“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is a captivating story that heavily relies on music to convey the theme of hardships. The story is set in Harlem, an African American neighborhood that is bedeviled with drugs and poverty. The relationship between the two brothers is at an all-time low. During Sonny’s incarceration, his brother, the narrator does not write nor visit in prison. Through Jazz music which Sonny is addicted to, the two brothers can have a better understanding of one another. After listening to Sonny perform with a group of friends at the Greenwich club, the older brother learns to understand and appreciate Sonny’s profound love for jazz music (Freudenburg, 2014) . Through his music, Sonny addresses both his and his brother sufferings. Indeed, through his music, he was able to alleviate his brother's pain, and in return, his brother was able to help him. The paper discusses how the narrator learned to listen to his brother Sonny and understand his pains and sufferings. How music has become Sonny’s addiction, and the importance of music to a Black society is also discussed.
Initially, the narrator does not know anything about jazz music. He detests jazz music and associates it with drugs and addiction. He firmly believes that Sonny’s love for music is responsible for his heroin addiction. Moreover, he cannot understand why Sonny would prefer wasting his time in nightclubs making fun of himself. Sonny’s perspective on jazz music is entirely different from that of his brother. Sonny music is like a ray of light. He not only loves listening to jazz music but also enjoys playing jazz performing jazz music. Jazz music represents passion and occasionally presents Sonny with the opportunity to escape his sorrows. Sonny also identifies with people who his brother loathes and believes are misleading him. Music is the only way through which Sonny can express himself. Throughout the story, he struggles to air his views to his brother who completely ignores him (Freudenberg, 2014).
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As a result of Sonny’s artistic nature, tenacity and ability to deal with life and societal issues, the narrator can understand the value of jazz music (Kowalska, 2018). While watching Sonny perform at the club, he notices his resilience and energetic spirit. Although Sonny struggles in the first set, he picks up and plays exceptionally well.
The narrator learns to understand his brother in the final third of the story. Sonny invites his brother to see him perform with his friends in Greenwich village club. The narrator honors the invitation, and it is during this time that Sonny attempts to explain why he got involved in drugs. To Sonny, heroin presented him with the opportunity to escape his sufferings, a unique way to take control of chaos and find shelter. Although Sonny understands that heroine cannot offer him with longtime solutions, he contends that he might try drugs once more. During Sonny’s captivating performance at the club, the narrator finally understands that his brother’s music is a genuine response to life problems. He understands that Sonny’s music is a desperate attempt to renew the old human story. Through his music, Sonny highlights human sufferings and gives hope that human beings always triumph in the end. Besides providing Sonny with freedom and an opportunity to express his thoughts, music also helps redeem. Jazz music reforms him from a drug addict and an ex-convict to an individual who his tremendously respected by his band members (Kowalska, 2018) .
After witnessing Sonny’s performance, the narrator recognizes that Sonny’s music enables people to find meaning the and fulfillment in their pains and sufferings. This understanding finally provides the narrator with an opportunity to understand his brother, the life, and the friends he has chosen. The sudden demise of Grace, the narrator's daughter, enables him to reconnect with his brother Sonny (Martines, 2007) . The pain in anguish enables him to comprehend what his brother has been through all life.
What Music Symbolizes to the Black Community in the Story
Music plays a critical role in “Sonny’s Blues.” Music symbolizes the sufferings of thousands of African Americans who reside in Harlem. Besides highlighting the sufferings of Black members of the community, music gives them hope that someday they will overcome their tribulations and eventually triumph. It is also clear that Sonny is not playing jazz music, but bebop, a technically complex type that emphasizes on extended solos. Bebop’s focus on songs enables Sonny to express his thoughts and feelings through his music. African Americans also identify through their music. Its cultural position as a proclamation for African Americans makes it ideal for communicating to the society. Sonny’s brother, on the other hand, prefers listening to Louis Armstrong White culture has corrupted a jazz musician who Sonny claims. In the story, the narrator admits that he does not know Charlie Parker, a renown jazz musician who is regarded as the father of bebop. This demonstrates that he has lost touch with his African heritage (Martinez, 2007). Furthermore, the story was written in the 1950’s a time when African Americans lived in impoverished neighbored and were regarded as inferior human beings. Music, therefore, symbolizes grief and freedom to a vast majority of African Americans. After witnessing Sonny, perform his jazz musical instruments, the narrator realizes the connection Sonny’s has with musical instruments. He recognizes that Sonny’s music provides a relieving sense of freedom.
As earlier stated, African Americans were agitating for equal treatment and abolition of repressive laws at the time of writing the story. The story’s emphasis on the importance of fully embracing one’s heritage and culture was relevant to the struggles the Black community was undergoing in the 1950’s. Although the narrator attempts to adopt the White culture, it does not offer him any reprieve. He moves from the Black neighborhood, but all this does not help. Only understanding and appreciating one’s heritage can provide him or her with reprieve. In conclusion, music played an integral role not only in reuniting the brothers, but also helped them understand each other pains and sufferings.
References
Freudenburg, M. (2014). The Power of the Blues: A response to Baldwins "Sonny's Blues." The Western Michigan University , 59-61.
Kowalska, E. (2018). Troubled reading: ‘Sonny’s Blues’ and empathy. Literator , https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1148/1821.
Martines, I. (2007). "Sonny's Blues" and Cultural Shadow. Jungian Scholarly Studies , 2-8.
