...Cohen English 1197 Sec 001 April 10th, 2012 “The Sounds of Sonny’s Blues” James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues is a short story focused around the narration of Sonny’s brother. The narrator in the case of Sonny’s Blues is the most important character in a cast of characters not only because he is the narrator, but due to the dynamic change of his character we see at the end of the story. Baldwin effectively uses the first-person narration of Sonny’s brother in order to convey the theme of communication. Throughout the entire story of Sonny’s Blues, the narrator and his brother interact through exchanging words countless times. The question posed is whether or not the narrator can truly hear what his brother is saying to him. Through an examination of the narration style and the ways in which the characters are composed, we can see how Baldwin develops the theme of communication throughout Sonny’s Blues. Directly at the start of Sonny’s Blues we can identify the first-person narration. “I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work. I read it, and I couldn’t believe it, and I read it again.” (p. 75) Over and over again Baldwin uses “I” and “my” allowing the reader to easily detect the first-person narration style. The limited first-person narration will be crucial in the development of the theme of communication due to reader’s abilities to know narrator’s thoughts and feelings, but not Sonny’s. We know that the narrator is limited and not omniscient due...
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...Tsomondo’s “No Tale to Tell: ‘Sonny’s Blues’ and Waiting for the Rain” In Thorell Tsomondo’s “No Other Tale to Tell: ‘Sonny’s Blues’ and Waiting for the Rain,” Sonny the artist is a historian (Tsomondo 196). Sonny’s history is the experience of society and that of an individual (196). For Baldwin, the artist’s credibility and appeal hinge on his historical knowledge and his success as historian is dependent on his artistic skill (196). Sonny is a kind of poet-prophet committed all together to solitary and communal experience, bound at once to tradition and to change (196). Sonny’s Blues are set in the black ghetto of New York City, and tell a story of a young pianist dogged by heroin addiction and alienated from his family (196). Yet he captures and relates a people’s historical existence, leading his audience to a heightened, shared awareness of their cultural identity (196). In Sonny’s Blues, memory, the return to the past, is motivated by a sense of amassment, but by a sense of necessity (196). Baldwin like other African American writers retains a sense of the past that is acutely unstable (196). Instead of feeling animosity to the past, the African American is in search for the continuity that it can provide (197). Writers like Baldwin are concerned with the reconstruction of an individual tradition and emancipating force that is the art which they transform need into fullness (197). Sonny’s Blues is more than a presentation of a voyage or view of our coming forth (197)...
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...The plot in “Sonny’s Blues” emphasizes the importance of the bond between two brothers through the power of music and god. “Sonny’s Blues” displays the daily struggle of societal issues, status, and achievements the two brothers faced in reality. Sonny's brother struggles to understand Sonny and his compassion for music. Music builds this communication that the narrator lacks with his brother but they overcome these struggles through music. The narrator is struggling to bond with his distant brother as a biblical vibe is looking over the narrator and helping him through his life. Music plays a significant role in the brother’s lives as it changes their view of each other. Sonny’s dream of becoming a jazz musician is shunned upon his brother but he doesn’t quit his dream. His brother worried that pursuing a music career won’t help him financially and can’t become...
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...“Sonny’s Blues” Final Essay In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” he uses the unnamed narrator also known as Sonny’s brother to provide an intimate insight into both his and Sonny’s lives, but also into their environment Harlem, New York. The narrator used his point of view and personal perspective to reveal both Sonny and Harlem and how the environment they were both brought up in has shaped them into the young men they were in the past and who they are now. This story begins when the brother finds out Sonny was in jail, when the narrator went to pick him up they begin having flashbacks from when their parents were alive and were speaking about racial issues they had been facing. Sonny finds his passion in jazz music. When he finally encourages his brother to listen to his music he takes him to the night club. He has a great epiphany realizing that their hardships can be turned into something beautiful. Growing up in an environment such as Harlem has had immense impact on the people sonny and his brother have become. This tough environment in Harlem would easily shape any person living in it but in particular Sonny and his brother. Harlem influenced the courses of action the brothers individually chose to take. The narrator described the city as a place that seems to entrap the people living in it and suck them into a lifestyle that they cant avoid. The lifestyle of drugs and crime, even if an individual such as the narrator doesn’t choose to participate in these...
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...“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...
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...Jazz James Baldwin’s “Sonny Blues” follows two brothers from different paths. The brothers are years apart but still face many problems of growing up and becoming a man. Deaths, wars, addictions, coming to terms with life all are portrayed in this short story. The central idea revolves around two brothers with many problems and struggles and brotherly love they have for one another. Sonny’s blues is a story about “A sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, in a word, of tragedy."(Flibbert) The narrator, protagonist and sonny’s older brother is a very dynamic character. He was in the army, and now is a Math teacher raising a family in Harlem. The narrator believes “you know people can’t always do exactly what they want to...
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...Jacob Kruse Communications I 26 April 2014 “Sonny’s Blues” Sonny’s Blues is a story of disorientation at first. It tells a story of young man names Sonny and his brother who was the narrator. Sonny is young boy who in fact grew up the world of abandonment. He suffered from drug addiction, school dropout, and personal desertion issues. As the story unfolds from his older brother’s point of view, it explains how the older brother wished he had been there for his brother throughout his hard times of growing up. As the older brother puts forth the effort to lead Sonny into the right direction by welcoming him into his home, pushing him to finish school Sonny refuses to follow his brother’s guidance and turned his attention towards music. Music became his out for his internal misery he had endured. Along with dropping out of school, and the new love for music Sonny then left for good and went on to The military. Sonny’s age was never disclosed but he was under the age of 18, and all together disobeyed his brother’s wishes. The same wishes their own mother installed in the older brothers mind before her passing. All the time of Sonny being away in the military in wasn’t until he sent his brother a postcard of his whereabouts that they even knew he was alive. After the war both of the brothers returned home and joined forces again, just be apart for more time. It wasn’t until Sonny’s brothers finding in the newspaper that Sonny’s had been locked up for the use of drugs, and the...
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...“Sonny’s Blues” VS “Why I Live at the P.O.” Comparing and contrasting two stories can be a difficult task when one does not understand the plot of a story. Plot is simply the arrangement of the action, which can consist of any type of event or a series of events that go on in the story. It is also important to know about the structure of a plot to understand what is going on in the story. A plot consists of action, along with exposition, rising action, turning point (climax), falling action and a conclusion (Booth, et.al, 2006, p57). I chose to compare and contrast “Sonny’s Blues” and “Why I live at the P.O.” because both of their plots revolve around siblings and their struggle to accept each other. In “Sonny’s Blues” brother is struggling with Sonny’s addiction to “horse” and in “Why I live at the P.O.” Sister is dealing with the jealousy she has towards her sister, Stella-Rondo. James Baldwin uses the plot of “Sonny’s Blues” to show how difficult it can be to reestablish a relationship with family after years of no contact. He uses a difficult time such as Sonny’s addiction to heroine to have his brother want to be a part of his recovery. Brother finds out that Sonny has gotten into trouble and is scared about the situation along with scared for Sonny. He is scared because he had his suspicions but he did not want to know anything about it. Brother just wanted to believe Sonny “… was wild, but he wasn’t crazy” (Baldwin, 82). He had always believed his brother...
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...Throughout history, sibling relationships in different classes, religions, genders, and specific races of the human race have provided humans with an inherent empathizer. Being raised and shaped into distinct characters in the same environment and experiencing the same essential memories of childhood binds siblings together for better or for worse. Likewise, in “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin, the narrator and his brother Sonny reunite through their shared origins and finally understand what it symbolizes to them and their entire community. The sibling relationship between the narrator and Sonny demonstrates two different ways in which people of the same background attempt to deal with their shared communities and memories to regain...
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...In the story, Sonny’s Blues the main character is not the one mentioned in the title, Sonny, but his unnamed brother, who is the narrator. The narrator and Sonny grew up in Harlem and struggled with inner-city life and poverty. However, the brothers have dealt with their own struggles differently. The narrator is now a teacher with a full-time job, and he has a wife and two children. He has risen above his difficulties and has become successful. Sonny, on the other hand, has gotten involved with the wrong activities and people and has been arrested for selling heroin. While the narrator has difficulty expressing his feelings and would rather avoid emotional situations, this could possibly be a part of how he has grown up to defy his surroundings...
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...over their younger brothers- also known as the Big Brother effect (148). Although most of this study focused on the effect of females having an older brother, it often explores how older brothers are effected by younger siblings. This is useful for my paper since the narrator often discusses fear. He often states how everyone is scared for Sonny. This article will help me explore how the narrator’s point of view upon Sonny is influenced by the Big Brother effect. Hoagwood, Kimberly E., et al. "Family...
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...In the textbook there were many good stories I could of read but the one I decided on was the story “Sonny’s Blue” by James Baldwin. The reason why I picked this story was because I liked how in depth it got let alone I realized how much actual history was behind this story if you read in between the lines you can pick up on it. To me this story had a lot of different meanings to it and the lens I thought would best represent it would be Historical criticism based on how much history is behind it without many of the readers knowing. For many life isn’t as easy as others have it and the main Character Sonny is the proof of that ever since he was little he had trouble in life whether it was him losing his mom or even him joining the navy to try to prove he was worth something in life....
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...Narration The person telling the story is the narrator the narrator helps t shape the story for the reader. Point of view The point of view is the perspective from which the narrator tells the story. The point of view can be indentified in five ways. 1 First person It will use the Pronoun “I” and will place the narrator in the story. 2 Third person this will use the pronouns “he” or “she but will typically limit it to one characters Point of view Third Person Omniscient Will use the pronouns “he” “she” and “they however, the narrator will move in and out of the mind of several characters. Third person objective point of view will limit the intervention of the narrator. The setting and action will be described and we will listen in audience. The narrarator will not interpret for the reader. Shifting point of view The shifting point of view will shift the focus from a narrow to a broader perspective of the omniscient narrator Setting the location and the atmosphere of the story Conflict this is the struggle of opposing external or internal forces Plot This is the structure of the story. It’s the twists & turns. It you the story un folds. Plot structure Crisis / Climax The moment of truth rising action conflict builds, exposition, We learn about the various characters, the falling action crisis is over resolution the story ends. what happens at the end. Allteration This is the use of similar consant sounds. Using woods that begin with the same on similar...
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...below will provide examples of how our ignorance as a society can determine how we perceive others as well as how we are perceived by others. Sonny’s Blues Sonny’s Blues is a short story that illustrates the ignorance of the narrator to his Brother Sonny’s dream of becoming a jazz musician. The narrator thinks that life flows on the ability to just make a living that people do not have to find happiness in working to live. However, this way of thinking is different for Sonny, For example, the narrator says “Well, look, Sonny, I’m sorry, don’t get mad. I just don’t altogether get it, that’s all. Name somebody—you know, a jazz musician you admire.” (Baldwin, 1957, pg.575). Sonny responds with “Bird” (Baldwin, 1957, pg.575) and the narrator responds with “who?” After lighting a cigarette and taking a step back from the conversation, the narrator realizes how out of touch from society he has become. He is shocked and entertained by the fact that his body is trembling. The narrator tells Sonny that he will have to be patient with his ignorance on who Charlie Parker is (Baldwin, 1957, pg.575). This is Sonny’s world through his own eyes and this is what happiness is to him, the culture of jazz playing is his identity. As stated above, Sonny relates to jazz in ways that the narrator cannot understand. The narrator’s ignorance of Sonny’s feelings and desires effects his ability to relate to Sonny and challenges his connection as a brother. The narrator and Sonny have been physically...
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... THE ROLES BETWEEN THE TWO SIBLINGS. The story “The Red Convertible” written by Louise Erdrich’s and the story “Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin’s are very much comparable, but at the same time they very different. In both stories the main characters are two brothers that are faced with challenges in their life, revolved around brotherly connection. At some point in each story the brothers separate and ultimately bond when the stronger brother accepts the weaker brother. Also in both stories the brother’s dealt with the separation of their sibling differently through separating and drug abuse. In ‘’The Red Convertible’’, the main speaker uses the red convertible, one he shares with his brother, as an analogy to their relationship. While reminiscing about his brother henry, Lyman said ‘’they went to places in that car, me and henry’’ (167). And though some people spend most of their trip remembering specific details, he and Henry just lived their lives (168). In other words, their time spent in the red convertible is intended more for the worthwhile company of one another as opposed to making meaningless trips simply for around-the-table story time. ONIBIYO 2 On the other hand, the speaker in "Sonny's Blues" also shares a connection with his brother, although not as strong and intense as Lyman’s. The speaker and his brother Sonny maintain a forced relationship, one in which the speaker's...
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