Race and identity are challenging issues to approach in literacy and in life for that matter. Confronting it head on often make these multi-dimensional issues appear flat or over simplified. However, James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” respects the complexity of race and identity by applying multiple tools of setting to demonstrate the processes of change over time, place.
James Baldwin varies the time in which the story is set, relying on a series of flashbacks to develop the identity of Sonny. Upon his release from prison, the narrator brought Sonny into his home though hesitant if it was best for Sonny to be back in Harlem. He explains that he isn’t trying to be judgmental or malice he “was dying to hear him tell me he was safe. …show more content…
The inability to distinguish the time periods allows the reader to see the important events filled with hardship or struggling or isolation of Sonny’s life as if they are all occurring at once. This style established sense of duration that was created by these blended change of time periods emphasize that suffering and tragedy operates Sonny’s life, that is his identity.
As the setting is gradually revealed through details throughout the story, the narrator’s and readers’ perception of Harlem changes. The city of Harlem is depicted as antagonist of “Sonny’s Blues” for both characters. The narrator tries to escape Harlem through enlistment and …show more content…
The narrator learns the truth about his uncle’s death after brushing off the idea that anything would happen to Sonny or his mother. The narrator found out his father and uncle had been out drinking one night when a car full of white men ran over him with a car. She explains to Sonny’s brother that she isn’t trying to scare him or upset him but rather “telling you this because you got a brother. And the world ain’t changed” (Baldwin 77). As Murray further explained in his peer article review that “So, too, the story is cyclical” which is apparent in the parallelism between the past where narrator’s father fails to protect his brother as the present the narrator resents Sonny and failed to protect him, forgetting his promise. Also, when Though civil rights are not the primary focus of “Sonny Blues” the underlying parts of the text set the parameters of the social and racial injustice that the characters are living in. In the story, Sonny scoffs at the thought Louis Armstrong being his idol as his brother suggests. It’s not that Sonny doesn’t think of Armstrong having no talent but rather that he was a sellout to jazz music and the African American culture for money to entrain a white population explaining the bubbling racial tension in this time. These underlying features are as Donald Murray’s article explains as the “Similarities in characters and events link the various
James Baldwin varies the time in which the story is set, relying on a series of flashbacks to develop the identity of Sonny. Upon his release from prison, the narrator brought Sonny into his home though hesitant if it was best for Sonny to be back in Harlem. He explains that he isn’t trying to be judgmental or malice he “was dying to hear him tell me he was safe. …show more content…
The inability to distinguish the time periods allows the reader to see the important events filled with hardship or struggling or isolation of Sonny’s life as if they are all occurring at once. This style established sense of duration that was created by these blended change of time periods emphasize that suffering and tragedy operates Sonny’s life, that is his identity.
As the setting is gradually revealed through details throughout the story, the narrator’s and readers’ perception of Harlem changes. The city of Harlem is depicted as antagonist of “Sonny’s Blues” for both characters. The narrator tries to escape Harlem through enlistment and …show more content…
The narrator learns the truth about his uncle’s death after brushing off the idea that anything would happen to Sonny or his mother. The narrator found out his father and uncle had been out drinking one night when a car full of white men ran over him with a car. She explains to Sonny’s brother that she isn’t trying to scare him or upset him but rather “telling you this because you got a brother. And the world ain’t changed” (Baldwin 77). As Murray further explained in his peer article review that “So, too, the story is cyclical” which is apparent in the parallelism between the past where narrator’s father fails to protect his brother as the present the narrator resents Sonny and failed to protect him, forgetting his promise. Also, when Though civil rights are not the primary focus of “Sonny Blues” the underlying parts of the text set the parameters of the social and racial injustice that the characters are living in. In the story, Sonny scoffs at the thought Louis Armstrong being his idol as his brother suggests. It’s not that Sonny doesn’t think of Armstrong having no talent but rather that he was a sellout to jazz music and the African American culture for money to entrain a white population explaining the bubbling racial tension in this time. These underlying features are as Donald Murray’s article explains as the “Similarities in characters and events link the various