Sonny's Blues Literary Analysis Essay
“Sonny’s Blues”
In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, we learn about two brothers, Sonny, and his older brother, the narrator. This story is as much about the narrator as it is about Sonny. Despite the fact that each takes separate paths in life, both still go through an immense amount of suffering. While the unconditional love this family revives plays a vital role in their success as individuals, at the end of the day, it is the individual who will choose his own destiny. They are each able to rise above the trials and tribulations that have become socially acceptable in the community they have grown up in. Even though ultimately it is the individual that decides his own fate, this story is about the struggles two brothers go through in …show more content…
These roads are very different. The narrator sticks to service before self by first serving in the military and then coming home to be a teacher in Harlem, meanwhile, Sonny begins skipping out on school to hangout with less than desirable influences and eventually finds himself locked up in prison after getting caught up in a drug bust. The narrator distances himself emotionally from his brother and the people of Harlem. He loves his brother but is very critical of Sonny’s life and decisions. Shortly after he learns of his brothers fate following a drug bust, the narrator talks to a friend of Sonny’s and asks why Sonny wants to die. “He don’t want to die. He wants to live. Don’t nobody want to die, ever.” (503) It has not clicked at this point that this is merely his brothers suffering as he struggles to try and follow his dream into music. The brothers’ drift apart further after Sonny goes to prison, and it is the narrator’s suffering that eventually reunites them, “And I didn’t write Sonny or send him anything for a long time.” (503) “I think I may have written Sonny the very day that little Grace was buried. I was sitting in the living room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My trouble made his real.” (511) At this point in the story, the narrator understands the suffering his brother has had to endure. Baldwin is showing us that despite the paths we take and the choices we make, none of us are immune from suffering in life. There will always be something to
In “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, we learn about two brothers, Sonny, and his older brother, the narrator. This story is as much about the narrator as it is about Sonny. Despite the fact that each takes separate paths in life, both still go through an immense amount of suffering. While the unconditional love this family revives plays a vital role in their success as individuals, at the end of the day, it is the individual who will choose his own destiny. They are each able to rise above the trials and tribulations that have become socially acceptable in the community they have grown up in. Even though ultimately it is the individual that decides his own fate, this story is about the struggles two brothers go through in …show more content…
These roads are very different. The narrator sticks to service before self by first serving in the military and then coming home to be a teacher in Harlem, meanwhile, Sonny begins skipping out on school to hangout with less than desirable influences and eventually finds himself locked up in prison after getting caught up in a drug bust. The narrator distances himself emotionally from his brother and the people of Harlem. He loves his brother but is very critical of Sonny’s life and decisions. Shortly after he learns of his brothers fate following a drug bust, the narrator talks to a friend of Sonny’s and asks why Sonny wants to die. “He don’t want to die. He wants to live. Don’t nobody want to die, ever.” (503) It has not clicked at this point that this is merely his brothers suffering as he struggles to try and follow his dream into music. The brothers’ drift apart further after Sonny goes to prison, and it is the narrator’s suffering that eventually reunites them, “And I didn’t write Sonny or send him anything for a long time.” (503) “I think I may have written Sonny the very day that little Grace was buried. I was sitting in the living room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My trouble made his real.” (511) At this point in the story, the narrator understands the suffering his brother has had to endure. Baldwin is showing us that despite the paths we take and the choices we make, none of us are immune from suffering in life. There will always be something to