“Words and Music: Narrative Ambiguity in ‘Sonny’s Blues,” by Keith Byerman is a critical analysis of the narrator’s discourse in “Sonny’s Blue.” Byerman argues that the use of language necessarily proves limitations. Byerman states that a “resolution can be accomplished” 1 when the message is “received or code is decipher in most case the message is withheld in some manner-through deception, innocence, or ignorance until a key moment in the narrative.” He supports this argument by pointing out how inconsistent or even misreading the narrator is, because of his incapability to read the surrounding situation of Sonny. Byerman argues that the narrator is “caught in the prison house of language.” 1 This may come from a philosophical stand point rather than normal human emotions and reactions to the view point of family members, as well as an age difference that can create a communication chaos.,

As the narrator sits on the train reading the paper and seeing that Sonny is in trouble. It’s harmful to his thoughts, that the narrator references his emotions to ice. While Byerman stats that this is the “narrator’s immediate action is to refract his emotion through this metaphor.” While James Baldwin uses metaphors throughout “Sonny’s Blue’s,” this is not an issue with language or misreading’s on the narrator’s part. The narrator is more afraid that the reality of his brother is addicted to drugs and that it has gotten him into trouble. For this to happen to an immediate family member, is personal turmoil leaving a person in consistent conflict of the thoughts of that person and the reality of the situation.

“The narrator’s mother, after hearing her son reassure her that nothing will happen to Sonny, tells him the story of his father and uncle, a story that parallels the one occurring the present time” 1 The narrator’s discussion with his mother about his father