Impacts of Place
The places that make up a day to day life are surprisingly consistent. Many hours are spent at school, work, and home. Perhaps a library or store. And yet, despite the routine of the everyday life, a remarkable amount of information can be discovered using the objects found in a home or the route taken on the way to work. Because authors create specific settings specifically to mold their characters’ viewpoints, this same focus on place is magnified in fictional works. The physical place, the time period in terms of its politics and social movements, and even the sensory perceptions of the physical surroundings all contribute to what the reader understands about a character. Unsurprisingly, the settings influence the symbolism, …show more content…
The story explores themes of imprisonment and reinvention, of love and addiction. Yet none of these themes would be possible without the settings of the story. Through the physical environment ever present in Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues, the theme, mood, and character development of each major character is significantly influence.
From the first scene in the short story, the setting plays a major role in the character development of the narrator and the contrast between he and his brother, Sonny. The first scene has the narrator on the subway, reading a story about how Sonny has been arrested for a drug deal. The narrator 's presence in the subway literally means only that he is traveling to work in perhaps the quickest way possible in New York, but it also has a literal meaning. The narrator is moving out of Harlem, but also on with his life. He travels through life in a way that his brother, in jail or a rehab facility, does not. This movement is, therefore, both figurative and metaphorical. The narrator also works at a high school, where he teaches boys from Harlem algebra. The story signifies the narrator’s concerns about returning to youth by creating a scene which takes place in the school of his youth. As the narrator looks across …show more content…
The narrator says that as he travels in the car, he “stared at [the newspaper] in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside.”(Baldwin 17) Baldwin’s use of the face in the window demonstrates how even the narrator, who has a successful job at a high school, feels trapped by the constraints Harlem places upon him as a child from a poor family. The subway tunnel moves around him, representing the world that continues to turn, while he remains imprisoned in the same place despite the impression that he is moving as well. This motif of imprisonment is common throughout the text and in continually impacted by the setting of the story. The narrator lives in a housing project, which he describes as run down and consistent with his childhood when he brings Sonny to his home. The narrator states he felt as if he was “bringing [Sonny} back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape”(15). Through this description of his home, the narrator further illustrates the themes of repetition and imprisonment as a society. The housing project, through different in name, is the same on the inside that is has been since the narrator was a child. Desptie growing up, gaining a successful job, and feeling as though he has escaped Harlem, the housing project serves to act as a reminder
The places that make up a day to day life are surprisingly consistent. Many hours are spent at school, work, and home. Perhaps a library or store. And yet, despite the routine of the everyday life, a remarkable amount of information can be discovered using the objects found in a home or the route taken on the way to work. Because authors create specific settings specifically to mold their characters’ viewpoints, this same focus on place is magnified in fictional works. The physical place, the time period in terms of its politics and social movements, and even the sensory perceptions of the physical surroundings all contribute to what the reader understands about a character. Unsurprisingly, the settings influence the symbolism, …show more content…
The story explores themes of imprisonment and reinvention, of love and addiction. Yet none of these themes would be possible without the settings of the story. Through the physical environment ever present in Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues, the theme, mood, and character development of each major character is significantly influence.
From the first scene in the short story, the setting plays a major role in the character development of the narrator and the contrast between he and his brother, Sonny. The first scene has the narrator on the subway, reading a story about how Sonny has been arrested for a drug deal. The narrator 's presence in the subway literally means only that he is traveling to work in perhaps the quickest way possible in New York, but it also has a literal meaning. The narrator is moving out of Harlem, but also on with his life. He travels through life in a way that his brother, in jail or a rehab facility, does not. This movement is, therefore, both figurative and metaphorical. The narrator also works at a high school, where he teaches boys from Harlem algebra. The story signifies the narrator’s concerns about returning to youth by creating a scene which takes place in the school of his youth. As the narrator looks across …show more content…
The narrator says that as he travels in the car, he “stared at [the newspaper] in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside.”(Baldwin 17) Baldwin’s use of the face in the window demonstrates how even the narrator, who has a successful job at a high school, feels trapped by the constraints Harlem places upon him as a child from a poor family. The subway tunnel moves around him, representing the world that continues to turn, while he remains imprisoned in the same place despite the impression that he is moving as well. This motif of imprisonment is common throughout the text and in continually impacted by the setting of the story. The narrator lives in a housing project, which he describes as run down and consistent with his childhood when he brings Sonny to his home. The narrator states he felt as if he was “bringing [Sonny} back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape”(15). Through this description of his home, the narrator further illustrates the themes of repetition and imprisonment as a society. The housing project, through different in name, is the same on the inside that is has been since the narrator was a child. Desptie growing up, gaining a successful job, and feeling as though he has escaped Harlem, the housing project serves to act as a reminder