Escaping the Pit by Burke Loveridge
The
formation of a successful relationship between siblings is hard enough as is, imagine
the complications that would arise in creating an effective brotherhood between
a recently released prison inmate, heroin addict and his school teacher brother
who is seven years older. The relationship is hard to build left at that, but
with the added information that these brothers are African Americans in the
1950’s of America, where racism still plays a strong role in society, adds
another strain on the formation of their brotherhood. The relationship
described is found in James Baldwin’s short story entitled “Sonny’s Blues”
between Sonny and his older brother, the narrator. The story depicts the life
and relationship between two African American brothers who chose two very
different paths for their lives: the younger brother, Sonny, an ex-con for
heroin use and sale, now an aspiring jazz musician and the older brother, the
unnamed narrator, a high school math teacher. The story takes place after Sonny
has been released from prison and is living with his older brother in their
childhood hometown of Harlem. The brothers have difficulty communicating their
feelings with one another, pushing them further apart. As Sonny gets back into
his musical groove, the communication between the two brothers begins to take a
turn as they finally come to an understanding with each other. Throughout the story “Sonny’s Blues”,
James Baldwin shows times of darkness in the brother’s lives, to convey that
the development of communication inspired by music leads to strengthened
brotherhood.
The
beginning of “Sonny’s Blues” introduces some differences between the two
brothers. As a result of following the rough path, gangster life that Harlem
offers Sonny, he begins the story in prison for use and distribution of heroin.
Seven years older, the narrator of the story makes his best attempt at getting
as far away from the drug using, low-life stereotype for African American’s of
the time by gaining a respectable job as a high school math teacher. The
starting point of both brothers in the story shows the different ends of the
spectrum for African American at the time in America. The differences between
the brothers are further contrasted with their preferences of jazz musicians. In
the story Sonny speaks to his brother about his idol of jazz musicians, Charlie
Parker, who is unknown to the narrator since he favors the jazz musician Louis
Armstrong. Sonny’s favoritism of Parker brings up a similarity between the two
men since they both became drug users in their early teenage years. Aside from
their drug use, they relate with their wonky all-over-the-place music, as well
as free-flowing ways of life. On the other side of the spectrum is the popular,
more traditional jazz musician, Louis Armstrong. In comparison to other jazz
musicians, Armstrong was viewed as an old-time or down-home jazz performer. The
narrator’s favor of Armstrong shows his different viewpoint as he is from a
different generation than Sonny. Parker compared to Armstrong is a parallel
representation of Sonny compared to the narrator since Sonny fell into the
influence of drugs and the narrator chose to become a school teacher, showing
the variation between the generations by which each brother was influenced. “Baldwin’s
equating Sonny with Parker and his brother with Armstrong is important because
it emphasizes the difference between the two brothers” (Albert 180) in the way
that Sonny followed the lower end of the spectrum with drug use and his brother
pushes as far away as possible to a different, more mature generation in which
he obtained a more traditional job. The differences in perference of jazz
musicians and ways of life create an understanding of the transformation that
each brother went through from childhood to adulthood, which weakened the bond
of brotherhood between them.
Communication
becomes relevant in the story as the narrator reveals dark events that have
played a major role in his life. “The narrator is only really able to listen” (Sherard
691) to what his brother has to say and what is going on in his life. Up until
the realization of connection between darkness, the narrator only has the
ability to hear and listen to the things that Sonny has to say, he cannot
formulate an acceptable response. Darkness is introduced at the start of the
story as the narrator in the subway car reads about his brother who has been
imprisoned and his feelings were described as “trapped in the darkness which
roared outside” (Baldwin 73). This feeling portrayed by the narrator shows his
feelings of speechlessness, hopelessness, and helplessness towards his brother
as he knows that he has no control over the situation that his brother is
facing. This image of darkness transitions the story to later scenes of
darkness surrounding the narrator. The next dark occurrence is the death of the
narrator’s daughter, Gracie, which influences him to communicate the news to
his imprisoned brother in a letter. The darkness surrounding the narrator in
his time of sorrow signaled him a reminder that he needed to continue his relationship
with his brother. Later in the story, the narrator describes a flashback where
his mother was waiting up in the darkness of the night by the window for Sonny
to come home from off the streets. The mother’s reasoning was to be sure that
Sonny wasn’t killed like the way that the brothers’ uncle had been run over in
the darkness of the road late at night from being intoxicated. Nearing the end
of the short story, we see that the narrator develops a habit resembling his
mother’s.
When
Sonny stays with his older brother, the narrator comes to the thought that his
brother is back to his old ways. Just as his mother had waited up in the night
looking out the window for Sonny to arrive home safely, the narrator began
looking out the window for Sonny to arrive home one Saturday to question what
he had been up to. As the narrator gazed out of the window he noticed Sonny
observing a revival being put on by the three sisters and brother on a street
corner. When Sonny returned home the brothers engaged in one of their first
honest talks in the whole story. The discussion revealed Sonny’s truth to “his
brother that the woman’s voice reminded him of what heroin feels like” (Goldman
232). Hearing the voice of the woman put Sonny back in a time where heroin
would make him feel comfortable as he was using heroin. Conversation of the
soothed feeling Sonny receives from the woman’s voice leads to the connection
that playing the piano awakens similar feelings. In this successful
communication between the brothers, Sonny ends up inviting the older brother to
his jazz performance later that night.
Upon
entering the dark jazz club, the narrator feels uneasy and out of place. After
just a couple moments of meeting Sonny’s friends and onlookers of the
performance the narrator’s uneasiness changes to peace and comfort as he finds
that the people are supportive and look up to his brother. This feeling takes a
turn once again as the band begins to play and the narrator feels as though
Sonny and his piano playing was not meshing with the rest of the group. As they
continue to play, the narrator realizes that the fault in the band is actually
the band leader and fiddle player, Creole. The name of the band leader being
Creole is significant since that term is representative of a black man “whom
passed for white and set themselves above the Negroes” (Albert 181). A black
man putting himself above other African Americans can be easily related to the
narrator and as he tries to put himself on the farthest point away from the
stereotypical African American as was possible without being a white man.
Creole’s disturbance to the harmony of the band during the beginning of the
performance alludes to the narrator. In the earlier parts of the story, the
narrator disrupts the brotherhood since he doesn’t write to Sonny until he had
been in prison for quite some time. This instance resembles the narrator’s
feeling of superiority to Sonny and most African Americans for a majority of
the story.
As
the performance continues, the musicians synchronize with one another producing
pleasant jazz music at last. Nearing the end of the performance, the spotlight
turns to Sonny for his piano solo of the song “Am I Blue”. As the sound of the
piano playing the song fills the club, the music indicates that “Sonny is doing
his best to talk, the narrator knows he should listen” (Goldman 232). The way
that Sonny plays the piano with such great effort and emotion pours out his
feelings to his older brother through the sound of the jazz music. The piano provides
an outlet for Sonny to “release the storm” and reveal the possibility that he
may return to drug use (Goldman 233). The narrator receives and understands the
message and with the possibility of returning to drug use, as the older
brother, the narrator becomes understanding to the likelihood of the
reappearance of Sonny’s old habit. Sonny’s piano solo strengthens the bond of
brotherhood as the narrator comes to an understanding of what his brother is
thinking and going through.
Not
only did Sonny’s solo of the song “Am I Blue” strengthen the brotherhood
through understanding by communication, it further reinforced their
relationship through its’ symbolism. The song choice is significant because it
was a blues song written by two white men for a popular African American
musician who paid her dues to the world and sang some blues. This relation is
significant since it can be inferred that Sonny played the song to communicate
to his brother that even white men more prestigious than African Americans could
write a song creating a bond between blacks and whites instead of pushing away
and valuing themselves as better than blacks. The choice of this song
“impresses itself up Sonny’s brother and brings him back into the community
with his black brothers and sisters” (Albert 179) since it reflected upon black
heritage and how it could synchronize with white heritage. The musical blues
strengthen the brotherhood with successful communication and understandings of
one another at last.
After
the hassle to communicate effectively with one another throughout most of the
story, the narrator finally reaches an understanding through blues music. The
story shows an increase of communication skills such as listening, expressions,
interpreting body language, being aware of differences, and working to resolve
the conflict (Collingwood 1) through the expressions of music. In the story
these means of improved communication have an impact on the bond of
brotherhood, proving the message that communication plays a major role in the
formation of this bond. The key that opened the door to the brothers’
successful communication was the darkness at first, leading to the honest
conversation between the brothers and then to Sonny’s performance in the jazz
club. The performance in the jazz club most effectively shows how the brothers
used music to understand each other and escape the pit of disparity between them.
In “Sonny’s Blues” a brotherhood is formed between the two brothers through
communication made possible by music.
Works
Cited
Albert, Richard N. “The Jazz-Blues Motif in
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues"” College
Literature: Spring, 1984. Vol. 11, No.
2, pp.178-185,
Baldwin, James. “Sonny's Blues.” The Norton
Introduction to Literature, 11th ed., W. W. Norton
& Company, pp. 73–101.
Goldman, Suzy B. “James Baldwin's "Sonny's
Blues": A Message in Music” Negro
American
Literature Forum:
Autumn, 1974. Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 231-233,
Sherard, Tracey. “Sonny's
Bebop: Baldwin's "Blues Text" as Intracultural Critique” African
American
Review: Winter, 1998. Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 691-705,
Collingwood, Jane. “Five Easy Steps To Better
Communication” PsychCentral: July 17,
2016.
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