Sonny's Blues Analysis Essay

Suffering, Triumph, and The Life: “Sonny’s Blues” “For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness” (Baldwin 99). Suffering is part of the human condition that James Baldwin points out in “Sonny’s Blues” when two brothers are confronted with the darkness of Harlem life. Sonny uses heroin to get away from his pain but has found a hope of the light through blues music and wants to be a jazz musician; however, Sonny’s brother doesn’t understand about Sonny’s dream at the beginning of the story. Baldwin brings the reader into the African-American culture in Harlem to depict the internal
The story begins at the mid-point when the narrator, Sonny’s brother, discovers Sonny’s arrest due to drug addiction. His hopelessness for his brother links to their relationship throughout the rest of the plot. The narrator also clarifies how much he is afraid for Sonny that he feels like ice is melting in his body; here, the ice is called as the narrator’s dread that he can’t forget (77; emphasis added). In addition, the narrator is motivated to take care of his brother through minor characters, such as Sonny’s friend, the narrator’s daughter and their mother. Sonny’s friend is involved with Sonny’s drug addiction but impacts the narrator to feel sorrow about Sonny. The narrator’s daughter, Grace, is dead, and her death has provided a chance for him to see Sonny after they had lost contact for a few years. Their mother makes the narrator promise to watch over Sonny, and the promise gives him the opportunity to reconcile with his brother. Baldwin’s perfect application of flashback and metaphor serves to inform the reader of the significance found in the minor characters and the two brothers’ past and present, which connect to their struggles that have been exposed in a unique