The unnamed narrator of the story discovers from a newspaper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been arrested for selling and using heroin. As he prepares to teach his algebra class, the narrator remembers Sonny as a young boy.
What is the plot of Sonny's Blues?
Plot of "Sonny's Blues" The story opens with the first-person narrator reading in the newspaper that his younger brother — from whom he is estranged — has been arrested for selling and using heroin. The brothers grew up in Harlem, where the narrator still lives.
What happens to Sonny in the beginning of the story?
The story opens on the narrator (unnamed) who has read in the newspaper that his brother Sonny was picked up by the police the previous night for using and selling heroin. The narrator describes spending the rest of his day reeling from the news, feeling like he has ice water in his veins.
Does Sonny's suffering end in Sonny's Blues?
Whether Sonny’s suffering has ended is unclear. Women play a limited, but not unimportant, role in “Sonny’s Blues.” By smoothing over the awkward moments during Sonny’s homecoming visit, Isabel helps support the brothers’ relationship.
How is Harlem described in Sonny’s Blues?
Harlem is depicted as a trap from which the narrator and his brother must struggle to escape. Imprisonment becomes a motif in “Sonny’s Blues”: not only is one brother physically jailed during the story but the narrator repeatedly uses the word “trapped” when describing the brothers’ neighborhood.
What happens at the end of Sonny's blue?
At the very end of the story, the narrator has come to watch Sonny play piano at a nightclub, and it seems that he finally sees how talented his brother is. But more importantly, he also seems to see that music is a part of Sonny. It's something he has to have in his life in order to function.
Why did Sonny go to jail?
Sonny Timeline and Summary Sonny gets arrested for using and selling heroin, and after he's released from jail he moves in with the narrator and his family.
Where did Sonny Go in Sonny's Blues?
After Sonny's mother died, Sonny temporarily stayed with Isabel in her parents' house, while his brother was in the Army. Sonny's mother is the wise, yet sober matriarch of the family. Her death causes the narrator to return from the war.
What does Sonny struggle with in the story?
He struggles to defy the stereotypes by moving away from Harlem and beginning a career as a musician. Unlike his brother, Sonny wants and needs an escape from Harlem and the traditional social order.
Does Sonny's Blues have a happy ending?
Baldwin ends the story with an optimistic symbol, a reference to a moment in the Book of Isaiah when God takes suffering from mankind. The narrator, who has finally learned to empathize with and care for his brother, has found relief from his own suffering through Sonny's music.
Who dies in Sonny's Blues?
GraceGrace is the narrator's young daughter who dies, and her death from polio is symbolic of the horrible suffering we sometimes face. But her death is what prompts the narrator to get back in touch with Sonny, and in this way she's very much like her mother.
How did Sonny suffer?
First, suffering is one of the themes because Sonny suffered a heroin addiction. “He had been picked up the day before, in a raid on an apartment downtown, for peddling and using heroin(Baldwin,123).” The narrator told how Sonny got arrested for selling and using heroin.
Why did Sonny use drugs?
Sonny doesn't want his brother to think that being a jazz musician is what causes him to turn to drugs. He's trying to make him see that at some point drugs help him just get through the day, to survive another 24 hours. Sonny is trying to make it clear that different people do drugs for different reasons.
What is the irony in Sonny's Blues?
It is Sonny who learns how to deal with his own suffering, thus making him the teacher, and the narrator the student. This in turn creates situational irony, because we would expect the narrator to guide Sonny, not the other way around.
What is the moral of Sonny's Blues?
In "Sonny's Blues," a man finally comes to understand the darkness and suffering that consumes his brother, and he begins to appreciate the music that his brother uses to calm those blues. The main theme of "Sonny's Blues" is suffering, particularly the sufferings of black people in America.
What is the climax of Sonny's Blues?
The narrator sends Sonny a drink This drink is the narrator's way of saying that he finally gets it – how important music is to Sonny, how necessary to his life.
What is the main conflict in Sonny's Blues?
The primary conflict in this story is the internal struggle the narrator experiences in his inability to respect Sonny's choices and views. When their mother passes away, the narrator attempts to have a serious conversation with Sonny about Sonny's future.
What happen to Sonny on General Hospital?
Sonny was crushed, but later learned that the bomb had actually been planted by Olivia Jerome to kill her brother. The grief nearly tore Sonny and Carly apart, but they ultimately decided against a divorce. An associate of Julian's tried to kill Sonny, but he survived and killed him in retaliation.
What is Sonny addicted to in Sonny's Blues?
Sonny is a troubled young man who becomes addicted to heroin at an early age.
What is the main point of Sonny's Blues?
In "Sonny's Blues," a man finally comes to understand the darkness and suffering that consumes his brother, and he begins to appreciate the music that his brother uses to calm those blues. The main theme of "Sonny's Blues" is suffering, particularly the sufferings of black people in America.
Who was Sonny's girlfriend?
Gretchen Mol: Sonny's Girlfriend Photos (3)
Why is Sonny's friend blunt about addiction?
To compound the despair of the scene, Sonny’s friend is blunt about addiction; because addiction is cyclical, Sonny’s troubles aren’t likely to improve. Get the entire Sonny’s Blues LitChart as a printable PDF. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof.". -Graham S.
Why did Sonny and his father never get along?
The narrator explains that Sonny and his father never got along because they were too much alike.
What is the difficulty of empathy in Sonny?
Though the narrator is attempting to make good on his promise to his mother, this is another example of his difficulty with empathy. Sonny wants to live a life of passion, and the narrator is sternly disapproving because he cannot relate. This is a failure of compassion and, in a sense, a betrayal of the familial bond, which Baldwin insists must be based on empathy and kindness. Family can bring relief from suffering, but not if it’s approached as a rote fulfillment of obligation. In order to help Sonny, the narrator needs to try to understand him, but he fails to do that here.
How does the narrator tell Sonny he will never fail him again?
The narrator tries to frame his statement as a concern that Sonny will die using drugs to try not to suffer, but it falls flat. He yearns to tell Sonny that he will never fail him again, but knows that it would sound like an empty promise after what they’ve been through, so the narrator makes the promise silently to himself. Sonny explains that there’s a storm inside himself and he can’t get rid of it. “When you finally try to get with it and play it,” he says, “you realize nobody’s listening. So you’ve got to listen. You got to find a way to listen.”
What does the narrator say about Sonny?
The narrator describes that, on seeing Sonny for the first time, long-forgotten memories return to him because “I had begun, finally, to wonder about Sonny, about the life that Sonny lived inside.” Sonny looks haggard, but the narrator sees traces of his baby brother in Sonny’s face.
What does the narrator do in Harlem through Sonny's eyes?
Seeing Harlem through Sonny’s eyes leads the narrator to reflect on the conditions in which they grew up. Baldwin uses frightening language and imagery to explain the forces that drive young black men to drugs and crime, suggesting the inevitability of such lives because of the lack of other possibilities.
Why is it important that the narrator mistook the friend for Sonny?
It’s important that the narrator mistook the friend for Sonny at first—the narrator’s growing compassion for the friend is the first stirring of the emotional growth that will finally allow the narrator to repair his relationship with his brother. Sonny’s friend’s honesty and kindness make the narrator consider the reality of suffering outside of his own. It’s enough to make him give money, but not enough to make him promise to write to Sonny—at least not yet.
Why did Sonny leave Harlem?
He admits that the reason he wanted to leave Harlem after his mother’s death was to escape his increasingly serious drug addiction. He ends by reminding the narrator that his addiction could come back at any time. The narrator accepts this. Sonny and the narrator go to the nightclub where Sonny is scheduled to play.
How does Sonny express himself?
Music is the only way for Sonny to express himself. Throughout the story he struggles to communicate with a brother who refuses to hear him. The narrator rejects outright his passion for music and his desire to leave Harlem. The first time in the piece that the narrator truly hears Sonny is during the conversation the brothers have after witnessing the street revival. Listening to the honest and beautiful singing of one of the women has opened the brothers to each other and allowed them to communicate. More dramatically, the narrator’s moment of redemption occurs while finally listening to his brother play; Sonny’s music allows him to understand his brother’s struggles and through them understand his own.
Why did Sonny and his father never have a good relationship?
He remarks that Sonny and his father never had a good relationship because they were too much alike; they were both very private men.
Why is "Am I Blue" used in the story?
This is an odd song to mark the moment of redemption and reunion shared by two African American brothers in a story that emphasizes the importance of African American culture. Critics have suggested that the song represents an “amalgam of many ingredients that have become fused over the centuries” and thus is appropriate given the story’s focus on hybrid variations of the blues (Albert 184).
What does the narrator feel when he says nothing can be done for Sonny?
When the friend agrees with him that nothing can be done for Sonny, the narrator feels the comment is presumptuous and experiences a surge of anger.
What does the narrator hear at the end of the school day?
At the end of the school day the narrator listens to the laughter of his students for the first time and realizes it is mocking and cruel. Yet he also notices a boy whistling a complex tune that cuts through all the laughter and noise. As he exits, he is met at the gate of the school by one of Sonny’s old friends, a fellow addict, who has come to tell him about Sonny’s imprisonment.
Where does Sonny live in the book?
Sonny and the narrator continue to exchange letters and, upon Sonny’s release, they meet in New York City, where the narrator lives in Harlem.
What is the plot of Sonny's Blues?
Plot of "Sonny's Blues". The story opens with the first-person narrator reading in the newspaper that his younger brother — from whom he is estranged — has been arrested for selling and using heroin. The brothers grew up in Harlem, where the narrator still lives. The narrator is a high school algebra teacher and he is a responsible husband ...
When was Sonny's Blues first published?
Updated August 09, 2019. "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin was first published in 1957, which places it at the heart of the civil rights movement in the United States. That's three years after Brown v.
Why does the narrator accept the invitation to play piano?
The narrator accepts the invitation because he wants to understand his brother better. At the club, the narrator begins to appreciate the value of Sonny's music as ...
What does Creole say to Sonny?
Yet there is a sense that this darkness provides safety for Sonny, rather than menace. The supportive older musician Creole "erupt [s] out of all that atmospheric lighting" and tell s Sonny, "I been sitting right here … waiting for you." For Sonny, the answer to suffering may lie within the darkness, not in escaping it.
What does the narrator tell us about the bandstand?
Looking at the light on the bandstand, the narrator tells us that the musicians are "careful not to step into that circle of light too suddenly: that if they moved into the light too suddenly, without thinking, they would perish in the flame."
Does the narrator contact Sonny?
For several months after the arrest, the narrator does not contact Sonny. He disapproves of, and worries about, his brother's drug use and he is alienated by his brother's attraction to bebop music. But after the narrator's daughter dies of polio, he feels compelled to reach out to Sonny. When Sonny is released from prison, ...
Did Sonny and the narrator go back to Harlem?
Though both Sonny and the narrator have traveled the world by enlisting in the military, they have both ended up back in Harlem. And though the narrator in some ways has escaped the "darkness" of his childhood by getting a respectable job and starting a family, he realizes that his children are facing all the same challenges he faced.
What is the role of music in Sonny's Blues?
From the title of the story to the closing scene, music plays a central role in defining the characters and culture of Harlem in “Sonny’s Blues.”. At a young age, Sonny decides he wants to grow up to become a musician, a decision that his brother has difficulty accepting.
What is Sonny's music based on?
The music that Sonny plays and loves is based less on a strict formal order than on a pure expression of the soul.
What is the music of Charlie Parker?
Unlike earlier forms of jazz, which relied heavily on well-developed and thoroughly planned arrangements, the music of men such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie was created spontaneously as the men listened and responded to each other. The music relied on instinct rather than on rigid structures.
Who was the singer who died from drugs?
For many of the great musicians of that era, drugs were a constant temptation. Sonny’s stated musical hero, Charlie Parker, was himself addicted to drugs and died a very early death partly as a result.
What happens at the end of the story?
At the end of the story, the narrator witnesses Sonny’s playing firsthand. The experience is similar to the religious revival the narrator witnessed earlier, with one major exception: there is a real redemption available through the music.
What does the storyteller realize about Sonny's blues?
Besides, the storyteller perceives that the blues can assist everybody with being consistent with what and what their identity is. “Sonny’s Blues” reveal to us that it is a smart choice to follow your dreams, or judgment on your future life. The beverage in the story is the storyteller’s method for saying that he at long last gets it how significant music is to Sonny, how important it is to his life. He at long last comprehends what the others in the club appear to definitely think about Sonny, and the suggestion is that the two men will at long last discover some harmony in their relationship.
What is the exposition of the Sonny's Blues?
The exposition of the Sonny’s Blues begins when this storyteller presents characters, scenes, and circumstances of the story. The storyteller gains from a newspaper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been captured for selling and utilizing heroin. The storyteller is a high school teacher, his significant other is Isabel. Leaving the school, the storyteller runs into an old friend of Sonny’s in the schoolyard. They talk about Sonny’s arrest and reveal to one another a portion of their feelings of dread. The old friend says that he can’t help old Sonny anymore. This infuriates the storyteller since it reminds him that he himself had quit any pretense of attempting to support his brother in addition to not seeing Sonny in a year.
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- Salvation is widely accepted as a religious theme in Sonnys Blues. The narrators moment of redemption is precipitated by an act of heavenly, if painful grace: the death of the narrators aptly named daughter. Graces death, an act firmly beyond the narrators control, allows him to finally connect with his estranged brother and, ultimately, through hi...
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