Describing a Lifestyle Using I
The short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin tells the story of two brothers who regain closeness and understanding of each other after years of being uninvolved in each other's lives. Through these two characters the author highlights the two different lifestyles of the African American culture and how each of these lifestyles impacts their personage. The central idea of the story is that although there is hardship in life, there is comfort in family, art, and religion. Baldwin uses several literary devices in "Sonny's Blues" to assert his theme such as the use of recurring imagery, motifs and simile. Baldwin used repetition of the image of a trap. The word trap throughout "Sonny's Blues" can be seen as a motif in that it represents the city of Harlem and the type of lifestyle that many of the people live. In the subway, the narrator describes how the people seem to be "trapped in the darkness which roared outside."(par. 1) Although there is literal darkness outside of the subway, the narrator seems to be referring to the problems that exist in the world outside of the confinement of the subway. When Sonny writes a letter to his brother, he says that he feels "like a man who's been trying to climb up ou
They try to grow up too quickly and cast off any sense of responsibility for their well being and future which is very similar to how the narrator and his brother grew up. The music is what saved them from destruction, or the light that saved them from darkness. Through the use of recurring imagery, motifs, simile and many other literary devices James Baldwin gave us a glimpse into the lifestyles of two African Americans living in Harlem and the difficulties that it ensues. After the narrator tells Sonny that he must go live with the narrator's wife, Isabel, and her family, "there was a long silence. Without these literary devices the story "Sonny's Blues" would not have the impact necessary to make the reader understand the difficult lifestyle that African Americans' have lived in throughout large cities such as Harlem. The hole can also be considered a trap he is trying to escape from. Finally, when the narrator attends a jazz concert in which his brother is performing, he begins to imagine what the musicians might be saying to each other in the way they play their music. Baldwin describes the distance in age between the narrator and Sonny is "like a chasm. He remembers sitting with friends and family on Sunday evenings, watching "the darkness growing" outside as it emerges in the windowpanes (par. 55) This shows how much age has impaired their relationship. 234) I believe the Baldwin may be comparing the relation that these men had while playing to what a family needs to work properly.
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Acceptance Essays
