The Discovery Of Self And The Community In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

Sonny 's Blues James Baldwin 's “Sonny 's Blues” was a story that was very dark at some points but the story became positive and promising. The darkness from the story came from Sonny 's addiction to drugs and his jail time. Sonny 's view on life was very different then his brother because the narrator, Sonny 's brother wanted more for him then being in a band. When Sonny wanted to be a jazz musicians, he brother said, “Are you serious” (p.44) and after that, Sonny “looked more helpless than ever, and annoyed, and deeply hurt” (p.44). But at the same time Sonny 's brother didn 't want to hurt his brother feeling so he ask him about his favorite jazz musician even though he really wasn’t up to age about jazz music. The fact that Sonny was trap in this story was something that came up when the narrator ask about his future and that he want Sonny to finish school so he could do something with his life. Sonny felt trap because he want to become …show more content…
This short story represents just believing in yourself and not letting people tell what your life should be even though Sonny’s brother had the right to help better his brother’s life. The art of self is the approach in James Baldwin’s short story. Sonny’s brother was separate from him and when Sonny and his brother reunited they were not on the same page because the narrator was looking at his brother, Sonny, and saw a heroin addict, former prisoner, and a musician. All three was not right to him and the term “existentialist hipster hero” (Bebop To Free Jazz. (n.d.) was a way for Baldwin to develop these characters to “emphasize the differences between them” (Bebop To Free Jazz. (n.d.) and the term “the more idealistic pre-war generation from the more cynical post-war one” (Bebop To Free Jazz. (n.d.). Alper Mazman had explained Sonny and his brother differences by