Music For The Soul By James Baldwin - 957 Words

Music for the Soul It is a common belief that the nurture aspect of our personal development has a lot to do with the way we see ourselves and the habits we form due to our past experiences. Unfortunately for Sonny, as well as for many other African Americans throughout history, even before the 1950’s, oppression had been a great burden to deal with on a day to day basis. In â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† the author James Baldwin provides us with a family whose lives revolve around this constant reminder that they are a minority and therefore, live a completely different life in Harlem, Manhattan New York where the influences and environment mainly keep one in trouble. Sonny was the brave exception in the family who allowed himself to openly have a fervor for jazz and grows spiritually, beyond the borders of restraint that oppression had placed on those who lived during these times, his passion towards jazz music definitely deepened his connection to his community, his cul tural history, his family, and his interior consciousness. Sonny’s fascination with jazz and playing the piano became a safe haven for him as well as a coping mechanism as for many other African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance. â€Å"Jazz continued its development as a uniquely American art form in Harlem, where prominent nightclubs like the Cotton Club featured great jazz composers like Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson. Their music lured whites uptown to Harlem to share the excitement of the Jazz Age†¦. TheShow MoreRelatedAdversity In Sonnys Blues By James Baldwin892 Words   |  4 PagesJames Baldwin’s â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† utilizes race, poverty, stereotypes, and adversity to shine a light on the struggle to escape circumstance. Throughout the text, Baldwin describes the hardships leaching the life out of Harlem’s black community from the narrator’s perspective. Sonny, the narrator’s brother, struggles with his identity and ability to feel emotion leading him to the world of music and drugs, â€Å"To be aware of oneself, Baldwin believes, is to feel a sense of loss, to know where we are andRead MoreThe Sounds of Sonnys Blues1247 Words   |  5 PagesSean Cohen English 1197 Sec 001 April 10th, 2012 â€Å"The Sounds of Sonny’s Blues† James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues is a short story focused around the narration of Sonny’s brother. The narrator in the case of Sonny’s Blues is the most important character in a cast of characters not only because he is the narrator, but due to the dynamic change of his character we see at the end of the story. Baldwin effectively uses the first-person narration of Sonny’s brother in order to convey the theme of communicationRead MoreJames Baldwin s Connections With Sonny s Blues996 Words   |  4 Pages James Baldwin’s Connections with Sonny’s Blues On August 2, 1924, in New York’s Harlem neighborhood James Author Baldwin was born. Known as one of the most influential black writers of the twentieth century, James Baldwin wrote on real issues that many people faced in the United States during his time. His writing dealt with the reality of life and tangled with everything from human sexuality, race, and poverty. He was a great reflection of his time and his short story, Sonny’sRead MoreAnalysis Of James Baldwin s Sonny s Blues Essay1154 Words   |  5 Pagesntroduction: James Baldwin, author of Sonny s Blues, once said, I grew up with music...much more than with any other language. In a way, the music I grew up with saved my life (Session 3 Inquiry: Rudolfo Anaya and James Baldwin, 2015).   Blues becomes Sonny s drug and his addiction to it his salvation.       Even though the adults refrain from lamenting their sufferings directly to the children and telling them about the darkness, the child-narrator still intimates its marks in their facesRead MoreSetting Analysis : Sonny s Blues 921 Words   |  4 PagesSetting Analysis of the Nightclub in â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† â€Å"Sonny’s Blues,† which is an outstanding short story by James Baldwin, describes many obstacles in lifestyles and relationships of African-Americans in the influential time of post Harlem Renaissance and discrimination in the 1950s. In the end of the story, the nightclub setting is the most important and emotional turning point of the brotherhood between narrator and his young brother, Sonny. After many conflicts and arguments about their differentRead More`` Hills Like White Elephants `` By Ernest Hemingway1681 Words   |  7 PagesWhite Elephants† utilizes the imagery of the train station in order to produce the effect of transition between the characters, both in terms of physical location and emotional mindset. Much like Hemingway, James Baldwin’s â€Å"Sonny’s Blues† takes a similar approach, using Sonny’s passion for music to expose his deepest insecurities. Though their approaches are different, both authors use imagery to create a pathway to the character’s internal thoughts. Often, when people think of the functions of trainsRead MoreBiblical and Religious Themes in Sonnys Blues Essay1269 Words   |  6 PagesJames Baldwin’s short story, â€Å"Sonny’s Blues,† is the authors most studied and critically analyzed piece of literature. The majority of these analyses focus on the obvious themes of the book such as jazz music, the unnamed narrator, or the rift that divides Sonny and his brother. Little critique has ever gone into the biblical and religious themes that run throughout the story of â€Å"Sonny’s Blues.† Furthermore, it is even more astonishing that there is little critique given Baldwin has such a strongRead MoreEssay about Sonnys Heroic Journey in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues2971 Words   |  12 Pages The theme of Sonnys Blues by James Baldwin focuses on whether a person should be conventional in making decisions for their life, or if they should follow their heart and do what is right for them. A person begins with strengths, many of which they lose along the way. At some point along their heroic journey a person may regain their strengths and develop new ones. Each phase of this journey will have an effect on them and others around them. According to his brother, who narrates SonnysRead MoreThe American Dream By Edgar Allan Poe1476 Words   |  6 Pagesmedia around the nation. Then there were leaders like James Baldwin, an author and a Samaritan to African Americans. James Baldwin was born in New York City on August 2nd, 1924. James developed to loathe his father for continually reprimanding and teasing him. As an issue, he revolted from multiple points of view, first by turning into a youthful pastor at a church congregation, then would dismiss the congregation to seek writing afterwards. Baldwin wanted to peruse writing, and when he graduated fromRead More James Baldwins Story Sonnys Blues Essay1261 Words   |  6 PagesJames Baldwins Story Sonnys Blues James Baldwin?s story ?Sonny?s Blues? is a deep and reflexive composition. Baldwin uses the life of two brothers to establish parallelism of personal struggle with society, and at the same time implies a psychological process of one brother leaving his socially ingrained prejudices to understand and accept the others flaws. The story is narrated by Sonny?s older brother whom remained unnamed the entire story. Sonnys brother is a pragmatic person, a teacher