Preview

Sonny's Blues Narrator

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
279 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sonny's Blues Narrator
“Sonny’s Blues,” is a story written in the first-person point of view. The story opens up with the narrator find out his younger brother Sonny being held in prison due to the use and sale of heroine. Thorough the day the narrator can’t seem to focus on his day due to the awful news he read about his brother. He then speaks to one of his brother’s friend that lets him know how difficult Sonny’s life has been due to his drug addiction and how it will continue to be. Time passes by, but the narrator never reaches out to his brother in prison until his daughter, Grace, dies. Sonny then replies back making a constant communication with one another, later then taking Sonny to his house after his jail release. The narrator suddenly has a flashback

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Sonny’s Blues the narrator was a bit apprehensive towards Sonny’s music and passion for playing the piano. He felt that it would only drag Sonny back down the same road to heroin use that he had recovered from. At the same time the narrator showed a great deal of love toward his brother because he kept his promise to his mother to look out for Sonny. When the narrator sees Sonny perform in the nightclub, he notices that’s the way Sonny escapes his problems. The narrator also at that same moment realized, he too is in a way like his brother, looking…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” explores the narrator’s and Sonny’s roles in their fraternal relationship. After their mother’s death, the narrator assumes a parental role while Sonny matures and grows more independent. This causes Sonny to run away from home in search of control over his own life. Baldwin puts his characters through immense suffering.…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a story about two brothers who grow apart and reunite after many struggles. The narrator, Sonny’s brother, tells the story through his point of view regarding their issues, heartache, and finally their acceptance. The brother has the knowledge of the past from his mother that helps to shape the story and makes his point of view credible. His point of view, knowledge of the past, and his own experiences help to give the reader clarity of the overall meaning.…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sonny’s Blues shows a theme of salvation, or being saved. Not only do the two brothers need salvation from the world but they need salvation from their inner beings as well. Their world is filled with drugs, imprisonment, and the evil that resides around them. Salvation comes in many forms in this short story. The narrator is haunted by the thought of not responding to his brother, a failure that continues to haunt him because he denied all his obligations to his brother, Sonny and his dying mother. Also the death of the narrator’s daughter, Grace, is actually a form of salvation. It makes the narrator write a letter to his brother in search of forgiveness. This serves as salvation for Sonny who had just got out of jail, and wants to be…

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brothers tend to grow apart yet eventually find a way to revive an old beat up relationship. These brothers grew up on the rough streets of Harlem and went their separate ways. Sonny was a drug-addicted musician and his older brother was a high school algebra teacher with a family. The way the two brothers reunite through addiction, memories and strife make their bond seem stronger than ever. Sonny's Blues, by James Baldwin, is a story about enlightenment through brotherhood when Sonny and his brother go to the club.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story, written by James Baldwin, about two brothers from Harlem, NY. The story is told in the first person perspective by one brother about is younger brother, Sonny. The narrator, who remains unnamed throughout the story, is Sonny’s older brother and no other siblings are mentioned, so it is safe to assume it is only the two of them. The narrator remains unnamed simply because his name is not relevant. The story is told by him, from his perspective, however, it does not matter who he is exactly. The narrator is a representation of the few black men in that time that were able to overcome the effects of…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sonny's Blues Thesis

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sonny’s Blues was first published in 1957 by James Baldwin. The story takes place in Harlem, a historically African American neighborhood in New York City. This story was the start of Baldwin commitment to the civil rights movement, and he became a spokesman for African Americans during the 60’s. Sonny’s Blues is about two brothers, Sonny and the narrator, that suffer in multiple ways that involves music, drug abuse, the way the interact with each other, and even nightmares. Suffering can cause a human to change their point of view drastically. Only a few can overcome the curve balls life decides to throw at one. “Sonny’s Blues” is a fantastic example about how suffering can change a person, but…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, a brother named Sonny was arrested for using and selling drugs. The narrator is the older brother of Sonny who finds out he’s in jail through the newspaper, he had not spoken to him in years. After Sonny’s release from prison, he moves in with his older brother and for a period of time they both attempt to deal with each other. Drugs had taken over most of Sonny’s life mainly because of his father’s personality, his neglecting brother and the harsh living environment.…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article, Words and Music: Narrative Ambiguity in "Sonny's Blues", author Keith Byerman studies the relationship between art and language and the effects that it has in James Baldwin's narrative, Sonny's Blues. In order for Byerman to examine the narrative, he begins under the assumption that there is no conflict resolution between Sonny and his brother, the narrator. "According to Jonathan Culler", in paragraph 2, "resolution can be accomplished in a story when a message is received or a code is deciphered". Byerman believes that the message is not received by the narrator of the story because he is unable to understand properly due to his reliance on skewed language or his own personal biases that he places on the message to change…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Sonny’s Blues the theme, symbols, characters, and motifs all combine together to create a literary masterpiece that describes the importance of unity amongst family and the turbulent life of African-Americans living in Harlem, New York in the 1950’s. This story is written in a chronological thought process of experiences the narrator has seen while growing up and the memories of his family, mostly of his brother Sonny. The story is about Sonny’s journey, told and seen through the eyes of the narrator. The narrator, who remains unnamed, is a black man teaching algebra in Harlem and Sonny, his younger brother, is a blues pianist struggling…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonny is a young boy from Harlem struggling with his addiction to heroin and is eventually sent to jail for it. The Narrator, Sonny’s older brother is a high school Algebra teacher who loses connection with Sonny and does not realize where Sonny is till he reads in the newspaper about Sonny being imprisoned. During Sonny’s journey to get back on his feet once he incurs internal and external conflicts along the way.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When it came to social inequalities, the African American community relied on drugs and music to overlook their struggles. “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin was a short story about living in poverty in Harlem. In the beginning of the story, the narrator discovers that his brother Sonny was imprisoned for selling and possessing drugs and mentions the lack of communication between them. The narrator begins to have flashbacks of their childhood and his parents throughout the story. Before Sonny’s imprisonment, his brother feared Sonny’s desire of becoming a musician and tried to lead him to a better path. Overwhelmed, Sonny departed and began to use drugs to escape his reality of his suffering. After being released from prison, Sonny was picked…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Sonny is faced with the hardship of having to go to prison , this is hard for him but having the narrator their for him makes it easier . Sonny at first doesn't talk to the narrator while in prison but towards the end of him being in prison , he and the narrator start writing letters to each other . These letters don't stop until Sonny gets out of prison and now he…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Culture and identity go hand in hand. Everyone has their own identity, but where does that come from? The main contributor to someone’s identity is the culture they grew up in. Cultures vary in many different ways. Chinese is a very factual, to the point, respect your elders and family culture, while American culture is more carpe diem, freedom of speech, bigger is better mentality. So as you could imagine someone in China will grow up with a much different identity that someone in America. Someone’s true identity comes out when you’re placed in a situation that tests your culture’s view of right or wrong. Whether you go with the flow or choose to disobey is how you know one’s true identity.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonny Blues Analysis

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After reading “Sonny Blues” by James Baldwin which is about a narrator who parents passed away while the narrator was in the army. Because of his years in the army he has not have a great bound with his little brother Sonny. After reading a newspaper; the narrator then discover that his brother have been arrested for using and selling heroin. Sonny moves in with his sister in law and after Sonny figured out he wants to be a musician, he made the decision to join the navy to leave the streets of Harlem. After the war Sonny did not immediately return home, through all the complications the narrator tries to cope and understand his brother in a different point of view. Some people may believe that the judge made the accurate decision by sending…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays