Salvaging Brotherhood
An Essay on Sonny's blues by James Baldwin
An Essay on Sonny's blues by James Baldwin
Though James Baldwin's, "Sonny's Blues" may seem to some, to only be a story of
racism and the struggles of a troubled black man on the streets, the story unveils a greater theme
of brotherhood and the factors that play into rescuing it. Though the narrator seeks to save his
brother Sonny from his habits and dangerous lifestyle, he ironically is saved by Sonny. The story
is chiefly about brotherhood. Their relationship flourishes in the end with the help of music and
the bonding it provides.
To begin, the author relates immensely to his story and puts a lot of his personality in it. James Baldwin is an American Novelist who was born August 2nd, 1924 in Harlem New York and died in 1987 when racism was still of great prevalence. Baldwin was known for his controversial and socialistic standpoint in his writings. He was raised by a single mother name Emma Jones and never knew his birth father. At the age of 3 his mother married David Baldwin, a Baptist minister. Baldwin followed in his stepfathers footsteps and became a youth minister as a teen. His teen years were also pertinent for the development of his writing skills. Baldwin was always skillful in writing as a youth and as a teen he wrote for his high school's magazine where he published poems, plays, and stories. As previously stated, Baldwin grew up in the heighten times of racial controversy top it all off, James Baldwin was also gay which was not openly
To begin, the author relates immensely to his story and puts a lot of his personality in it. James Baldwin is an American Novelist who was born August 2nd, 1924 in Harlem New York and died in 1987 when racism was still of great prevalence. Baldwin was known for his controversial and socialistic standpoint in his writings. He was raised by a single mother name Emma Jones and never knew his birth father. At the age of 3 his mother married David Baldwin, a Baptist minister. Baldwin followed in his stepfathers footsteps and became a youth minister as a teen. His teen years were also pertinent for the development of his writing skills. Baldwin was always skillful in writing as a youth and as a teen he wrote for his high school's magazine where he published poems, plays, and stories. As previously stated, Baldwin grew up in the heighten times of racial controversy top it all off, James Baldwin was also gay which was not openly
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accepted as much as it is in today's society. While living in Harlem New York and felt he didn’t
fit in too well. He felt that he couldn't write as honestly and openly as he wanted to. He left his
Pentecostal church and moved to Paris in 1948.
When in Paris, he wrote the novel Go Tell it On the Mountain. This novel gave insight on living life as a black individual. The story also touched on family issues, religion, and homosexuality. In 1958 he published the highly controversial book Giovanni's Room. A story only character with white individuals focused around homosexuality. This was extremely courageous of him as the topic of homosexuality in those times was so disapproved. In 1963, he wrote the story The Fire Next Time. This story is about embracing himself as a black individual, atheist, and as a gay man. It was to love one another no matter what and to embrace the fact of becoming one despite differences. The story also talked about the rocky relationship between the Black Muslim Movement and Christianity. This sparked his recognition and Baldwin was put on the cover of Times Magazine. He then wrote the short story. Later he died of stomach cancer and was buried in his hometown of Harlem New York.
To me, I believe both characters personify who James Baldwin is. For an obvious starter, he himself also grew up in Harlem New York like the two brothers. One way I believe Baldwin is similar to Sonny is that he is different. He is different from his fellow Americans in that he is black and he is different from many of his fellow African Americans because he is gay. Sonny is different from his brother in the way they carry out their lives and their beliefs. Baldwin is like the narrator brother of the story because the narrator is trying to promote change. As previously stated, Baldwin was a steadfast activist for much change in society. Even though the brother's want for change is different he is still addiment of the need for change because he feels that his brother will benefit from it.
When in Paris, he wrote the novel Go Tell it On the Mountain. This novel gave insight on living life as a black individual. The story also touched on family issues, religion, and homosexuality. In 1958 he published the highly controversial book Giovanni's Room. A story only character with white individuals focused around homosexuality. This was extremely courageous of him as the topic of homosexuality in those times was so disapproved. In 1963, he wrote the story The Fire Next Time. This story is about embracing himself as a black individual, atheist, and as a gay man. It was to love one another no matter what and to embrace the fact of becoming one despite differences. The story also talked about the rocky relationship between the Black Muslim Movement and Christianity. This sparked his recognition and Baldwin was put on the cover of Times Magazine. He then wrote the short story. Later he died of stomach cancer and was buried in his hometown of Harlem New York.
To me, I believe both characters personify who James Baldwin is. For an obvious starter, he himself also grew up in Harlem New York like the two brothers. One way I believe Baldwin is similar to Sonny is that he is different. He is different from his fellow Americans in that he is black and he is different from many of his fellow African Americans because he is gay. Sonny is different from his brother in the way they carry out their lives and their beliefs. Baldwin is like the narrator brother of the story because the narrator is trying to promote change. As previously stated, Baldwin was a steadfast activist for much change in society. Even though the brother's want for change is different he is still addiment of the need for change because he feels that his brother will benefit from it.
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The unnamed narrator and his brother Sonny couldn't be more opposite. Even though
they grew up in the same household and now live in the same city of Harlem, New York, they
lead completely different lives. While sometimes opposites may compliment each other, these
brothers couldn't be further from the same. This makes for a tumultuous relationship. The older
brother who narrates the story, is a math teacher who seems a success in the eyes of a common
person balancing family life and his job at the school. However behind the naked eye is a
worrisome man who keeps in his emotions and fears. Once he finds out his brother was in jail
again he is upset. “I couldn't believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn't find any room
for it anywhere inside me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn't wanted to know. I had
had suspicions, but I didn't name them, I kept putting them away” (Baldwin). He is extremely
skeptical of how his younger brother is living his life and believes he needs to save him from it.
Sonny on the other hand is freed in a literal sense from prison but still is mentally trapped by his drug addiction and his inability to live his life the way he wants and keep on good terms with his brother. He finds freedom in his jazz music as his brother finds the same comfort in the end. In "James Baldwin's 'Sonny's Blues': Complicated and Simple" by Donnald C. Murray he states, "To be aware of oneself, Baldwin believes, is t feel a sense of loss, to know where we are and what we've left behind...The meaning of "Sonny's Blues" is not, to use the gib phrase, the transcendence of the human condition through art. Baldwin is talking about love and joy, tears of joy because of love." We see in the end that the narrator's fears and stress are washed away as he watches his brother playing his music. He is submerged in his brother's environment and is brought peace by witnessing his brothers talent and happiness that his music brings him.
One important element I took from the story is the acceptance that you can't have the best of both worlds. This can be interpreted in two ways. The brothers are opposite, one is considered
Sonny on the other hand is freed in a literal sense from prison but still is mentally trapped by his drug addiction and his inability to live his life the way he wants and keep on good terms with his brother. He finds freedom in his jazz music as his brother finds the same comfort in the end. In "James Baldwin's 'Sonny's Blues': Complicated and Simple" by Donnald C. Murray he states, "To be aware of oneself, Baldwin believes, is t feel a sense of loss, to know where we are and what we've left behind...The meaning of "Sonny's Blues" is not, to use the gib phrase, the transcendence of the human condition through art. Baldwin is talking about love and joy, tears of joy because of love." We see in the end that the narrator's fears and stress are washed away as he watches his brother playing his music. He is submerged in his brother's environment and is brought peace by witnessing his brothers talent and happiness that his music brings him.
One important element I took from the story is the acceptance that you can't have the best of both worlds. This can be interpreted in two ways. The brothers are opposite, one is considered
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successful and the other unsuccessful in society. Both have issues. No matter your status, or
wealth or profession, everyone experiences pain, regret, worry and grief. The other is that
sometimes you have to compromise in order for a relationship to work. If you truly love
someone you can't expect to change them if you want to keep them in your life. This applies to
life in almost all relationships. Murray goes on to say, "As the narrator listen to his brother's
blues, he recalls his mother, the moonlit road on which his uncle died, his wife Isabel's tears, and
he again sees the face of his dead child, grace. Love is what life should be about but he realizes;
love which is all the more poignant because involved with pain, separation, and death." This ties
into the thoughts of Trouble Reading Sonny's Blues by Eva Kowalska who sates, "Being an
addict is intimately tied up with Sonny being a jazz musician and his disrupted adolescence in
Harlem. The older brother’s need to understand Sonny he is enabled by his own problems,
especially the death of his young daughter. In a way it is the uncontrollability of loss which leads
him to discover his brother’s own responses to unpredictable sorrow and need, through both drug
addiction and music. Sonny’s expression of his experience resonates with many other elements
in the text, suggesting a redemptive integrity." I believe the reason the narrator is trying so hard
to save sonny is because he couldn't save his own daughter. It is very possible he is feeling guilt
for lost time he could have had with his young daughter. He could be blaming himself for time
he could have spent but didn’t. In this situation the narrator couldn’t control what happened to
the daughter in the end but in the case of his brother, he had a better chance.
What would the story be like had James Baldwin started the story with the fatal car crash of his uncle? There is no mistake in Baldwin ending the story in the crash. If he had started the story in the beginning the story would have been centered on racism. By starting the story without the crash, the author presents the audience with a story of two brothers struggling in their
What would the story be like had James Baldwin started the story with the fatal car crash of his uncle? There is no mistake in Baldwin ending the story in the crash. If he had started the story in the beginning the story would have been centered on racism. By starting the story without the crash, the author presents the audience with a story of two brothers struggling in their
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family relations just like the everyday person. This opens up the audients to far more than just
the black community or the topic of racism. While racism plays a key the important theme of
brotherhood far outweighs.
The scriptural story "am I my brothers keeper" can come into play in this story. This is found in the book of Genesis. After Able is killed by Cain, God questions Cain where his brother is. His reply is "Am I my brother's keeper?" How responsible should the narrator be for his brothers "irresponsibility's" and if he fails is it his brother's fault for not helping enough? Eva goes on to state, "In the opening of the text, Baldwin withholds the details of what has happened and builds up the narrator’s anxiety with the words: ‘I was scared, scared for Sonny. He became real to me again’ (p. 170). But despite its being almost overwhelming, his response seems delayed. He cannot maintain his denial at the news that, as he matter-of-factly puts it, ‘[Sonny] had been picked up, the evening before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin’ (p. 170). Despite his shock and fear, he remains at work, teaching all his classes, and afterwards, when he allows himself to consider what has happened, he still does not act, and only writes to Sonny months later. This delay or ‘lag’ lasts throughout the story, and description only catches up with events at the end of the text in an immersive narrative immediacy. At the same time, however, he carries certain expectations of what his brother’s addiction means; he is familiar with it from the outside."
Here the fact can be applied that trying to get someone out of doing something will only push them further in it. This can be a worry of the narrators and might even make him think, "if I somewhat have him in my life now even though he is leading this lifestyle... that is better than trying to get him out of it and losing him." Sometimes in this sort of situation one has to just learn to love them and accept their actions. Luckily in this case not only did the narrator learn to
The scriptural story "am I my brothers keeper" can come into play in this story. This is found in the book of Genesis. After Able is killed by Cain, God questions Cain where his brother is. His reply is "Am I my brother's keeper?" How responsible should the narrator be for his brothers "irresponsibility's" and if he fails is it his brother's fault for not helping enough? Eva goes on to state, "In the opening of the text, Baldwin withholds the details of what has happened and builds up the narrator’s anxiety with the words: ‘I was scared, scared for Sonny. He became real to me again’ (p. 170). But despite its being almost overwhelming, his response seems delayed. He cannot maintain his denial at the news that, as he matter-of-factly puts it, ‘[Sonny] had been picked up, the evening before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin’ (p. 170). Despite his shock and fear, he remains at work, teaching all his classes, and afterwards, when he allows himself to consider what has happened, he still does not act, and only writes to Sonny months later. This delay or ‘lag’ lasts throughout the story, and description only catches up with events at the end of the text in an immersive narrative immediacy. At the same time, however, he carries certain expectations of what his brother’s addiction means; he is familiar with it from the outside."
Here the fact can be applied that trying to get someone out of doing something will only push them further in it. This can be a worry of the narrators and might even make him think, "if I somewhat have him in my life now even though he is leading this lifestyle... that is better than trying to get him out of it and losing him." Sometimes in this sort of situation one has to just learn to love them and accept their actions. Luckily in this case not only did the narrator learn to
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love and accept him, he learned to love the music too and later accepted the drugs that come with
that lifestyle. Eva states, "As the story draws towards its conclusion, the narrator observes
Creole, a fellow musician, who guides Sonny towards his self-expression and then ‘stepped back,
very slowly, lling the air with the immense suggestion that Sonny speak for himself’ (p. 198).
This suggestion is immense on a number of levels. It suggests the other musician’s intimation of
Sonny’s ability, his capacity to transform what he knows into musical form. It suggests also that
Creole knows, having, by implication, experienced ‘trouble’ similar to Sonny’s, having had the
depth of self accessed through, amongst other things, drugs. He is also, it seems, familiar with
immersion in creativity, loss such as the narrator’s, and other fundamental experiences
collectively thought of as ‘trouble’ in the parlance of the story. Furthermore, Creole seems to
know that he can only guide Sonny so far, and then he must let him express his loss and desire
himself, for it is both universal and unique."
The narrator is able to "heal" himself and his own problems while trying to help his brother. In tern they are both healed from their mental aches and struggles and their brotherly bond is renewed and bettered. Baldwins background provides a powerful and striking elements to the story that are relatable to all readers, black, gay, straight, religious or athiest. Everyone can relate to this story because of the simple yet large problems these brothers go through. In the end it didn’t take hours of counseling, a large fight, debate, or much compromise. It only took love and understanding to heal their relationship. In closing the theme of brotherhood is most prevalent in the story and plays the largest roll overruling racism.
Works Cited
The narrator is able to "heal" himself and his own problems while trying to help his brother. In tern they are both healed from their mental aches and struggles and their brotherly bond is renewed and bettered. Baldwins background provides a powerful and striking elements to the story that are relatable to all readers, black, gay, straight, religious or athiest. Everyone can relate to this story because of the simple yet large problems these brothers go through. In the end it didn’t take hours of counseling, a large fight, debate, or much compromise. It only took love and understanding to heal their relationship. In closing the theme of brotherhood is most prevalent in the story and plays the largest roll overruling racism.
Works Cited
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Donald C. Murray: "James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" : Complicated and Simple"
Biography.com https://www.biography.com/people/james-baldwin-9196635
Trouble Reading sonnys blues
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=58ddc36e-e50f-4a2f- aa53-0b557092fa24%40sessionmgr4006
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=58ddc36e-e50f-4a2f- aa53-0b557092fa24%40sessionmgr4006
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