Theme Of Suffering In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

In the short story Sonny’s Blues created by James Baldwin in 1957, he addresses a variety of life themes and how individual characters cope with pressures. Baldwin starts the story off with a brother’s realization that his younger brother has been arrested for selling heroin, reconciling with past memories he has about his younger brother. As the story progresses and Sonny is released from jail, the narrator develops mixed feelings towards his brother and his unhealthy lifestyle. Only until the narrator sees Sonny play at a local bar does he realize that Sonny’s outward appearance is not who he truly is. James Baldwin used symbolism in the form of light throughout the story to develop and highlight the narrator’s changing attitude towards Sonny in order to emphasize the overall theme about how each person copes with suffering in various ways. By symbolizing light, the author shows how different people cope in different ways. At the beginning of the short story, when the narrator was walking with Sonny’s junkie friend, a bright light illuminated the junkie’s facial features that revealed to the narrator, a clear image of who Sonny would hang around with. Showing how the “bright sun deadened his damp dark brown skin and it …show more content…
People struggle with societal suffering in the form of depression, anxiety, and loss that can lead to a downward spiral of mentality and health. This spiralling effect has the capability to result in coping mechanisms in the form of alcohol or even to the extreme of taking their own life. However, someone can find a release for all this negativity through alternative methods such as a hobby or special interest in the same way that Sonny connects with music. Sonny’s Blues shows that there are alternative methods for escaping suffering and that when life gets hard whether it’s from personal loss or bad influences there is a way to