James Baldwin ‘s “Sonny’s Blues” is the story of a young jazz musician (Sonny) from Harlem, NY who gets addicted to heroin, is arrested for using and selling drugs, and returns to his childhood neighborhood after his release from prison. … Harlem was Baldwin’s hometown, and he was born there in 1924.
In this manner, how does Sonny change in Sonny’s Blues?
After the narrator of “Sonny’s Blues” loses his daughter to the effects of polio, his loss causes him to feel that he can better understand Sonny’s troubles. Later, he gains a greater understanding of Sonny when he comes to live with the narrator, and he perceives how the sensitive and musical Sonny suffers in life.
Likewise, people ask, what does blues mean in Sonny’s Blues?
Karen P.L. Hardison. 5,913 answers. Sonny is blue about life and being outcast. In this sense, “blue” means sad, unhappy, despondent. Sonny is also a musician and when he plays, he plays African American invented music, bebop jazz and the blues.
What does the Scotch and Milk represent in Sonny’s Blues?
Milk in literature often represents innocence, or peace, while scotch is hard alcohol, and may represent temptation and Sonny’s personal battle with darkness when he was addicted to various drugs, including heroin.
What event prompts the narrator to write his brother?
Grace, his beloved daughter, contracts polio; she suffers horribly and dies. In his own grief, the narrator begins to feel the pain of his brother. He therefore writes the letter to his brother so that they can both find their way through the pain of their lives.
What is the brothers problem with Sonny?
As he wonders what Sonny’s face is like now, we learn what the newspaper story is about: Sonny, the narrator’s younger brother, has been arrested for selling and using heroin. Apparently the narrator had suspected that Sonny was dabbling in drugs, but he tried to ignore his suspicions.
What is the climax of Sonny’s Blues?
The climax of “Sonny’s Blues” occurs after Sonny returns to Harlem to live in Greenwich Village, and they have a heated argument. James Baldwin, who composed songs at one time for Ray Charles and was close friends with trumpeter Miles Davis and others, gives to his “Sonny’s Blues” much musicality.
What is the meaning of darkness vs light in Sonny’s Blues?
Light and darkness are in constant tension throughout “Sonny’s Blues,” and Baldwin uses them to highlight the warmth, hope, gloom, and despair that mark his characters’ lives. … Not only does light represent the best elements of life, but it also symbolizes a form of salvation and grace.
Where does Sonny Go in Sonny’s Blues?
When his sister-in-law’s mother confronted him, Sonny admitted to spending all his time in Greenwich Village, hanging out with musicians.
Why did Sonny use drugs?
Sonny is caught between using heroin to try to escape the suffering that comes from being a black man trapped by racism in the Harlem slums and his desire to be clean. But he also admits that, on some level, it is the suffering that infuses his music with meaning.
Why does Sonny leave Harlem?
Sonny reveals that the reason he wanted to leave Harlem was to escape the drugs. The brothers go to the jazz club in Greenwich Village. The narrator realizes how revered Sonny is there as he hears him play.
Why is there so much friction between Sonny and his brother?
Since their mother’s death, Sonny’s life has been marred by prison and drug abuse. The tension between the two brothers is so great that after one particular fight, Sonny tells his brother to consider him dead from that point on, a statement that, again, deliberately echoes the biblical narrative of Cain and Abel.