¶ … Sonny's Blues": Two brothers, two parallel lives
James Baldwin's short story "Sonny's Blues" is contingent upon a comparison of the lives of two men, Sonny's brother and Sonny himself. Sonny's brother is a stable family man with a wife and two children, a respected schoolteacher. Sonny is a heroin addict and jazz musician. On a schematic level, they represent two sides of the African-American experience, as chronicled by Baldwin during the 1960s. On one hand, Sonny's unnamed brother seems to have made the 'right' choices, unlike his ne'er-do-well brother. However, Sonny's brother clearly mourns certain aspects of life that Sonny has enjoyed, such as Sonny's passion for music. Sonny's brother clearly feels that he has lost something in capitulating to the ideals of white society, even though his brother's absorption in a world of drug use suggests that Sonny's life is not a model one would want to follow. The differences between the brothers are embodied in their feelings about jazz music, a historically black form of art. Sonny's brother cannot understand it at all. Sonny, in contrast, loves jazz but is drawn to its dark side, including the culture of drug use.
When Sonny meets the narrator on after many years, the narrator is struck by the different paths they have taken and the fact that when Sonny started using 'horse' he was probably the age of the narrator's students. The two men return home, drawn together by a blood connection, the only thing that unites their very different life paths:
Yet, as the cab moved uptown through streets which seemed, with a rush, to darken with dark people, and as I covertly studied Sonny's face, it came to me that what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind. It's always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches.
The narrow roles that white society offers for black men forces...
Sonny's Blues Revised Baldwin was not an unknown writer even before Sonny's Blues, a short story, was published in the year 1957. This story first appeared in Partisan Review that was one of the most popular and respected journals at that time. Sonny's Blues was published once again by Baldwin in the year 1965. This time he published it in his collection of short stories that was called "Going to Meet
Sonny's Blues While the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it must always be heard," writes James Baldwin in his short story, Sonny's Blues. "There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." This might be called the theme of Sonny's Blues, and it comes at the end of a long
For most of the story the setting surrounded the narrator and his life. It was his house, his family, and his experiences that made up the majority of the story. However, after the narrator reconciles with Sonny and he is invited to be part of the narrator's life, the setting of the story changes to Sonny and that which surrounds his life; particularly his music. The narrator and Sonny
Sonny's Blues Who is the main character in the story (choose between Sonny and the narrator)? Also, explain why then you consider the other man to be a minor character. The main character of the story is without a doubt the narrator. This is because the narrator is the one who is doing all of the experiencing in the film. The narrator is the one who discovers the news about Sonny and
This passage also, of course, reflects Sonny's particular struggle. He tells his brother at one point that the feeling heroine gave him at many times was a feeling of being in control, and that it was important for him to have that feeling sometimes. The rest of the world, it is made clear, does not actually give either sonny or his brother a great deal of control, and though both
It seems like so many lives are wasted, and it does not really have to be that way at all. This story is really well written and compelling. The reader really feels like they know and understand these two characters by the end of the story, and it also made me think about all the elements that go into good fiction. Each of these stories is different, even though they
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