Sonny's Destructive Behavior
Throughout life, ones behavior or attitude is often affected by the environment in which he or she lives. In "Sonny Blues", by James Baldwin, Sonny is surrounded by an urban environment that plays a direct role in determing and shaping his actions and behaviors. This environment includes certain psychological, physical, and emotional components that have a joint influence in molding Sonny's attitude and behavior toward aspects of his life. In particular, it is the community of Harlem, the harsh temptations, and the people with whom Sonny interacts with that contribute to developing his destructive behavior and his negative and hopeless attitude. The community of Harlem effects Sonny's destructive behavior and his hopeless attitude due to its overwhelming prevalence and influence on many aspects of Sonny's daily life. This community includes the projects, bars, liquor stores, jazz clubs, drug addicts, school, violence, and delinquent adolescents. This compilation of elements in a community was incredibly difficult for Sonny to live in, especially growing up being a teenager. Everyday outlets that individuals may turn to as an outlet from negative behavior were not available for Sonny. Eve
n his school wasn't an escape from Harlem and the darkness within this urban environment. In "Sonny Blues", Sonny is encircled by a fiction urban environment that plays a direct role in determining and shaping his actions and behaviors. The urban environment includes certain components that have a great impact in the molding of Sonny's attitude and the behaviors. Without a positive and guiding community, as frequently offered by school and after hour activities, Sonny turned to his prevalent urban environment outlet, heroine. As Sonny became addicted to drugs, his family and friends slowly dissipated further and further way from him. Furthermore, Sonny's friends were drug addicts, resulting in Sonny feeling by taking drugs he was becoming a part of something and merely participating in the standard action of his friends and his community. These temptations consist of drugs, drug addicts, jazz clubs and musicians, and other tantalizing troublesome aspects of the community of Harlem. The temptation to use drugs was too much an integrate part of the urban environment in Harlem. Due to the community in which he was surrounded, Sonny was trapped into living the life from which he wanted to escape. Therefore, the physical traits of the community of Harlem eventually lead Sonny to his destructive behavior and hopeless and negative attitude due to its overwhelming detrimental influence. Sonny's older brother attempts "to hold on to his brother" and tries not to "let him fall" (Baldwin 279), but Sonny does not listen and lives how he pleases. Sonny feels that his brother does not understand him and his desire to be a jazz musician. Sonny's older brother tries to be a role model for Sonny and strives to be the father Sonny never had. All three aspects contribute to the developing of Sonny's destructive behavior and his negative and hopeless attitude. Although Sonny knew that "there's no way not to suffer" using drugs, he continued to harm his body trying to find "all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it" (Baldwin 287).
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