Sonny’s Blues

Scott

ENGL 102

Module 3 Essay

Assessing Essay

“Sonny’s Blues”

“Sonny's Blues" is a heartfelt story written by an incredible author, James Baldwin, who has long been one of my favorite writers. This piece, like many of his others, details the plight of African Americans freeing themselves from the mental bondages of their surroundings, the ghetto. This story tells us about two brothers, their individual flight from their repressed surroundings and their eventual unification as brothers through the powerful language and musical art knows as jazz.

The title of the story "Sonny's Blues" is an excellent use of symbolism. The term “blues” accurately depicts the bondage and plight of Sonny and his brother as Black men in a white society, it is used as a method of discussing Sonny's struggles with his addiction, and it personifying as the Sonny’s aspirations of a jazz career.

Baldwin frequently writes in the first person, and this piece is no exception. The story is written from the prospective of the unnamed older brother who, through his educational experiences feel that he has fled the consequences of poverty. Although he continues to live in a public housing development, he has mentally surpassed what white society has expected for a Black man during this era. He has served in the military, married, has become educated, is a white collar worker - a teacher, and is raising children of his own . The brother wrestles with that fact that he, but not Sonny has succeeded to overcome the barriers of his poverty and states, “Some escaped the trap, most didn’t. Those who got out always left something behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap. It might be sad, perhaps, that I had escaped, after all, I was a school teacher.” This brother has made a promise to his mother to look after his younger brother and lives constantly with the guilt that he has not been able to accomplish the tasks of parenting and protecting his brother to the best of his abilities. He also struggles mentally with how to deal with his brother's addiction throughout the entire story.

The younger brother, Sonny has made mistakes in his life that have led him down the path of the drug world. His struggles are much different than his brothers. He is not able to cope with the demands of society and flees physically from his ghetto surroundings. He also flees mentally to an altered state of consciousness produced by using heroin. Although the story is not written through Sonny's voice, we are able to understand the pain of his addition as it is articulated through and to his brother. The older brother is not well versed in the consequences of the drug world; he does not understand the nature of addiction. In a conversation with one of Sonny’s buddies he posses the question, “Tell me why does he want to die? He must want to die, he’s killing himself, why does he want to die?” The response of “He don’t want to die. He wants to live. Don’t nobody want to die, ever.” does not extinguish the burning questions that the brother maintains regarding Sonny’s addictive life style.

Growing up, the two brothers were not very close. The seven year differences in their ages, their personality distinctions, and dissimilar interests have led them in different directions even though they were raised in