Crime, Violence, And Poverty In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

Harlem in the twentieth century was associated with crime, violence, and poverty. With a child mortality rate of 5%, 1 in 20 children would not survive. With an unemployment rate twice as high as New York, people were poor and often turned to drugs and gangs. But next to all this tragedy, Harlem was a community of musicians and artists. Theater, novels, poetry and music arose from people’s suffering. Bands playing music was a common sight on the streets of Harlem. In Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin describes two brothers trying to deal with the tragedies of Harlem of that time. One seemed to have escaped by having a job and education, but finds himself still suffering from his environment. His brother following a common road at that time, turns …show more content…
Education was poor at that time in Harlem and there was a ton of violence and crime. Possibilities were limited from the moment they were born. The two brothers in the story have to deal with both individual and shared misery. The narrator’s youngest daughter, Grace, dies at the age of 2. Trying to escape the misery of Harlem, he valued to get a good education and became a math teacher. However, the constant reminder of the tragedy around him wears him down. His words show his desperation: “Yet it had happened and here I was, talking about algebra to a lot of boys who might, every one of them for all I knew, be popping off needles every time they went to the head” (p.1). He could not take the thought of his brother being in prison for using and dealing heroin. Knowing he was deep down a good boy he did not want to believe his brother was going down the same road he had seen so many others in Harlem go on. The narrator wants to be a good brother to Sonny, but fails to understand him. He struggles with his impotence to take care of his little brother. He feels responsible for him and even feels quilt towards him. The last time he spoke to his mother before she died she said to him: "You got to hold on to your brother," she said, "and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him” (p.13). Unfortunately there does come a …show more content…
Baldwin shows this by using symbolism. Darkness appears countless times. According to Sustana: “Throughout the story, darkness is used to symbolize the threats that menace the African-American community.” People trapped in the darkness, the darkness of the lives of his students, the darkness of the movies, the darkness growing against the windowpanes and the child filled with darkness. But also in the most literal way: “I was sitting in the living room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny” (p.21). On the other hand, there is the light that Sonny’s music brings. As he goes on stage he steps into the light and the narrator expresses that he sees the lights turn indigo. According to Sustana, the performers on stage are making something new together, what makes the light changes and it becomes accessible to