James Baldwin

Narrator goes from expressing his innermost thoughts when first bringing Sonny home, “I was trying to find out something about my brother” to the past, “‘Safe!’ my father grunted…” and then back to the present “[my father] always went on like this….” Baldwin also seemed to utilize descriptions of characters’ eyes to convey a character’s actual feelings. When describing Sonny’s eyes after a fight with the Narrator over living with Isabel, he wrote, “There was something in his eyes I’d never seen…

James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room is a rebellious book that tells the story of a controversial love between two men, David and Giovanni, in the romantic city of Paris. In Giovanni's Room, David searches for his identity through his homosexuality, his masculinity, and his feeling of exile as he experiences new loves and loves lost. This is significant because Giovanni's Room was a novel far before it's time due to its narrative of a man scrutinizing his identity as a homosexual in a time where…

An enthralling tale between two afflicted brothers in Harlem, James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues is told from the point of view of Sonny's brother, whose name is never revealed to readers. This short story illustrates the brothers' struggle with living in the projects of Harlem, cultural issues, and their own inner demons. As the two brothers combat their interior conflicts and exterior environmental toils, they are reunified through a common theme in the story: musical expression. Sonny's Blues is a…

A short story that is heavily influenced by the civil rights movement is Sonny’s Blues. This inspiring short story is written by James Baldwin, a truly great African American author, and was published in 1957. This racial unrest is shown through an analysis of this story’s setting, characters, symbols and themes. The setting of this story takes place in 1920’s Harlem, New York, and known for the “Harlem Renaissance” movement. It was the center for black culture; black artists flocked to this…

In James Baldwin’s story “Sonny’s Blues”, one can automatically identify that the two brother’s personalities are polar opposites right from the start. Sonny, one of the main characters, is more musically inclined, social and takes risks while his brother is more logical, academically successful, and reserved (Joseph). Readers may relate to this with their own family because they are genetically similar but seem to be totally different from each other. Baldwin could be trying to show that…

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. Despite…

written by James Baldwin released during the Civil Rights Movement. Both essays give a detailed examination of the ongoing racial struggles taking place in the United States at the time of their publication. Mr. Baldwin goes into great detail about the underlying issues which are contributing to the racial tension in the U.S. Baldwin also provides some worthwhile advice on how to go about repairing the crumbling American populace. Although the ideals and practices supported by Mr. Baldwin…

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…

In Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, David abandoned his lover, Giovanni, for his fiancee, Hella. David faced pressure from society and himself to be with a woman, any woman. Queer theory can be clearly seen as David’s morals drive him away from Giovanni and other men. To begin with, David discovers that he may be interested in men when he spends time with a boy named Joey. They kiss and spend a night together and the next morning David leaves. “Above all, I was suddenly afraid. It was borne in…

Sonny’s Blues Light and Darkness motifs One of the most revered of James Baldwin’s stories is Sonny’s Blues; wildly debated for its variety of topics the short story embodies. Racial discrimination, emotional respite through music (Jazz), Harlem’s quandary and Light and Dark imagery are some of the various topics he conveys in this story. James Baldwin contrasts light and dark motifs to denote the narrator’s feelings about different situations he faced in his life. The narrator employs light and…