Bellevue 1 LIT2020 Professor Hendricks December 10, 2012 Brotherhood and Harlem Struggle in Sonnys Blues The story

"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin illustrates the theme of brotherhood by depicting two brothers who unite, despite their differences, to fight the ruggedness of life in Harlem through the younger brother's talent for music. The story takes place through a series of flashbacks and present moments of the lives of the two brothers and their struggles in Harlem, New York. Sonnys Blues is narrated by Sonnys older brother, a high school algebra teacher who Baldwin leaves nameless, focusing on the older brothers struggle in understanding Sonny and the demons that plague him. The story starts off with the narrator reading of Sonnys arrest the previous night in a police bust for the distribution and use of heroin. While reading and rereading of his brothers arrest on the subway commute to the high school he teaches at, the narrator is in disbelief and unnerved for the outcome of his younger brother. Compared to Sonnys woes, his older brothers life can be seen as simple, somewhat stable and far removed from the life that Sonny has lived, thus setting them worlds apart (Taylor). Sonnys brother has a job, a family, and home, and seems to be financially secure while Sonny is dealing and using illegal drugs as an outlet for the pain he craves to control and desperately seeks to demolish since a young age. The brothers spent years not seeing eye to eye. Even before the passing of their mother following the passing of their father when Sonny was fifteen, the brothers never really got along. Sonnys brother saw Sonny as the apple of his fathers eye and although he does not mention that he is envious of that observation, he nonetheless

Bellevue 2 offers up that detail to the reader while reminiscing on the past and his promise to his mother to look out for Sonny (Baldwin 43). Even as an adolescent Sonny felt insignificant to the world telling his brother during the revelation of what he wanted to do with his life, I hear you. But you never hear anything I say. (Baldwin 47) Baldwin was the oldest of nine and feared his stepfather and his austere demeanor. Not having much of a voice in his family and doing something he felt he wasnt truly meant for (ministering instead of writing) parallels part of the angst Sonny expresses through the flashbacks and his later conversations with the narrator (2006, November). Life in Harlem is a life Sonny longs to leave behind him. The griminess of urban city life in Harlem and social awareness builds on the pain Sonny desperately wishes to bury deep. He gets close to the burial of the burden of his socioeconomic standing and shady environment through playing the piano and even closer when he is high on heroin. The need to be in control is a feeling Sonny hopelessly quests for divulging to his brother, Sometimes youve got to have that feeling. Sonny goes o n to inform his brother that the drugs he consume is to stand it, to be able to make it at all. On any level. (Baldwin 54) Through this discussion the the narrator begins to understand Sonny to an extent and promises himself to never fail his brother again, but he does not really trust himself to say it out loud to Sonny. There are constant reminders that surround them of their standing in the United States during this particular time; of Sonnys past; of future obstacles they both will have to face. Certain reminders like the sidewalk old-fashioned revival meetings brings reality crashing face first at their feet. While the narrator seems better off, not succumbing to the harsh realities most blacks faced in Harlem, Sonny is by all means a product of his environment. He is of Harlem.

Bellevue 3 His brother, on the other hand, found a way to move past all that--failing to fall into lower class or struggling to survive while raising a family (Taylor). Baldwin sets up Sonnys Blues in a way that the reader is constan tly on Sonnys side. Although his older brother has exerted through just as much if not more sorrow as Sonny, the reader forgets to sympathize with him just as much with Sonny. The narrator has lost both his parents as well, enlisted in the army, grew up in the same neighborhood, and has recently lost his youngest child, Grace. Because he has not gone through the same struggles as Sonny such as drug addiction and an internal conflict that plagues him and fuels the decisions he makes, the reader overlooks the pain Sonnys brother likely grapples with. The narrator himself adverts the reader from his pain (I was sitting in the living room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My trouble made his real.) by trying to help Sonny heal or give in to the harsh realities that surround them (Baldwin 52). By the end of the story, the relationship between the brothers has reached an unprecedented level. Through watching Sonny play with Creole and the rest of the band, the narrator saw and understood the pain Sonny felt; he himself felt, and how real it was for everyone in the room and how real it would continue to be for the people of Harlem and every struggling individual. Sonny was baptized through the reunion of his piano and blues and a stronger relationship with his brother.

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Works Cited Baldwin, James, and Ann Charters. "Sonny's Blues." 2007. The Story And Its Writer An Introduction to Short Fiction. 7th ed. Boston: Stratford Services, 2007. 37-59. Print. Compact. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. "American Masters James Baldwin About The Author." PBS. PBS, 26 Nov. 2006. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/james-baldwin/about-theauthor/59/>. Taylor, Sara. "Denigration, Dependence, and Deviation: Black and White Masculinities in James Baldwin's Going to Meet the Man." Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora 9.2 (2008): 43+. Academic OneFile. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA235633543&v=2.1&u=broward2 9&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w>