Sonny’s Blues

Sonny's Blues, written by James Baldwin, tells the story of two brothers, one an Algebra teacher in Harlem and the other a Jazz musician who became a crack dealer and a heroin user, both victims of the disparities faced by African Americans before and after the civil rights movement. The plot begins with the narrator discovering his brother's conviction for cocaine possession and opioid use while on his way to school. Baldwin discusses the gloom of events, Harlem, and humans. The usage of Harlem reflects the narrator's and his brother's forced existence in sorrow and hardship. Several images of darkness are present from the start of the story where the narrator is surrounded by it when he came to know of the arrest of his brother (Baldwin 122). For instance, he says that “trapped in the darkness that roared outside.”

Although the story has a title of “Sonny’s Blues,” it is evident that Sony plays majorly bebop, a new kind of Jazz music. The blues are not a particular genre of music for Baldwin, but a universal kind of music. The author argues that blues are the “tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph” (139). Based on this quote from the narrator, the story “Sonny’s Blues” is itself a blues piece as it starts with the tragedies of the two brothers, strengthening sense of communion, and concludes with the victory over brotherly love alienation and pain. The narrator explains that this formula is not innovative but asserts that, “it is the only light we have got in all this darkness” (139). Therefore, the title does not refer to a particular genre of music that Sonny plays but to “Sonny’s Blues” of suffering and triumph of loss and redemption through music.

Baldwin elaborates the idea of entrapment in Harlem by arguing that with the child overhearing the conversation, “he will know too much too soon, about what is going to happen.” (Baldwin 131). The tragedies continue to befall the narrator and his brother throughout their entire lives that keep the darkness hanging over their heads. After the death of their parents, Sonny develops a drug addiction, which later lands him in jail. Through the tragedies in the story, “Sonny’s Blues” represent the process of the black Harlem people giving into the darkness and living in the terrible situation as past generation.

Furthermore, music is mostly known as the capstone of African America culture. Music plays a significant role in the dealing the culture of Harlem and the characters in Sonny’s Blues. At a tender age, Sonny decides that he would like to become a musician when grows up, a kind of decision that his brother accepts (Baldwin 135). He talks of prominent Jazz musician of his era especially, Charlie Parker, who had broken out of the traditional conventions of jazz to come up with a new free form of musical expression that is so dear to them. For Sonny, the world is a different setting from the one his older brother was raised up in and due to this effect, requires new artistic forms pass the message.

The Sonny’s music that he loves and plays so much was based slightly on a formal order than on a clear expression of a soul. For example, the song came to be known as Bebop, and it was a radically new form of jazz. According to musicians such as Sonny, “the freedom of expression that came with the new style of jazz, bebop was an excellent opportunity to live freely, defy norms, and social conventions, and develop a new and original thing” (Baldwin 132). However, the use of drugs was a major challenge to the musicians of that era as most of them were constantly tempted to use the drugs. The musical hero identified by Sonny, Charlie Parker, was highly addicted to drugs and died at an early age as result of the addiction and the effects of the drugs.

Music has been used as the only way of expression for Sonny. Through the entire story, he strives to communicate with a brother who declines to hear him. Thus narrator rejects outright his position for music and his desire to depart from Harlem. However, the author achieved several things through the writing and publishing of the “Sonny’s Blues.” They serve as a memoir into the lives of African-Americans in Harlem during the 1950s. Also, the story shows the struggles and tragedies that are often faced in relationships concerning moral and ethical values and responsibilities (Baldwin 146). Through Sonny’s music, he was able to understand the struggles of his brother and through them he understood his own. Just as music, suffering has also been seen throughout Sonny’s Blues”. The darkness that engulfed Harlem symbolizes the suffering and the tragedies brought by the community. Additionally, suffering when channeled through art, carries tremendous redemptive potential. Therefore, the story has focused on the significance of embracing community and heritage that were relevant to the political struggles that occurred in the African American society.

Work Cited

Baldwin, James. Sonny's blues. Ernst Klett Sprachen, 2009. Print.