Jazz is used ironically in “Sonny’s Blues” to expose Sonny’s melancholy behavior and the destructive trend of heroin. This story is not simply just about Sonny’s music; it starts with a lost and apprehensive man, continues into how music leads to a reunion between two estranged brothers, and ends with a moment of redemption. Baldwin uses jazz music as an analogy for the way the brothers don't really comprehend each other and for the discrepancy between those who would give up a great deal of individuality and personal gratification to stay safe versus those who would risk everything to express themselves and to claim their rights about something. Jazz can represents a new version of the expressing of the old blues.
The narrator, who is unnamed, …show more content…
Due to his reliance on heroin, Sonny underwent confinement and other miseries that made him have a stronger connection with music Important African American musical styles, blues and jazz, are appropriate to story’s emphasis on the community.
Three forms of alienation are from ourselves, from other people, and from the world. The method of estrangement used with Sonny was really shown by his brother in reference to his drug problem. Only after he reads from the letter about Sonny "being picked up for peddling and using heroin" does the narrator accept the fact that he shuts out his brother in a sense that he expresses in the words, "I couldn't believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn't find any room for it anywhere inside me” (Baldwin 831). Sonny took responsibility that he alienated himself and there was something wrong by the statement, “’I've been something I didn't recognize, didn't know I could be. Didn't know anybody could be’" (Baldwin 858). A main theme in this story is how to cope with suffering and the fact that Sonny could accept he had a problem and wanted to get better was the beginning to stop suffering. There can also be a transformation from tragedy and suffering to a collective art form such as blues
The narrator, who is unnamed, …show more content…
Due to his reliance on heroin, Sonny underwent confinement and other miseries that made him have a stronger connection with music Important African American musical styles, blues and jazz, are appropriate to story’s emphasis on the community.
Three forms of alienation are from ourselves, from other people, and from the world. The method of estrangement used with Sonny was really shown by his brother in reference to his drug problem. Only after he reads from the letter about Sonny "being picked up for peddling and using heroin" does the narrator accept the fact that he shuts out his brother in a sense that he expresses in the words, "I couldn't believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn't find any room for it anywhere inside me” (Baldwin 831). Sonny took responsibility that he alienated himself and there was something wrong by the statement, “’I've been something I didn't recognize, didn't know I could be. Didn't know anybody could be’" (Baldwin 858). A main theme in this story is how to cope with suffering and the fact that Sonny could accept he had a problem and wanted to get better was the beginning to stop suffering. There can also be a transformation from tragedy and suffering to a collective art form such as blues