Analysis of Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin
“Sonny’s Blues” by author James Baldwin tells the tale of two brothers; one good and one evil. The narrator paints the two brothers as “light” and “dark”. The author James Baldwin writes about his relationship with his brother Sonny whom was the “dark” brother. In essence, this story is about the struggle of two black brothers growing up in Harlem. This essay incorporates the struggles that Black men and women go through on a daily basis.
Though both brothers were from the ghetto, the narrator seems to have assimilated into the larger society/culture; he was a school teacher doing generally well in what we call life. Sonny on the other hand turned to drugs (heroin) to escape from the pain and suffering he endured growing up a black man in the 1950’s. “Sonny’s Blues” also tells the reader about how art and music was a huge part of Black people’s lives in Harlem. Many looked towards music for an escape; Sonny turned towards Jazz to release his pain and anguish. This story does have a Biblical theme behind it.
Like the story of light and darkness in the Bible, Baldwin uses these phrases to reference the life or the characters. One critic agrees with this Biblical interpretation; author James Tackach actually wrote a criticism called “the biblical foundation of James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”’. Tackach’s interpretation was based on Baldwin’s real life. He expressed that Baldwin was born in the Church and therefore knew the Bible intimately. Tackach fells as though Baldwin uses his vast knowledge of Biblical stories to help tell the tale of Sonny and his brother.
In Tackachs critical analysis of “Sonny’s Blues”, he writes that no other critical analysis has identified the two main biblical texts that form the foundation of Baldwin’s story; the Cain and Abel story and the story of the Prodigal Son. In accordance with Tackachs criticism, I believe that that story did have a Biblical undertone like the two stories listed above. Both stories, Cain and Abel and The Prodigal Son, have the same plot as “Sonny’s Blues”. All of these stories are brothers fighting with one another and each brother in all of three stories has the “good” and the “bad” qualities about them.
Like previously stated, Sonny was the good brother; so were the Prodigal son and Cain. Tackach also talked about the “” which was a Biblical term that symbolizes sinners that were now redeemed. When the narrator sends Sonny a drink at the end of the story, he claims that it is like the “cup of trembling”. This is another term taken from the Bible to symbolize the relationship between the two brothers. Tackach seems to use biographical and historical criticism when breaking down the story of “Sonny’s Blues”.
Like Tackachs, Michael Clark’s criticism ‘Light and Darkness in “Sonny’s Blues”’ also uses the “light” and “darkness” to describe the story. The “light” being the ‘good’ and the “dark” being the ‘bad’ qualities. Unlike Tackachs, Clark uses these terms to refer to the emotions felt by Sonny when he was on drugs, thinking about his life or when playing his piano; his jazz music. In “Sonny’s Blues”, the narrator writes “I feel like a man who’s been trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside.
I got to get outside. ” Clark uses the “funky hole” to describe the darkness and “the sun” to describe the light. To Clark, the whole story is about how Sonny feels and how his music portrays his emotions, his despair and finally his joy. I agree with Clark, It seems as though Sonny is always in pain or joyous. There seems to be no in between with him. Most of the time, Sonny is depressed or melancholy. He only finds real happiness in the last few sentences of the story. Sonny only expressed his joy when he is clean and playing his beloved piano.
This did occur in the beginning of the story too, when Sonny moved into Isabelle’s house. Isabelle had a piano inside and Sonny seemed very happy to know this. Sonny played jazz music all the time until Isabelle and her family received a note saying that Sonny was missing school. After Sonny was scolded, he stopped playing the piano and began his journey through the darkness. He continued this until the end of the story when he finally kicked his habit. The “light” and the “darkness” analogy Clark used were perfect for this story because it captured the struggles Sonny went through, throughout the short story.
