Sonny's Blues
James Baldwin was a great story teller and preacher living in Harlem. He wrote many novels and Sonny’s Blues was one of them. Even thought this story was not his own biography it seems like James Baldwin was familiar with those chronicles, but the story was very interesting and moving as a black man living as minority.
Sonny’s Blues is the story of a young black man in 1957, told by his older brother who is a teacher in a local high school in the heart of Harlem, New York. Sonny was a good boy gone bad, after being wrongly sent to prison which costs him every chance of a joyful future. The story was touching; thinking of Sonny’s life made me think of most of the people in the black community trying to make someone of themselves, trying to escape the miseries which in this story are the streets of Harlem, their drugs and racism. After his time, he tried to leave Harlem by joining the army but the one and only way he could escape his struggle was through his music or so called Jazz or even Blues. For example the passage,”Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life”(p.639), Cleary showed just how important music was important to Sonny.
In conclusion, Sonny’s Blues was a very inspiring story from the point of view that many of the African American families went trough the same struggle, but at the end, even thought he was the youngest of the family ,he was the one who supported the pain of his family or community through his Blues .From the passage, “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.”(p.639). We can conclude that Sonny gave his body and soul into saving his
Sonny’s Blues is the story of a young black man in 1957, told by his older brother who is a teacher in a local high school in the heart of Harlem, New York. Sonny was a good boy gone bad, after being wrongly sent to prison which costs him every chance of a joyful future. The story was touching; thinking of Sonny’s life made me think of most of the people in the black community trying to make someone of themselves, trying to escape the miseries which in this story are the streets of Harlem, their drugs and racism. After his time, he tried to leave Harlem by joining the army but the one and only way he could escape his struggle was through his music or so called Jazz or even Blues. For example the passage,”Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life”(p.639), Cleary showed just how important music was important to Sonny.
In conclusion, Sonny’s Blues was a very inspiring story from the point of view that many of the African American families went trough the same struggle, but at the end, even thought he was the youngest of the family ,he was the one who supported the pain of his family or community through his Blues .From the passage, “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.”(p.639). We can conclude that Sonny gave his body and soul into saving his