Analysis Of Sonny's Blues

To Be Black and Blue James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues”, is an honest, unflinching look at pre-civil rights era, American life in the predominately black neighborhood of Harlem. Baldwin’s short story speaks on issues of family conflict, drug addiction, class separation, and coping with life amidst the concentrated poverty of the public housing projects. These same problems occurred in most of the industrial cities of the north during the post-World War 2 era as many people were competing for the same jobs and housing, only to find that there wasn’t enough to go around. Ultimately, the lack of resources in America’s inner cities, in the late forties and early fifties, left many black working class people without options, subsequently leading to the rise of crime, gangs and drug use. However, what is most troubling is that in the sixty years since this book was published many of the issues which Baldwin addresses in Sonny’s Blues are still occurring all around the country, which begs the question, how much has actually changed since then, and how do our current presidential candidates plan to deal with these matters? Although it is told
The face of addiction has changed since the 1950’s, moving from the densely packed, poverty-stricken, concrete jungles of the inner-city, to the sprawling tree-lined, manicured lawns of suburbia. Concurrent with this demographic shift, is a gradual change in public opinion regarding how drug offenders should be punished for their infractions. With 2016 being a very important election year, perhaps the most substantial since the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, it is of the utmost importance to be well-informed of the current presidential candidate’s drug policies and the far-reaching effects of their