Biblical Themes In Sonny's Blues
Sonny’s Blues presents numerous biblical themes that strongly correspond with the Holy Bible. The biblical themes of salvation, redemption, forgiveness, light and darkness, and the cup of trembling are displayed throughout the narrative. Biblical themes of brotherly love, bondage, and the prodigal son are also discussed by Baldwin in the story. Each biblical theme articulates the struggles that Sonny dealt with in his life concerning his troubled past and his willingness to escape from these intense storms. A musical theme of the blues is also displayed throughout the narrative to help Sonny to experience redemption, which is available through the music. Sonny’s Blues offers biblical themes and a single musical theme in order to express the
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The narrator’s mother asks him to protect Sonny and to serve as his brother’s keeper by stating, “You may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you’s there” (85). The vibrancy between the two brothers echoes the strained relationship between Cain and Abel in the Bible. After the brutal murder of Abel, Cain asks God whether he is supposed to be his brother’s keeper. In the same context, the narrator is present with a similar conflict. The narrator fails to obey his mother’s command to take care of Sonny by turning his back on him and failing to respond to his brother while he is in prison. In the opening paragraph, the narrator states, “I read about it [Sonny’s arrest] in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work” (Baldwin 74). According to James Tackach’s excerpt, “The Biblical Foundation of James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues,” “If the narrator had to rely on a newspaper report to become aware of Sonny’s trouble, then he could not have been keeping his promise to his mother to care for his younger brother” (Tackach 114). Although narrator refused to call his younger brother after his arrest, there is a strong reconciliation with Sonny near the end of the story where the narrator accepted Sonny’s invitation to attend a piano …show more content…
The title, powerfully suggests that Sonny plays bebop, a new form of jazz. Charlie Parker is Sonny’s musical hero, who broke out of the customary contracts of jazz in order to generate a liberated form of the musical expression. For an instrumentalist like Sonny, the freedom of expression was an excellent opportunity to live freely and create a musical piece that was entirely original. Drugs were seen as a heavy temptation for great musicians in that era. Sonny’s musical hero, Charlie Parker, died as a result of a drug overdose and it motivates Sonny to want to play the piano. The narrator declares, “Yet, there was no battle in his face now, I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth” (Baldwin 100). Music is a form of Sonny’s salvation and it liberates him from his destructive behavior, such as his addiction to heroin, and he feels that he is able to fully experience real redemption through the music. The title, Sonny’s Blues, does not solely relate to a specific genre of music, but it relates to Sonny’s story of agony and affliction in addition to his triumph and
The narrator’s mother asks him to protect Sonny and to serve as his brother’s keeper by stating, “You may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you’s there” (85). The vibrancy between the two brothers echoes the strained relationship between Cain and Abel in the Bible. After the brutal murder of Abel, Cain asks God whether he is supposed to be his brother’s keeper. In the same context, the narrator is present with a similar conflict. The narrator fails to obey his mother’s command to take care of Sonny by turning his back on him and failing to respond to his brother while he is in prison. In the opening paragraph, the narrator states, “I read about it [Sonny’s arrest] in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work” (Baldwin 74). According to James Tackach’s excerpt, “The Biblical Foundation of James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues,” “If the narrator had to rely on a newspaper report to become aware of Sonny’s trouble, then he could not have been keeping his promise to his mother to care for his younger brother” (Tackach 114). Although narrator refused to call his younger brother after his arrest, there is a strong reconciliation with Sonny near the end of the story where the narrator accepted Sonny’s invitation to attend a piano …show more content…
The title, powerfully suggests that Sonny plays bebop, a new form of jazz. Charlie Parker is Sonny’s musical hero, who broke out of the customary contracts of jazz in order to generate a liberated form of the musical expression. For an instrumentalist like Sonny, the freedom of expression was an excellent opportunity to live freely and create a musical piece that was entirely original. Drugs were seen as a heavy temptation for great musicians in that era. Sonny’s musical hero, Charlie Parker, died as a result of a drug overdose and it motivates Sonny to want to play the piano. The narrator declares, “Yet, there was no battle in his face now, I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth” (Baldwin 100). Music is a form of Sonny’s salvation and it liberates him from his destructive behavior, such as his addiction to heroin, and he feels that he is able to fully experience real redemption through the music. The title, Sonny’s Blues, does not solely relate to a specific genre of music, but it relates to Sonny’s story of agony and affliction in addition to his triumph and