Sonny's Blues James Baldwin

"Sonny's Blues" is a 1957 short story[1] written by James Baldwin, originally published in Partisan Review.The short story focuses on themes of suffering, forgiveness, and music's beneficial power. Sonny's Blues is told through the eyes of an unknown narrator, examining into the relationship between two brothers: Sonny, a jazz musician struggling with addiction, and the narrator, an educator dealing with his own inner challenges. Set in 1950s Harlem, Baldwin's narrative analyzes the relationship between individual sorrow and systematic injustice, also as the ways in which music may be utilized to heal and unite one another. Baldwin republished the work in the 1965 short story collection Going to Meet the Man.[2]

Sonny's Blues'[1] narrator, a schoolteacher from Harlem, New York finds out that his brother, Sonny, was arrested for the possession of heroin. Looking back on his brother's past as well as their overall relationship with one another, the narrator developed mixed emotions about his brother. He is also concerned about the young boys that he teaches in his class, who may have to deal with similar challenges in their future. The narrator starts to feel the burden of his brother's situation after meeting a friend of Sonny's who warns him that Sonny's problems will not go away even after the rehabilitation.

The narrator finally contacts Sonny after his daughter, Grace, passes away from polio. The narrator leaves for the Army, leaving Sonny with his wife, Isabel, and her parents. When Sonny first makes the choice to start playing the piano, his commitment becomes addictive. Isabel's family couldn't bear the constant noise coming from Sonny's practice of the piano. Sonny leaves the apartment after two days, quits school, and joins the Navy after Isabel's parents find out that he has not been attending school. Problems between the brothers develop after Sonny's return from the Navy until the narrator eventually chooses to repair the gap between them.

After Grace passes away, the narrator considers his responsibilities as an older brother and decides to stand by Sonny. The narrator had mixed feelings about searching Sonny's room once Isabel had taken the children from the house only to become starstruck by the music outside of the apartment. He then realizes how much music has an effect on Sonny emotionally.

The narrator is later invited by Sonny to a Greenwich Village jazz club. Sonny utilizes music as a way to cope and express his thoughts about addiction and suffering at the jazz club. His performance is very powerful and emotional. Sonny initially struggles at the beginning of his performance, but he then pours his heart into the song and draws in the crowd. This incident turns into a breakthrough for the narrator, who develops an understanding of Sonny's agony and how music can turn it into beauty.

Sonny: a young man dealing with heroin addiction. Sonny is a talented jazz musician who uses his art to cope with hardship.

The Narrator: Sonny's older brother is a high school teacher, and the story's focal point. (Name not mentioned)

Isabel: is the narrator's wife. She plays an emotional anchor for the narrator.

Grace: is the narrator's daughter. Her tragic death from polio leads the narrator to reconnect with Sonny after a lengthy period of separation.

Sonny's father: is characterized as a demanding and challenging man. (Name not mentioned)

Sonny's Mother: strong, protective, and wise figure. (Name not mentioned)

Creole: is an experienced musician who acts as Sonny's mentor.

Darkness and Light:

Light and darkness represent both the opposing powers of optimism and sorrow throughout the story of Sonny's Blues. Harlem's persistent darkness which the narrator frequently uses as a metaphor for the community's social issues, poverty, and pain. Moments of light, on the other hand, frequently represent brief hope or understanding, like the comfort of a close family bond or the relief that comes from listening to music. Baldwin illustrates the conflict between confinement and freedom in the lives of the characters through the use of these conflicting forces.

“And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens, he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they won't talk anymore because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him.” (Baldwin, 1957, pg. 9)

Baldwin utilizes darkness to represent the pain and suffering that Harlem's children are destined to endure. The children have concerns about their future simply because they have witnessed the darkness that the older generations have experienced.

“[Your father] says he never in his life seen anything as dark as that road after the lights of that car had gone away. Weren't nothing, weren't nobody on that road, just your Daddy and his brother and that busted guitar.” (Baldwin,1957, pg.10)

Baldwin uses darkness to reveal the depth of suffering that the father of this short story went through, after he witnessed the death of his brother.

“[The band] horsed around, standing just below the bandstand. The light from the bandstand spilled just a little short of them and watching them laughing and gesturing and moving about, I had the feeling that they… were being most careful not to step into that circle of light; if they moved into the light too suddenly, they would perish in flame” (Baldwin, 1957 pg. 23)

Although there is hope, it is still difficult to obtain, "just a little short of them," as Baldwin portrays with the symbolic view of light.

“For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.” (Baldwin, 1957 pg. 24)

Baldwin suggests that self-expression is a means of discovering or achieving light.

Housing Projects: The housing projects represent the oppression that African Americans in Harlem faced. Although they are built with good intentions, they are inevitably transformed into what the builders were trying to fix, and there is no attempt to correct such transformation. It sort of becomes a “parody of good.” It’s a representation of the ever-present societal oppression that African Americans in Harlem faced. “These streets hadn't changed, though housing projects jutted up out of them now like rocks in the middle of a boiling sea. Most of the houses in which we had grown up had vanished… But houses exactly like the houses of our past yet dominated the landscape, boys exactly like the boys we once had been found themselves smothering in these houses, came down into the streets for light and air and found themselves encircled by disaster. Some escaped the trap; most didn't. Those who got out always left something of themselves behind.” (Baldwin, 1957, pg. 7)

The Streets of Harlem: the streets serve as a representation of oppression and confinement. Baldwin portrays the neighborhood as the setting of crime, poverty, and hopelessness, reflecting the characters terrible lives and limited opportunities. Harlem, however, also symbolizes identity and community, capturing the struggles and shared culture that influence Sonny's and his narrator's lives.

The Obligation Toward Brotherly Love: The entire story revolves around the relationship between the narrator and his brother Sonny. Before the narrator’s mother dies, she bestows him the role of Sonny’s keeper; she tells the narrator to watch over Sonny, and to “let him know that [he’s] there.” Later in the story, Sonny reminds the narrator that although he is clean from drug abuse, his problems are far from over, and the narrator makes a silent promise to himself to always be there for his brother.

Music as a Form of Expression: Sonny's hardship and perseverance are expressed through music, especially jazz and blues. For Sonny, music is a powerful way to explore self-expression as well as a way to cope with grief. With its roots in African American history, the genre of blues symbolizes the community's perseverance and collective suffering. Sonny utilizes music as a language to express his feelings, experiences, and character journey while he plays the piano, which in the end helps his brother, the narrator, understand him.

The Limited Opportunities for African Americans in Harlem: James Baldwin offered an observation on the cultural oppression of African Americans and the limited possibilities that follow from this oppression through the symbolism of the housing developments and his overall descriptions of the neighborhood. There is an ongoing relationship between the community's poverty and emotions of poverty and lack of hope.

The Cup of Trembling: Baldwin makes a reference to Isaiah 51:17, the Biblical "cup of trembling," which represents the burden of suffering and deliverance. The cup symbolism becomes physical in the final scene as Sonny performs his song, and the narrator witnesses a drink trembling on the piano as Sonny is playing. This scenario highlights the healing abilities of music and how it allows Sonny to face and change his suffering into something meaningful and unique.

• In the final scene Creole, the band and Sonny play "Am I Blue?".
• A reference to a passage in the Bible is made at the end of the story, when Baldwin compares the Scotch and milk placed in front of Sonny as the "cup of trembling." This is an allusion to Isaiah 51:17.

Songs referenced

• "Lord You Brought Me From a Long Ways Off"
• "Mighty Long Way You've Brought Me"
• "Some Cold, Rainy Day"
• "The Old Ship of Zion"
• "If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again"
• "God Be with You Till We Meet Again"
• "Am I Blue?"

1. ^ Making Arguments about Literature. Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St. Martins. 2005. p. 553.
2. ^ Baldwin, James (1965). Going to Meet the Man. Dial Press.

[1]

3.[2] 4.[3]

[4][5]

• PDF of the short story as included in The Jazz Fiction Anthology
• Archive of the 1957 Partisan Review that originally published Sonny's Blues

1. ^ Nikopoulos, James (2022). ""A Kind of Joy": Laughing and Grinning through "Sonny's Blues"". James Baldwin Review. 8: 51–65. doi:10.7227/JBR.8.3. ISSN 2056-9203. JSTOR 48697109.
2. ^ Walter, Patrick F (August 30, 2021). "Intoxicating Blackness: Addiction and Ambivalent Sounds of Fugitive Life in James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues"". MELUS. 46 (3): 44–64. doi:10.1093/melus/mlab025. ISSN 0163-755X.
3. ^ Jenks, Tom (August 1, 2024). "Series Introduction". James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": v–vi. doi:10.1093/oso/9780192884244.002.0005. ISBN 978-0-19-288424-4.
4. ^ Reilly, John M. (1970). ""Sonny's Blues": James Baldwin's Image of Black Community". Negro American Literature Forum. 4 (2): 56–60. doi:10.2307/3041352. JSTOR 3041352.
5. ^ Bernstein Goldman, Suzy (Autumn 1974). "James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues": A Message in Music". Negro American Literature Forum. 8 (3): 231–233. doi:10.2307/3041461. JSTOR 3041461.