James Messages in Sonnys Blues

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Religion

Document 1

Sonny according to the story is described as a responsible man (Belilgne 50). The short story revolves around several themes which affect our community in everyday life. From these themes, we learn a lot as it is a mirror in the modern community. The author’s message in the story revolves around issues such as Racism and segregation, brotherly, suffering, anger, imprisonment, and art. James explicitly conveys a message about racism in his story, “Sonny’s Blues. On the other hand, James’ message in the story also revolves around the importance of the maintaining brotherhood. For instance, there is a strong bond between Sonny and his brother. This is evident when their mother asks the narrator to take care of his brother by looking over him.

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The brothers' bond is intensified by the bible story of Cain and Abel where Cain kills Abel and Cain inquires whether is supposed to be the keeper of his brother. When the mother of the narrator dies, a hard time comes in and his brother is also was facing prison and drug cases. He even goes ahead to counsel them and incorporate them into music. The author has also mentioned the concept of suffering in several instances. One of the cases is where the narrator’s daughter dies. The narrator becomes frustrated by the incident. Sonny becomes addicted to drugs and he is also being imprisoned due to drug abuse. From the story it is evident that suffering can make people come together, it motivates people to work together and hope for a better future.

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Even though suffering is characterized by pain and many negativity, it can be a uniting factor for a population or group of people. From the story, the author has also mentioned that the power of art is essentially necessary for our community. For example, the two brothers were possessing different art inabilities. Sonny was not a good listener and the narrator was not a good listener. When the narrator tells that the neighborhood is a "boiling sea" he meant the degree of anger that was contained in the neighborhood. Due to anger, the two brothers are in constant fight and disagreement. Anger makes the narrator not to visit his brother Sonny when he is imprisoned due to drug abuse. Narrator’s mother says how she was filled with anger and her family when her brother was murdered in a cold blood due to racism(Gibson 136).

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Sonny looks at the Harlem through the window and says the hatred and anger have not torn apart. These discriminations tend to tear people apart and brings division in society (Tracy 168). Just like in the story, people can use the problems they face and use it to bring change in the society. Just like the people of Harlem used their suffering to come together and fight poverty and other problems they faced, is the same way the modern society should take advantage of the problems and bring people together to fight these vices. The story is a learning point to society and it provides several ways to handle our problems. Works Cited Belilgne, Maleda.  4, no.  1, 2018, pp. Tracy, Steven C. "Sonny in the Dark: Jazzing the Blues Spirit and the Gospel Truth in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”.

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