which he is also planning to take a full time course to further his skills. This narrator recently discovered the arrest of his younger brother for the accusations of selling and using heroin. But the worry, the thoughtfulness, played on it still, the way shadows play on a face which is staring into the fire. Sometimes it can end up there. It seemed I'd been holding it for all that time. The final scene moves me every single time that I reread it. "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin is an account given from the perspective of a brother to a heroin addict in Harlem. It considers the possibility of understanding Baldwin's fictional text as a statement on reading social as well as subjective 'problems' as universal across contexts. The story takes the reader through pain, suffering, alienation, and anger of the main character. Looking at the historical and cultural . 1245 Words5 Pages. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/close-reading-essay-sample-sonnys-blues-by-james-baldwin, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. In the remembrance, the speaker also recollects how Sonny used to fight with his father since they were similar in many ways, particularly through music, He and Sonny hadnt ever got too well, and this was partly because Sonny was the apple of his fathers eye (Baldwin 26). I was told in high school English, as well as university, that we were not to use the word "it." But now I feel like a man who's been trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. It is perfection. "I just want you to know that.". I stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside. The story tells of two black brothers' struggle to understand one another. I listened to the boys outside, downstairs, shouting and cursing and laughing. This story was written by James Baldwin, in 1957. The narrator goes ahead to describe a story of pain, prejudice, and suffering. This life, whatever it was, had made him older and thinner and it had deepened the distant stillness in which he had always moved. If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. He read books about people sitting on rocks, naked, in all kinds of weather, but mostly bad, naturally, and walking barefoot through hot coals and arriving at wisdom. Then perhaps I just stared at it, at the newsprint. First published in 1957, Sonnys Blues, perhaps Baldwins best known and most widely anthologized short story, was later collected in the volume Going to Meet the Man (1965). Sonnys ambition to become a jazz pianist points him into an opposite direction than his brother, and into a place where the common suffering is handled with drugs and music. Sonnys Blues incorporates racial frustration, self-expression, avoidance, lightness/darkness and symbolic nature of music. Several individuals were arrested in a drug bust. #19. This therefore makes the story not only interesting, but relevant in the 1950s society. I got to get outside. Contact us Then he turned to me. No plagiarism, guaranteed! () . #34. Till the day he died he weren't sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.". #11. those who got out always left something of themselves behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap (Baldwin pg. After going through all the trouble, Sonny was a great musician and he loved to play music more than anything. He must want to die, he's killing himself, why does he want to die?". . He says he never in his life seen anything as dark as that road after the lights of that car had gone away. James Baldwin was born in New York, but grew up in Harlem where times were tough. Sonny wanted his brother to see how Jazz made him feel and his brother saw that when he watched Sonny play. Sonny's blues. James Baldwin's Sonny Blues narrates the living conditions of African-Americans back in the 1950s. The narrator was more mature and had set goals. My clothes were wet-I may have looked as though I'd been sitting in a steam bath, all dressed up, all afternoon. As the narrator and Sonny ride in a cab toward Harlem "the vivid, killing streets of our childhood" the streets "darken with dark people." Plot of "Sonny's Blues" The story opens with the first-person narrator reading in the newspaper that his younger brother from whom he is estranged has been arrested for selling and using heroin. This article uses a discussion of Baldwin's short story 'Sonny's blues' as a means of exploring reading and approaches to drug literature. "Oh, honey," she said, "there's a lot that you don't know. "It did.". Study for free with our range of university lectures! The father dealt with horses before his death. I thought I'd better get home and talk to Isabel. While his brother feels like he could never truly explain anything to the narrator.