Addiction And Recovery : Sonny 's Blues By James Baldwin Essay

In the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James H. Pickering, a brother is trying to understand what has led his younger brother, Sonny, to drug addiction and how to help his relationship with Sonny. The instructive purpose of this analysis is to examine how James Baldwin uses the narrators characteristics to construct the central conflict of the story. The two opposing forces that create the central conflict are presented as a person versus self, by a clash of two feelings. On one hand the parental characteristic of the narrator wants to help his brother. The other a closed - minded characteristic of the narrator wants to push his brother away. The central idea of the story is trying to overcome an internal conflict to be able to save relationships with those we love most but tend to push away. A change in thinking and acceptance moves those struggling back together where they want to be.

In “Sonny’s Blues”, the narrator is shown as having the better life compared to Sonny. He joined the army, married a woman, has children, and works as a high school algebra teacher while Sonny was sent to jail due to his drug addiction. Their hometown, Harlem, is the center of urban black life and uses drugs as an outlet towards the trauma and racism people experience daily. Due to many lives in Harlem consisting of drugs and violence, the narrator is not surprised that Sonny has met the same fate as other men in Harlem. He also does not feel any guilt towards Sonny and does not feel that he can help him in any way. The narrator is in despair and remains silent. In addition, in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, John works as a physician and is very practical minded. He treats his wife like a child and refers to her as his “little girl”. The narrator suffers from post-partum depression and John refuses to acknowledge her mental state as legitimate. Rather, he views it as imagination or hysteria. John also considers the narrator as self-indulgent, emotional, and fragile. Not only do the narrator from “Sonny’s Blues” and John share a couple characteristic traits, they also both fail to show empathy towards their loved

When first reading “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, it may initially seem that the relationship between musicians and drugs is synonymous. Public opinion suggests that musicians and drugs go hand and hand. The possibility lies that Sonny’s passion for jazz music is the underlying reason for his drug use, or even the world of jazz music itself brought drugs into Sonny’s life. The last statement is what the narrator believes to be true. However, by delving deeper and examining the theme of music in the story, it is nothing but beneficial for Sonny and the other figures involved. Sonny’s drug use and his music are completely free of one another. Sonny views his jazz playing as a ray of light to lead him away from the dim and dismal future

The narrator says that he “couldn’t believe it: but what I mean by that is I couldn’t find any room for it anywhere inside me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn’t wanted to know” (Baldwin600). The narrator and Sonny haven’t spoken much since the death of their mother. The narrator wanted Sonny to stay in school and finish, and Sonny wanted to drop out and join the army or the navy, and then chase his dream of being a jazz piano player. Sonny agreed to stay in school at first, but after a while, he stopped going and eventually ran away and joined the army. After not hearing from Sonny in years, the narrator heard from him out of nowhere when he was deployed in Greece. Both Sonny and the narrator were living in New York years after the war was over. They would meet sometimes, but it would always result in a fight, and eventually the narrator and Sonny stopped speaking. Before their mother died, she told the narrator to look after his brother. She said “it ain’t only the bad ones, nor yet the dumb ones that gets sucked under” (Baldwin607). So when Sonny got arrested for heroin, the narrator felt some guilt and that it was sort of his fault, but at the same time, he felt that he wanted nothing to do with him and his troubles. The narators confusion on the matter was put to a rest when he ran into one of Sonny’s friends right after the arrest, and his friend made it clear that as soon as Sonny got out he would go

Those burdened with psychological pain in their lives often turn to drugs, alcohol, music, or other ways to cope with this suffering. Besides the celebrities that have abuse substances to battle their unhappiness, poorer communities like Harlem in the 1900s also fall victim to hardship. World renowned psychologist, Sigmund Freud analyzes these kinds of escapes from problems claiming how these obstacles in life will in turn define one’s life. In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin describes an emotionally tortured Sonny who, similarly to Freudian belief, chooses to numb his reality with heroin and jazz despite his brother, unnamed narrator’s, attempts to steer him towards a more reputable life.

In reading the story "Sonny 's Blues" by James Baldwin, we learn of two brothers and their lives growing up in Harlem. The narrator, who is the older brother in the story, narrates the trials and tribulations he and his younger brother (Sonny) had to endure growing up in such a harsh environment in Harlem (due to the drugs, violence, and Black 's being looked down upon in general in the mid-1950s). We start in the future (present), with the narrator having a somewhat successful future being a teacher and having a wife and two kids (with one of them passing away due to the polio disease). We learned very early that Sonny was locked up due to possession of heroin. The narrator originally found out about the tragic news from a newspaper, then later, an old childhood friend of the two made a trip to inform him while he was leaving school. The childhood friend tried to inform the narrator of the harsh reality of the situation Sonny was in, and would never change by telling him "Listen. They 'll let him out and then it 'll just start all over again. That 's what I mean" (Baldwin page 50), with the narrator already being mindful of the situation and conceivable consequence of him diving into that lifestyle. He initially didn 't care, but came to the realization that he had to care about his younger misguided brother as he and the fellow converted then parted ways. This gave light into where the story was heading with the two siblings, as they would write letters back and forward

Sonny’s Blues is a story about an ambitious musician’s life as it is seen through his older brother’s eyes. The story originates with Sonny’s older brother, who is an Algebra teacher, and finding out that Sonny has been sent to prison due to drugs. He finds this out by reading about the case in the newspaper because seemingly Sonny’s lifestyle has caused the brothers to lose contact. After a tragedy hits, the brother reaches out to Sonny in an effort to repair their relationship.

“Sonny’s Blues” is narrated by Sonny’s brother who has many emotional and verbal conflicts in regards to him and Sonny is needed to connect in a healthier and a more fulfilling manner as they are having conflicts regarding what Sonny is doing with his life. Sonny himself is having problems with drug

As well as in the short story Sonny’s Blues, the main character, Sonny, is being criticized by his brother. Since the very beginning, their mother told the oldest one, ‘’ you got to hold on to your brother ’’ and that’s what he wanted to do, but Sonny took a different path than he did. Sonny was the kind of guy that was heroin-addicted and a jazz musician, but his older brother didn’t see all these sides of him. We discover all these sides by the use of flashback of the author throughout the major parts of the story. The author didn’t want us to see Sonny like his older brother was seeing him, he wanted us to see him as a poor, un-accepted guy that needed to be listened by his peers. The brother didn’t accept the journey that Sonny had taken, but if he would of saw the actual Sonny, and stop hiding in the darkness, he would of accepted him faster and understand that Sonny only wanted to show that he could do good things not only drugs. In the middle of the story, there is a flashback were we learn that actually Sonny is more experienced about life than his older brother, because Sonny was in drugs and was really affected by Harlem( the city they stayed in when they were younger). The brother had a pretty easy life; he became a teacher and had a little family. This demonstrates that we need support from our peers, to be able to continue without taking bad choices.

Sonny has had a problem with drugs for some time, which leads him having to serve a jail sentence. The narrator tries to stay oblivious, which is part of the reason he turned his back on his younger brother for so many years. “I couldn’t believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn’t find any room for it anywhere inside of me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn’t wanted to know. I had had suspicions, but I didn’t name them, I kept putting them away”(831). The way that he dealt with his younger brother’s problems was by turning his back on them. He knew that Sonny was dealing with heavy problems, but chose to look past them and live his own life. He also knows that leaving his brother during the time he needed him the most was wrong of him to do. The narrator goes on to say, “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother

In James Baldwin 's short story "Sonny 's Blues" a young man questions his brotherly obligations after finding that his younger brother has been arrested for using drugs. In the attempt to rectify his younger brother 's behavior and life, the young man faces his own feelings for his brother and comes to terms with the life his brother Sonny lives. The developments of certain elements-plot, character, point of view, setting, symbolism-in the story help accentuate the narrator 's struggles and theme(s) of the story.

In James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" a pair of brothers try to make sense of the urban decay that surrounds and fills them. This quest to puzzle out the truth of the shadows within their hearts and on the streets takes on a great importance. Baldwin meets his audience at a halfway mark: Sonny has already fallen into drug use, and is now trying to return to a clean life with his brother's aid. The narrator must first attempt to understand and make peace with his brother's drug use before he can extend his help and heart to him. Sonny and his brother both struggle for acceptance. Sonny wants desperately to explain himself while also trying to stay afloat and out

In the story of “Sonny’s Blues,” by Baldwin, the beginning of the story finds Sonny’s brother on his way to work reading about Sonny’s predicament. Sonny got arrested for “peddling and using heroin.” He didn’t want to believe that his brother was in trouble. While teaching his algebra class he was thinking about the past. He remembered when he first suspected his Sonny of using Heroin. He was always under the impression that Sonny was, “wild, but he wasn’t crazy. And he’d always been a good boy.” So he refused to believe that his brother was in trouble and needed him.

Sonny’s Blues is a novella with Sonny and his brother a teacher as main characters; Sonny engaged in drug use and peddling an act that landed him prison where his brother visited him and eventually on release he lived with him. Sonny’s parents died at different times during the racial segregation epoch in America, they were African-Americans who suffered victimization. Before her mother’s death, she had instructed Sonny’s senior brother - a teacher- to take care of him because the surrounding world was dark symbolic for unfriendly. The theme of brotherly love begins when their mother requests them

"Sonny's Blues" opens with news that Sonny has been recently apprehended during a drug bust, which establishes that Sonny has had an ongoing problem with drug addiction, specifically heroin. While the narrator is apprehensive about contacting Sonny after this incident as the brother have lost touch over the years, he eventually reaches out to Sonny and gains insight into what Sonny has been doing during their estrangement; it is also during this time that the narrator recognizes that music is not only an artistic outlet for Sonny, but also provides an emotional and psychological catharsis for him and those that listen to his music. Sonny best describes his dependency on music as he talks to his brother after an old-fashioned revival meeting during which there was much singing. Sonny states,