Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

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James Baldwin “Sonny’s Blues
Shanta Carter
South University Online
English 1300
Gabriel Smith, Instructor

The story Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin, explores the theme of suffering experienced by Black Americans as people chained around the ankles by, unemployment, housing problems, the state of being dependent on a drug, state of being locked in a prison, and suicide. The narrator shows the struggle of two brothers separated and caught in the tangled-up connections of time, space and thinking. The narrator is self-reflecting his experiences with different family members such as his mother and his younger brother, Sonny. The narrator was disappointed with Sonny at first due to his interest in becoming a person who makes money from playing music. …show more content…
The older brother gave money to Sonny with his dishonest interest in music at first until it's gotten him mad at Sonny and he told his brother "don't do me no favors" (Kennedy & Gioia, 1957). His reflection is extended into the street as he wonders what most of the young could be done secretly in the ground. It was a hint of a worsening life and destructed future. It seems that the narrator is a witness to all problems that affected his brother, he tends to not care one way or the other to all of these if not possessing a strong character in meeting the challenges in his community and of his race. In the article; Waiting for You he states “Trying to run away from the shame about and fear of one's roots and experiences is a theme that appears in a lot of Baldwin's work. Baldwin himself ran away” (Dempsey, 2011) "knew he had overcome a great hurdle" (Dempsey,

Reality In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

The short story "Sonny's Blues", takes place in the streets of Harlem, New York during the 1950's. Sonny's family had never been good at communicating starting with their parents keeping things from them. This leads to all of them searching for alternative outlets to deal with trapped emotions. In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin illustrates how trying to escape reality can create communication problems with loved ones. Often those who have a hard time communicating have trouble maintaining good relationships…

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Analysis Of Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

“Sonny's Blues" is a story written by James Baldwin that addresses some of life’s most prevalent obstacles. The narrator tells the story of his brother, a man named Sonny who returns to Harlem following his release from prison. Baldwin portrays Sonny’s hardships growing up surrounded by racism, societal pressures and drug abuse. As an adolescent Sonny lost his parents and turned to music as an emotional outlet. His journey displays how in the process of growth, struggle is inevitable because the…

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Summary Of Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” has been a typical representation of life in Harlem in the mid 20th century. The story develops from the narrator’s point of view of learning about Sonny’s drug abuse to Sonny himself discovering his love of music. Sonny’s Blues is written in order to represent Sonny and the narrator’s attempts at “escaping” the ghettos of Harlem. -Sonny and his brother have multiple moments throughout the story in which they attempt to alter their lifestyles in hopes of finding a…

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An Analysis Of Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

The extract of the text I would like to interpret is written by the well-known writer James Baldwin and taken from the story «Sonny's Blues». James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright and novelist regarded as a highly insightful, iconic writer. The author touches upon several significant problems in the text: the problem of heroine addiction, the problem of understanding themselves as well as the problem of children's education and upbringing, the problem of dysfunctional families and poverty…

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The Narrator In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

The story “Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin is a narrative written with a first-person narrator. This written work would be drastically changed if it had a different narrator. The narrator could be different due to him being a different type of narrator, such as a third-person omniscient narrator; a narrator with different knowledge pertaining to the story; a narrator with different interests regarding the story; or a narrator who has a different purpose for telling the story. Everything that…

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Oppressed By Society In Sonny's Blues, By James Baldwin

Reflection Paper In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin enhanced me as a reader on how the affect of music can help bring people to find solutions of being oppressed by their own society. In the story a major character name Sonny was the men being oppressed by society. “They were living as we were living now… They were filled with rage.” James refers to that living in a hostile environment will lead most to start doing drugs at a young age. In a relatable way sonny reminded me of “black males in America…

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Comparing The Lottery And Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin are two famous short stories that talk about tradition, community, and family. Even though they have different settings, characters, and plots, they both have similar ideas that help us understand people and society better. This essay will look at how these stories are alike and different. One thing both stories have in common is that they focus on family relationships. In "The Lottery," people in a village follow a brutal tradition…

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A Literary Analysis Of Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

this essay, I will be connecting the new Jazz Age and the creation of bop with the story by James Baldwin, called Sonny's Blues. The main theme of the story is how drugs, primarily heroin, takes control of Sonny's life and how he tries to cope with his drug addiction. In the story, you have the two main characters, Sonny's brother, whom does not have a name, and Sonny the main focus of the story. Sonny's brother is the narrator and we see the world through his eyes. The narrator saw his brother trying…

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Two Brothers In Sonny's Blues, By James Baldwin

The author of "Sonny's Blues," James Baldwin, tells of a relationship between two brothers that are born seven years apart. The older brother whose name we don't know tells the story. The differences in their ages seem like a chasm, and the older brother wonders if they will ever be able to bridge that gap (Baldwin 79). They seem as though they are opposites; for example, one is an algebra teacher and the other a musician who doesn’t even finish high school and eventually get hooked on drugs;…

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Music In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

The short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, is about two brothers who lose communication and come back into each other's lives after the narrator loses his daughter, Grace. In the end, the brothers reconnect after finally having something to talk about, music. “In "Sonny's Blues," music is everywhere; it is the atmosphere and soundscape of Baldwin's story.” (McParland 132) The art of music helps people better understand another's life. The narrator does not understand, his brother, Sonny’s view on music. He…

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