...Setting Analysis Sonny's Blues Sonny's Blues takes place in Harlem, New York. The story unfolds during the 1950's which was a time frame that swept the African American community into a downward spiral. This period followed the Harlem Renaissance and although that historical event ended after the 1920's, the effects on the black community were still very prevalent factor. Musicians, poets, writers and other creatives still managed to flourish. On the contrary, poverty stricken neighborhoods consumed by drug activity, prostitution, racism and scarce resources seemed to have impacted the majority throughout the city. This may have been a result from the continuation of oppression that blacks experienced from the residuals of The Great Depression and The Great Migration. The author vividly describes Harlem in a sober manner. Poverty is the clearest painted picture. One can picture homeless people walking about, trash filled streets and numerous people in a state of stagnation, just standing outside roaming. There sounds of hopelessness and lost souls can be heard as the unnamed narrator describes the condition of Harlem at that time. When his brother goes away to jail, the disappointment rattles through his voice. The conversation with Sonny's drug addicted friend yields a sense of sympathy and disgust at the same time. Upon Sonny's return, the narrator depicts Harlem as a place of entrapment. He was bringing his brother “back into the danger he had almost died trying...
Words: 595 - Pages: 3
...Literary Analysis of “Sweat” and “Sonny’s Blues” Amelia Williams ENG125: Introduction to Literature Instructor: Deborah Zeringue December 22, 2014 As living and breathing human beings people are bound to experience some type of conflict. Conflict can be present within a person, between two people, between a person and forces of nature, and even between a person and their society. Conflict is defined as the struggle that shapes the plot in a story (Clugston, 2014, ch.4sect.1 para.4). When reading a piece of literature, especially a short story, one should pay special attention to the central conflict because it is the key element of the story (Clugston, 2014). This essay will analyze “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston in terms of individual versus individual, nature, society, and self, symbolism, figurative language, similarities and differences. In the short stories “Sonny’s Blues” and “Sweat” both of the main characters deal with an internal conflict of some sort. Sonny in Sonny’s Blues has to refrain from turning back to drugs after his release from prison; he is also facing the piano again after not playing for a year. Delia, on the other hand has to live with an abusive, cheating husband that “done beat huh ‘nough tuh kill three women” (Hurston, 1926, para. 24). In both texts the main characters are described as humble people, for example in “Sweat,” the author writes “Delia’s habitual meekness seemed to slip from her shoulders...
Words: 1536 - Pages: 7
...Sonny’s Blues Growing up in the tough neighborhood of Harlem, New York, Sonny and his older brother never had a close relationship. As adults, they took completely different life paths and lost communication. It wasn’t until the night of Sonny’s concert that his brother was able to open his mind to the possibility to repair their relationship. Through the inferred statement, “Now these are Sonny’s Blues,” Sonny’s brother saw a family life-long dispute come to an end. Sonny’s parents have raised Sonny and his big brother in Harlem, NY, where poverty and African American people predominated. Music is a very big theme throughout the whole story and it is first brought up when Sonny and his brother meet shortly after their mother’s death. Sonny mentioned his desire to become a Jazz musician and his brother immediately disagreed. He asked Sonny, “Can you make a living at it…you know people can’t always do exactly what they want to do-” and he continues by abruptly insinuating, “you getting to be a big boy, it’s time you started thinking about your future.” (Page 87). Through these egotistic words Sonny’s brother indicates...
Words: 887 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 2012 - Pages: 9
...The story Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin (1957) explores the theme of suffering experienced by Black Americans as individuals fettered by discrimination, unemployment, housing problems, drug addiction, imprisonment and suicide. It features the struggle of two brothers separated and caught in the entanglements of time, space and ideals. The unnamed Narrator who is relatively well-off between the two siblings struggles to understand his suicidal yet talented brother Sonny while the latter finds difficulty in coping up with the mediocrity that engulfs him. Effective communication is crucial in the story of two brothers with different visions in life where rage and fury may explode at split seconds to put an end to one dear life of a prodigy....
Words: 1325 - Pages: 6
...The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin follows the story of a teacher in Harlem and explores the stories of brotherhood behind Sonny and the narrator, their father and his brother, death of a child, and the large themes of “grace” and “struggle”. Although introduced to many characters in the 27 pages, without a doubt the antagonist is the theme of loss. Throughout the short story, the narrator feels pain from loss of people close to him or family. The first example of this is how the narrator's father's brother is run over by a car full of drunk white men. The mother's states as she recites the story of the death “Your Daddy never did really get right again. Till the day he died he weren't sure but that every white man he saw was the...
Words: 314 - Pages: 2
...Stephen Hamilton Professor T. Clark English 201 4 March 2008 “Sonny’s Blues” Authored by: James Baldwin Drugs, Music, and Culture have interacted together in various heights of conflict and harmony throughout modern day music, affecting the creators and patrons alike. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a depiction of this triangle of cultural relations that has affected three generations of America Culture. Sonny, a pathless protagonist of the story finds music as his aim of escaping society’s African American brutal oppression in the 1950’s. Sonny’s brother makes the claim, “But there’s no need…is there? In killing yourself?” (Baldwin 59) referring to Sonny’s drug use in his musical escapes while playing nightclubs as a pianist in Greenwich Village. In the story "Sonny’s Blues" Sonny's brother makes the inaccurate assertion Sonny wants to die; in reality Sonny’s is simply trying to escape society's oppression. While living with Sonny’s brother’s family, talking in the afternoon with the brothers alone for the night; Sonny was talking about using heroin, “…what heroin feels like-when it’s in your veins…It makes you feel-in control. Sometimes you have to have that feeling.” (Baldwin 58) The commentary prior elaborated this statement when examining the singing quartet on their street and the struggles they went through to be able to sing like that, referring to the pain and passion in their voices. This helped illustrate the conflict of the time – American Culture...
Words: 841 - Pages: 4
...In the story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin the story is written in first person style. The story opens up with Sonny’s older brother the narrator reading about reading about his heroin bust in the newspaper. Sonny was a jazz musician. He tried to go on with his day but he could not stop thinking about brother. Sonny had a trouble past, he goes in and out of jail and his relationship with his family is strain. Sonny’s father was a drunk and moody, Sonny and he did not get along. Sonny was quiet and withdrawn. Throughout the story the narrator would have flash backs about growing up with Sonny. One day Sonny went to jail and his brother never written him. It wasn’t until Grace has die that Sonny’s brother decides to write him. Sonny writes his brother a long letter trying to explains how he got in the predicament. The two brothers stay in constant communications .Sonny is released from jail and goes lives with his brother....
Words: 494 - Pages: 2
...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...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
...Literary Analysis “He don’t want to die. He wants to live. Don’t nobody ever want to die, ever.” (para. 40) This line speaks volumes about the tones talked about in Sonny’s Blues, written by James Baldwin in 1957. The writing is a powerful short story dealing with a young man’s drug addiction and the steps he takes towards recovery, to the public. In addition to recovery, Sonny’s Blues explores the ways in which individuals can cope with suffering, and specifically details how music allow a person to escape, express, and deal with stress in their life. Throughout the story, Sonny, the narrator’s brother, is arrested for heroin use, receives treatment, and released back into the world; he finds different ways to cope with not only his addiction...
Words: 1088 - Pages: 5
...In Tracey Sherard’s 1998 analysis, “Sonny's Bebop: Baldwin's ‘Blues Text’ as Intracultural Critique,” which covers James Baldwin’s 1957 intuitive short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” she conveys that Baldwin created the title to be questioned for its connection to jazz or more specifically Bebop, so Baldwin’s intent of broadcasting African American struggles throughout history can be conveyed through a pair of brothers connected by this music, which acts as a medium for his ultimate message. The author portrays his story of the two brothers where, through music, they eventually accept their living conditions and overcome the emotional barriers that were placed on them due to not only their African American history, but also the conditions they were...
Words: 645 - Pages: 3
...“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...
Words: 609 - Pages: 3
...Assignment 4 12.27.2012 Short Story Analysis When people live in a sheltered environment with a paved driveway and freshly mowed lawn, they forget that they share the world with others, who live in a much darker environment. Their environment lacks much more than paved driveways and freshly mowed lawns. Most of these people are even deprived of the basic needs like a safe community, peace or their sanity. The authors of Young Goodman Brown, The Red Convertible, The Lone Ranger and Sonny’s Blues expose us to an obscure society; one where people find themselves in bleak situations. Life for these people is just a big question mark; a question that doesn’t have a straightforward answer. Many a times, authors hit the touchy topic of God’s existence in their work. Reflected by his puritan heritage, Nathanial Hawthorne wrote about faith, personal salvation and morality in his short-story “Young Goodman Brown”. The main character, Goodman Brown, has an internal battle with his faith throughout the story where he finds himself questioning the very existence of a higher power. Ultimately the bigger question in this story is one that many people ask themselves when they are faced with tough times; Does God really exist? Or is He a mere creation by society to keep face and hide behind their lies? Goodman Brown embarks on a journey against his own will. The author describes this an “evil” journey where Goodman Brown wants to turn back on many occasions but his elderly companion...
Words: 1739 - Pages: 7
...interpretation. “Revised Memories and Colliding Identities: Absence and Presence in Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’ and Viramontes’s ‘Tears on My Pillow’” by Helane Adams Androne is a very focused critical piece that argues that both central characters have suffer from strained relationships. "Transfiguring Aesthetics: Conflation, Identity Denial, and Transference in “Passing Texts” of Black Narrative" by Tomeiko Ashford and "Toni Morrison and the Burden of the Passing Narrative" by Juda Burnett are both well-written reviews that examine the racial identities of the characters and provide various explanations how the race component affects the story. Last but not least, "Watchers Watching Watchers: Positioning Characters and Readers in Baldwin's 'Sonny's...
Words: 2360 - Pages: 10
...discovery of new race and culture, the notion of fear and ignorance about other people has been the most predominant issue of the modern society. In my opinion the combination of these two issues (fear and ignorance) has created what is a scourge called racism. James Baldwin was a wise and prominent writer who fought against these issues through communication by either writing books or speaking at memorable events. Born in 1924 in New York and died in France in 1987, James Baldwin occupies a unique place in American letters. He is the epitome of the writer that links art to commitment, and can be found alongside Martin Luther King, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte and Charlton Heston at the civil rights march in 1963 at Washington. The analysis of James Baldwin was somewhat aporetic, because on one hand we could quote him saying “Every white person in this country-and I do not care what he or she says-knows one thing. They may not know, as they put, "what I want”, but they know they would not like to be black here. If they know that, then they know everything they need to know, and whatever else they say is a lie.” , which is categorical and brutal in tone. Yet on the other hand, Baldwin always tried to put himself in the place of others by attempting to understand their behavior and their motivation. In the end, we can say that he has virtually written more about the moods of whites than those of blacks. This is obviously the faith that animates Baldwin. First of all, he has...
Words: 1100 - Pages: 5
