Sonny's Blue Analysis

Decent Essays
The story of Sonny's Blue by James Baldwin about the imagery of dark and light has changed. In 1957 being to know that is interesting about James Baldwin stories include character Sonny with brothers and family. Sonny is the narrator about brothers between to change it being a movement of the family his dark and light. Looking for different to live with brother have a nature of the darkness is illustrate. How to know have Sonny his brother make to break being a problem about drug addiction with friend. He can to feel emotional been brother before musician show on playing. It’s jazz song for blues are special listen to hear some music.
Sonny will change for the opposite can happen when you make a mistake to brother. When he’s brother was says,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Sonny’s Cup of Trembling “Sonny’s Blues” begins with the narrator reading about his brother being arrested for selling and using heroine. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬He describes the struggles and hardships that his family, especially Sonny, goes through. Even though the two brothers lived together for so long, they did not have a very close relationship, but towards the end of the story, the two begin to understand each other more. At the end of the story, Sonny invites the narrator to accompany him to a local nightclub where he plays a new type of freeform jazz on the piano. As his brother plays, the narrator finally realized and understood his brother’s struggles.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The function of a narrator in any story is to do just that, to narrate the story. However, skilled authors realize that narrators do so much more than simply narrate: they are an essential component of how the story is expressed. Decisions such as having a third person, first person, or omniscient narrator are critical to point of view. In the case of this story, if the narrator had been Sonny himself, the story would be significantly one dimensional; having the brother narrate provides a powerful basis for comparison of life in Harlem. In the short story “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin uses Sonny’s brother, the narrator, to add a layer of meaning to the story that would not exist if the story were told from a third person point of view.…

    • 1147 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” the narrator gets to redeem himself for the neglect of his younger brother. His younger brother, Sonny, found himself battling an addiction to heroin. The short story occurs in the 1950’s in Harlem. Due to the realness of the setting, the reader can apply historical context to the short story. Although “Sonny’s Blues” is not a religious story, the author, James Baldwin, uses Christian symbolism to represent the fall and redemption which the narrator withstands.…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This again provides evidence that the narrator's lack of knowledge and understanding of Sonny’s struggles and problems. The major point of misunderstanding and crack in the brothers relationship is when Sonny admits to his ambitions of wanting a career as a jazz musician. The narrator's replies of “I just don't altogether get it” frays their already damaged relationship. This can be traced back to the conversation with the mother. Sonny did not need someone to fix his suffering for him, he needed someone to be there, to listen and support.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is about differences, understanding and most importantly music. In the story, the unnamed narrator and his brother Sonny struggle to understand each other, which stems from the immense differences in how they live and view life. This story takes place in the 1950’s, which is shortly after the Harlem Renaissance, which is labeled as the “literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity” (history.com). At the time, Jazz was exploding in popularity and is one of the main aspects of the story.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Similar to religion, the word empathy has the potential to relate to any number of entities when viewed through a Marxist lens. Merriam-Webster defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience full communicated in an objectively explicit manner.” This emotional bond can connect a person to anything, not exclusively a fellow human – in the case of Karl Marx, he experienced this relationship with his homeland of Germany. Although Marx is ruthless in denouncing his home country throughout “A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right,” it does not necessarily follow that he despised said nation. On the contrary, harsh criticism is unfailingly born from a deep emotional attachment towards a subject, and…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin (1957) explores the theme of suffering experienced by African Americans. It features the struggle of two brothers separated and caught in the entanglements of time, space and ideals. Both Sonny and his brother are surrounded by a world full of shadows and light, structure and antistructure. The narrator must understand his brother 's fall into drugs, while Sonny himself must recover and learn to stay afloat. Baldwin utilizes aspects of African culture and in particular the three stages of Victor Turner’s rites of passage to talk about pain and affliction done to African Americans during the 1950’s.…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Sonny’s Blues,” by James Baldwin, is a narrative exploring the relationship between Sonny and his older brother. After years of estrangement, Sonny and his brother attempt to resume a brotherly relationship. After watching a revival meeting occur on the street from the window of his home, Sonny’s brother accepts Sonny’s invitation to watch Sonny perform at a local venue. During Sonny’s performance, Sonny’s brother comes finally to understand Sonny. Baldwin’s central idea suggests that people cope with tragedy and hardships in different ways.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Sonny’s Blues”, by James Baldwin, Sonny sets himself in a problematic situation with drug addiction and a loss of communication with his brother. Sonny’s hometown in Harlem causes him to set himself in a dangerous atmosphere, making it impossible to escape from which in Sonny’s situation, is his addiction towards drugs. Not only does Sonny’s habit with drug use causes him a downfall in his life, but it also makes him lose a connection with his brother. Sonny finds a solution to communicate his suffering through music which his brother finally realizes what he was struggling with the whole time. Sonny deals with an internal struggle of a drug addiction and communication within his music is the only way of expressing his backstory to others.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Theme Of Racism In Sonny's Blues

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    Sonny fell into the world of drugs while his brother escaped that route. Irony is also shown at the end of the story when Sonny's brother tries to establish a bond with Sonny and his music. This is a little bit ironic because never before did Sonny's brother have an interest in his music. At the end of the story Sonny is performing one last time; this is when all the pieces come together for both Sonny and his brother, through Sonny's music. As the brother listens to Sonny, he feels Sonny's pain and the pain he has suppressed for a long time.…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Sonny’s Blues”, a major theme is an understanding of each other's feelings and actions is necessary for the brotherly love they reach in the end after everything they had been through. Drugs is a major focus and challenge they struggle to overcome. James Baldwin uses many forms of figurative language. One of the examples of figurative language is imagery. Baldwin uses imagery to portray a message to the audience, going in depth about certain details.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Music is a powerful language which speaks to us, move us, and fills us with emotions. In “Sonny’s Blues”, the voice of jazz reflects the relationship between two brothers. The unnamed narrator who represents one of the one of the sides of the African American experience. Sonny the titular character of the story, Sonny represents the other side of the African American experience. In “Sonny’s Blues” we find an important description of how a musician can express his feeling through his music.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, we see the situation through the eyes of Sonny’s unnamed brother who is narrating it and living it. The two brothers live in two different worlds, with the narrator living a mundane life of a teacher, and Sonny living a life of struggles with becoming a famous musician and his addiction to drugs. Sonny’s addiction to drugs has caused a lot of problems which not only affected his life, but also the life of his brother. In the start of the short story Sonny’s problem with his heroin addiction can already be seen take place.…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Sonny’s Blues, a short story authored by James Baldwin centers around two brothers, their shared past and how their differences separated them. Baldwin tells the story through the eyes of Sonny’s brother, an algebra teacher who remains unnamed throughout the book. The book details the experiences of growing up in New York’s Harlem area in the 1950s and the turmoil of life in this world. Baldwin depicts Harlem as a trap from which the book’s protagonists, Sonny, and his brother, must struggle to escape. In the book, Baldwin examines several themes like racism and discrimination, suffering and poverty and salvation.…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Great literary fictional writers such as James Baldwin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Bernard Malamud are able to use their experiences and backgrounds to advance the meanings of their works through literary elements such as characterization and theme. James Baldwin, author of “Sonny’s Blues,” is regarded as a highly insightful writer, with many works that provide an “unflinching look at the black experience in America” (Biography.com Editors par. 12). Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, to a single mother in Harlem, New York, which is the same setting of his short story, “Sonny’s Blues.” In this work, Baldwin uses characterization, direct and indirect, to allow the reader to understand the struggles placed on different individuals in a community…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays