Summary Of Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

“Sonny’s Blues,” a short story written by James Baldwin, highlights both the peace and the trials of life in Harlem during the 1950s. Sonny, the narrator’s brother, is a young musician who struggles with a heroin addiction, turning the narrator’s life upside down. Sonny has a “love” for both music and heroin, both of which help him mentally escape the harsh society he faces in the poverty-stricken and dangerous Harlem. Sonny’s passion for the freedom that both heroin and music causes him to feel allows him to find a way to stay in Harlem, rather than accomplish his goal of escaping out of the neighborhood altogether. The struggles Sonny experiences in finding his “new life” show how society impacts him in a way that pushes him to try any method possible to “make it” in the harsh reality that is Harlem. Sonny feels trapped in his unsafe neighborhood and looks for any method possible to find a way out of it until he finds music as a way to alleviate the pain of living there. When told about Sonny’s passion for wanting to play jazz music, the narrator thinks, “I simply couldn’t see why on earth he'd want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on bandstands, while people pushed each
Sonny’s drug use and musical ability that are discovered during his “journey” ultimately help him find a niche in Harlem, thus causing him to end up as part of society rather than an outcast. Throughout time on earth, people have struggled with escaping the pressures and pains of society through various methods, which are highlighted in “Sonny’s Blues” through both the narrator’s and Sonny’s thoughts and actions. Although Sonny never truly escapes Harlem, his struggle of escape through music and drugs ultimately ends up freeing him from the trouble of his life by giving him newfound strength and a musical