sonny's blues

Art is a reflection of life through the eyes of the artist; however, the audience is left to interpret the artist’s creation through its own lens. Any such interpretation the audience makes is not necessarily that intended by the artist, and will certainly vary based on the individual experiences of the particular member of the audience. In his short story, Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin illustrates this many-faceted relationship between art and life, and the differences between the artist’s intent and way it is actually perceived.
One such example of the relationship between art and life and the differences in its perceptions came in the form of a whistled tune from the lips of a high school student. The narrator of the story (a high school algebra teacher in Harlem who is upset after discovering that his younger brother, Sonny, was arrested in a drug bust) describes the tune as “at once very complicated and very simple, it seemed to be pouring out of him as though he were a bird, and it sounded very cool and moving through all that harsh, bright air, only just holding its own through all those other sounds” (Baldwin 2). This tune embodied the artist’s life’s experiences. The narrator described the high school students as growing up quickly and finding themselves restrained by the possibilities their lives offered (Baldwin 1). He saw them as enraged, living in darkness, and “at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone” (Baldwin 1). The paradoxes of the whistler’s life—growing while restrained, and together while alone—display themselves through his art, which managed to be both very complicated and very simple. Of course, this is not to say that the artist intended to convey these things through his song. The narrator’s perceptions were shaped by both his experiences and present emotions.
Later, “black and bouncy” music was coming from a jukebox inside a bar. (Baldwin 3). By this time, the narrator and one of Sonny’s friends were discussing the narrator’s options for helping Sonny. The narrator watched as a waitress inside the bar danced to the music as she sidled back behind the bar. Her art (her dance) was brought on by the up-beat art of the song’s composer. The narrator’s interpretation of the art, however, was that, even while dancing, “[w]hen she smiled one saw the little girl, one sensed the doomed, still-struggling woman beneath the battered face of the semi-whore.” (Baldwin 3). He noticed that when the jukebox stopped, and the waitress no longer had an inspiration for her form of artistic expression, she paused as well until the music resumed. He viewed both the music and the dancing (along with all of those in the vicinity) as being fueled by the drugs that had taken his brother from him. To him, the irregular, unsteady art was merely a reflection of their lives—which was controlled by drugs. Because Sonny was a musician, his brother tied his art to drugs. (Baldwin 5).
The next art that appears in the story is in the form of tambourines in churches echoing through the distance, (Baldwin 8), and his mother humming a hymn (Baldwin 9). In this instance, the artists are displaying the hope their religion gives them in an otherwise bleak existence. However, due to his experiences, the narrator associates these exhibitions with fear and darkness. He remembers the tambourines from his childhood, when the older people would talk about their experiences in the harsh world. His mother was humming a hymn from church the last time he saw her before he went off to war—when she told him to keep an eye on Sonny if anything happened to her. Because he was unable to protect his brother from the harsh streets, and since his mother was humming the last time she saw him, the narrator associates this art with sadness and hopelessness rather than the hope the artist likely intended to be portrayed.
When Baldwin explains to his readers the circumstances under which the narrator’s uncle died, it further illuminates the negative association he has between art (music particularly) and life. (Baldwin 10). His mother told him that his uncle had liked to sing and play his guitar on Saturday nights. One such Saturday, his father and uncle had gone out drinking and performing for the night. On their way home, his uncle was walking along, carefree, with his guitar on his back humming a song. But, he would never make it home—as he was run over by a car full of white men who were presumptively just trying to scare him. The last sounds the narrator’s father heard before his brother died were the clangs and groans of his guitar as it was smashed into the road. (Baldwin 10). The night of artistic expression had turned to tragedy for his father and uncle. His mother wanted him to make sure the same never happened to Sonny, but the narrator had not been able to prevent Sonny’s life from reflecting his art.
He promised his mother he would look after Sonny, and she died before he returned home from war. When the narrator returned home on furlough for his mother’s funeral, he was terrified when Sonny told him he wanted to be a jazz musician. (Baldwin 11-12). Everything in his life had told him that nothing good could come out of this form of artistic expression—including his father who referred to jazz musicians as “good-time people.” (Baldwin 12). The narrator did not understand Sonny’s passion for his chosen art form and scoffed at the idea of him being able to make a living through it. (Baldwin 13). Sonny, however, saw music as a way to escape the streets of Harlem, where he felt he had no future. (Baldwin 15). Sonny sought to escape the harsh realities of his life through an artistic outlet.
After his mother died, Sonny moved in with Isabel’s (the narrator’s wife’s) family, where he constantly practiced the piano (Baldwin 15). Since Sonny viewed his art as his means of escaping a bad situation, he practiced his skills incessantly. His audience (Isabel’s family) did not understand his artistic outlet. Much as he felt misunderstood by his brother in life, his art was misunderstood by his audience (Baldwin 15-16). When her family found out he had been hanging around fellow musicians rather than going to school, they became angry and let him know “that music, which was life or death to him, had been torture for them and that they had [merely] endured it.” Sonny left their home and joined the Navy. His art was the only thing that tethered him to his life in Harlem, and without his music and an audience who understood it (and, therefore, him) he could not bear to stay there. To Sonny, not only was his art related to his life, it was his life (Baldwin 16).
After the war, the narrator saw Sonny’s music as a direct reflection of his life—both were “weird and disordered” (Baldwin 16). When Sonny kicked the narrator out of the apartment in which he was staying, the narrator turned to an expression of art for the first time in the story—whistling as he left in order to fight back tears. Since music seemed to be associated with many of the bleak, hopeless, dark moments of the narrator’s life, this relationship between art and his life seemed particularly fitting.
Later, when Sonny got out of prison, he moved in with the narrator and his family. The narrator was suspicious of Sonny and toyed with the idea of searching his room for drugs. (Baldwin 18). Just as he was about to begin his search, the narrator saw Sonny stand and listen to the singers and tambourine player in a make-shift revival on the street. The narrator changed his mind about searching Sonny’s room, and, instead, talked to Sonny about the music when he returned home. As long as Sonny appeared to the narrator to be spiraling downward, he viewed music in a negative light. However, now that Sonny seemed to be on the upswing, the narrator became a more receptive member of the audience and likely viewed the music (perhaps for the first time) in the manner it was intended by the artists. (Baldwin 18).
However, after the narrator agreed to go with Sonny to watch him perform, his doubts about music resurfaced. (Baldwin 19). Sonny explained to him that he was enthralled by the singers because they had given him the same feeling as heroine—a feeling that he explained some musicians needed in order to play. Sonny understood the amount of pain the singer had to endure in order to sing in such a manner. (Baldwin 20). The only way Sonny could express his feelings in a way that they made sense to him was through his music. (Baldwin 21). Without it, he was lost. Sonny’s art was not only related to his life—it was his only link to it.
When the narrator accompanied Sonny to his gig, he saw his brother in a light he had never seen. (Baldwin 22). Seemingly everyone in the night club knew Sonny. For the first time, the narrator understood the inner battle that an artist—his brother—must fight in order to make his audience understand his music. (Baldwin 23). He saw Sonny on the stage, playing out his life through his art. When Sonny finally got his bearings on the piano, the narrator could finally understand the pain buried deep inside Sonny (Baldwin 24). Sonny’s art was showing the narrator how to understand him, and how to understand himself—and the narrator was a willing audience. For the first time, the narrator was not hearing what he wanted to, but, rather, finally hearing what the artist intended. When the narrator understood Sonny, Sonny could understand himself because he was playing to a receptive audience. (Baldwin 25).
The relationship between art and life is a constant struggle. In order for an artist to be understood by his audience, who bring different experiences to the table, he must put some of himself into his art. However, if he puts too much of himself in, he can have neither art nor life and may lose his way in both. Sonny’s Blues was an excellent way to learn the precarious nature of this relationship and to better understand both the artist and his or her audience—not only in art, but in life as well.