James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues

The author of "Sonny's Blues," James Baldwin, was an African-American who grew up with prejudice and racism. His purpose in writing the story was to delineate the "outsider" mentality that most African-Americans had because of the racism that prevailed. The focus of this paper will be an examination of how the two brothers in the story respond to a racist environment's efforts to force them to conform to white standards.

"Sonny's Blues" is rich with meaning on several levels, and a variety of themes can be identified in it. Although racism is one of the least-explored themes, a careful analysis of the story reveals that it is at its heart a story of the misunderstanding inherent in racism.

The news of Sonny's drug addiction and arrest is the pivotal point where it is first evident that he is a societal outcast, a miscreant, a rejected one. This identity stands in sharp contrast to that of his brother. Sonny and his brother the narrator are, of course, both black, but since the narrator has adopted lifestyle that is essentially typical for whites, he represents the white side of the race equation. He got married after high school, went into the Army, became a teacher, and settled down to start a family. This is the picture of a "regular guy," a middle-class American. His pursuits and aspirations are also standard, reflecting the good sense and common values that predominated in his era. The narrator tries his best to become t

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ape the suffering. Why do you insist on going the other way? You are paying the price for your rebellion." In rebelling against the white mentality, Sonny guarantees himself trouble and rejection. He is an outsider who can never get "in." However, one of the key triggers of that rejection(his music(is also what delivers him out of the bondage to white approval that his brother is trapped in. Although he does not fit the white standard, Sonny ends up much more comfortable than his brother, who works to fit in but is not true to himself. The narrator keeps the music and his brother at a distance, much the way whites maintain a certain distance from blacks. They disapprove without really understanding; their disapproval is based simply on the fact that blacks are different from them. The plays on words in the story lend added strength to this theme, as Sonny and the narrator are "brothers" just as all whites and all blacks are truly brothers under the skin. It has been said that there is only one race(the human race(and that we are all descended from the same person, Adam. Black and white are merely individual characteristics with no more significance than eye color or hair texture. In this sense, the two men represent th

Category: Literature - J