"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin gives it's reader a glimpse into the life of two African American brothers living in Harlem in the mid nineteen hundreds. The narrator and his brother Sonny are clear representations of the African American race "boxed in" by a "White America". Through the narrator we learn about the younger brother's struggle with drugs and both of the brothers' struggle with family, relationships, and everyday life in Harlem.
             One of the narrator's biggest issues in the story revolves around his relationship with his brother Sonny. He wants to help his brother Sonny get his life on the right track. He questions Sonny about his plans for the future and makes it known that he feels Sonny is above being a musician. The narrator is of no help to Sonny because he does not understand him at all. The narrator does not understand Sonny's love and talent for music.
             Music plays a major role in Sonny's life. Sonny expresses himself through his music and he is heard through it. "Sonny's Blues" "helps us to understand the various ways people experience pain and suffering. As a musician and artist, Sonny tries to make known, to speak through his music, the pain he sees around him"("Sonny's Blues" Lecture 16).
             The story shows us what many African Americans have been subjected to living in a Harlem surrounded by a "White America". When someone's opportunities to "rise in life" are so rare, and their everyday life is surrounded by the influence of drugs and crime, it is often hard to escape to anything above that life. Sonny turns to drugs and music as his escape. Both are temporary aphrodisiacs to his pain. Sonny finds out the hard way that drugs will ruin him and he ends up in prison. When he gets out of prison he turns to music for relief.
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