Preview

Examples Of Darkness In Sonny's Blues

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
334 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Darkness In Sonny's Blues
Darkness and Light The feelings of helplessness, confusion, and failure are all feelings expressed in the short story “Sonny's Blues”. “Sonny's Blues” is a story about two brothers trying to help each other out as they face many problem in their life and the story uses imagery of darkness and light to express certain situations. Darkness was used to mostly express Sonny's addiction but also the narrators personal life. The narrator was constantly surrounded by darkness even though he thought he was living a bright and successful life. The imagery light was noticeable in Sonny's physical character and early childhood. Light was strongly present in the final scene of the story when the brothers when at the bar and sonny was playing his music.

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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Sonny’s Blues” is a story of disorientation at first; it tells a story of a young man named Sonny and his older brother who is the narrator. Sonny is a young boy who in fact grew up in a world of abandonment. He suffered from drug addiction, being a school dropout, and personal desertion issues. As the story unfolds from his brother’s point of view, it explains how the older brother wished he had been there for his brother throughout his hard time of growing up.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory 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
  • Better Essays

    The bible speaks about light and darkness, in the same context of “Sonny’s Blues” as the characters are marked with certain characteristics. The light in the life of Sonny is symbolic of his positive and optimistic aspects of his life, such as his musical talents before he is plagued by the darkness of it. Also his physical appearance as a young man, as he was bright and glowing. Nonetheless, it is symbolic of refinement, as he transformed from his old life, into a new moral…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Sonny's Blues" was first published in a mainstream magazine in 1957 and was collected in Baldwin's 1965 book "Going To Meet The Man". Sonny's Blues" is a short story set in the ghetto of Harlem, NY. James Baldwin wrote "Sonny's Blues" to articulate how the African-American culture enabled countless numbers of Blacks to escape, survive, endure and overcome various types of institutionalized racism and accompanying forms of social, economical and political oppression. African-American culture refers to a particular society at a particular time and place, which expresses and shares a set of learned beliefs, values, tradition, history, arts, religion, food and music. The different forms of the African-American culture gave blacks a sense of belonging.…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sonnys Blues Writemode

    • 1557 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story by the author James Baldwin. It is a story about two brothers and `their severe struggles in Harlem and the different ways in which they handled them. The author shows through the narrator and his brother Sonny how two individuals can follow two totally different life paths, be distant for most of their lives, but in the end find common ground through a shared understanding of the pain of human struggle, which this case expressed by Jazz. Through giving the main character specific character traits, the author shapes the central conflict that gives meaning to the story. The central conflict follows the formula person vs. self, because the narrator struggles between feeling the desire to take care of Sonny and the impulse to throwing Sonny to the curb because of his always values and bad decisions. The narrator starts to realize many things starting after the death of his daughter Grace and culminating with him finally listening to his brother play music. The central idea resolves it self by the Narrator empathizing with his brothers struggles in life and finally understanding through Sonny’s music how he dealt with that suffering. This allows him to realize that he must embrace the conflicting nature of his feelings for Sonny and that the bonds of brotherhood should transcend these things.…

    • 1557 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    These articles summarize the character view points from the narrator and his brother Sonny. It helps to sum up the main events in the story “Sonny’s Blues”. I am going to use this article to help support my points in how the character begins to change his view point on his brother Sonny, and how the character meets that change he needed to find to keep his promise to his mother and to regain faith in his brother.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonny’s Blues is a famous short story written by James Baldwin. The story tells about the brotherhood between 2 black-men siblings – an elder brother and his younger brother named Sonny. Sonny wanted to be a musician but his brother disagreed with him, the conflicts between them and his unableness to reach his dream to become a musician led Sonny to start using heroin.…

    • 571 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” takes place during the mid 20th century. This is the time of the Civil Rights Movement where things like segregation and racism were a huge problem, which caused living a normal or safe life nearly impossible. Sonny grew up in a predominately black and poor to low-class neighborhood in Harlem. The old projects are the result of segregationist housing policies, the limited opportunities available to the people, the result of discrimination. The narrator explains he will inherit the darkness that haunts his parents. The depiction of racism becomes clear…

    • 910 Words
    • 4 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

    Sonny's Blues

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Sonny’s Blues, the narrator is self-reflecting his experiences with various family members such as his mother and his younger brother, Sonny. Sonny and the narrator are brothers with a 7 year difference between them. The narrator was disappointed with Sonny at first due to his interest in becoming a musician. He thought it was a phase he was was going through and maybe it would pass. The older brother patronized Sonny with his insincere interest in music at first until it angered Sonny and he told his brother “don’t do me no favors”.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonny's Blues Symbolism

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Consciously being marginalized is an emotionally discouraging sensation that many people are faced with overcoming. Figuring out where one can achieve self-content through being socially accepted is a hardship presented in James Baldwin’s, “Sonny’s Blues” as symbolism of light and darkness reveals the saddening experience of marginalized Americans feeling that they are unfairly labeled as outsiders by the rest of society.…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays