Sonny's Blues (1993)

"Sonny's Blues" is a 1957 short story written by James Baldwin, originally published in the Partisan Review (vol. 24, no. 3). The short story focuses on themes of suffering, forgiveness, and music's beneficial power. "Sonny's Blues" is told through the eyes of an unknown narrator, examining into the relationship between two brothers: Sonny, a jazz musician struggling with addiction, and the narrator, an educator dealing with his own inner challenges. Set in 1950s Harlem, Baldwin's narrative analyzes the relationship between individual sorrow and systematic injustice, as well as the ways in which music may be utilized to heal and unite one another. Baldwin republished the work in the 1965 short story collection Going to Meet the Man.

Plot summary

The narrator of "Sonny's Blues", a schoolteacher from Harlem, New York, finds out that his brother, Sonny, was arrested for the possession of heroin. Looking back on his brother's past as well as their overall relationship with one another, the narrator developed mixed emotions about his brother. He is also concerned about the young boys that he teaches in his class, who may have to deal with similar challenges in their future. The narrator starts to feel the burden of his brother's situation after meeting a friend of Sonny's who warns him that Sonny's problems will not go away even after the rehabilitation.

The narrator finally contacts Sonny after his daughter, Grace, passes away from polio. The narrator leaves for the Army, leaving Sonny with his wife, Isabel, and her parents. When Sonny first makes the choice to start playing the piano, his commitment becomes addictive. Isabel's family could not bear the constant noise coming from Sonny's practice of the piano. Sonny leaves the apartment after two days, quits school, and joins the Navy after Isabel's parents find out that he has not been attending school. Problems between the brothers develop after Sonny's return from the Navy until the narrator eventually chooses to repair the gap between them.

After Grace passes away, the narrator considers his responsibilities as an older brother and decides to stand by Sonny. The narrator had mixed feelings about searching Sonny's room once Isabel had taken the children from the house only to become starstruck by the music outside of the apartment. He then realizes how much music has an effect on Sonny emotionally.

The narrator is later invited by Sonny to a Greenwich Village jazz club. Sonny utilizes music as a way to cope and express his thoughts about addiction and suffering at the jazz club. His performance is very powerful and emotional. Sonny initially struggles at the beginning of his performance, but he then pours his heart into the song and draws in the crowd. This incident turns into a breakthrough for the narrator, who develops an understanding of Sonny's agony and how music can turn it into beauty.

Character analysis

Sonny: a young man dealing with heroin addiction. Sonny is a talented jazz musician who uses his art to cope with hardship.

The Narrator: Sonny's older brother is a high school teacher, and the story's point of view character.

Isabel: the narrator's wife and his emotional anchor.

Grace: the narrator's daughter. Her tragic death from polio leads the narrator to reconnect with Sonny after a lengthy period of separation.

Sonny's father: a demanding and challenging man.

Sonny's Mother: strong, protective, and wise figure.

Creole: an experienced musician who acts as Sonny's mentor.

Themes

Major themes

In the short story, Baldwin addresses the concept of suffering as man's basic state through themes of addiction, search for identity, heritage, familial relationships and racial relations in America during the 1940s. He utilizes Jazz and Blues music as the central mode in which the Narrator explores his individuality and self expression, holding the view that a main function of art is its use in being an antidote to suffering.

Music themes

The story utilizes the musical genres of Jazz and Blues as a function to portray themes of individualism and alienation. Sonny is a jazz pianist, a genre of music that emphasizes individuality through improvisation and soloing, used to convey that he is trying to find his own voice in the world separate from his family. Sonny's jazz-oriented lifestyle which involves using and selling heroin which ultimately leads him to a jail sentence, estranges him from his brother whom he lives with. Baldwin uses the bebop culture of the 1940s and 50s which viewed younger jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker as "hip" and older jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong as "old-time" as a parallel of Sonny, who idolizes Parker and follows in his footsteps of risqué behavior involving drugs and sex, and his brother, a respected math teacher who has dissociated himself from black culture to fit into society, clings to older, more traditional jazz which by the 50s was viewed as white-washed and disconnected from its black origins.

Biblical themes

James Tackach, a professor of English at Roger Williams University argues that the story is primarily structured upon the biblical narratives of the Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke and the story of Cain and Abel from the Book of Genesis.

In the former he paints it as a retelling of the parable with Sonny acting as the Younger Son who is "lost" by his drug addiction and his jazz musician oriented lifestyle and the Narrator as the self-righteous Elder Son by way of his family oriented lifestyle and honest job as a mathematics teacher. Like the parable, the story concludes with the reconciliation of the two brothers. The death of the Narrators daughter, Grace, leads him to write to Sonny in prison and ultimately welcoming him home again. The final scene suggests that Sonny is "found", alluding to the fathers final statement in the biblical parable.