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Sonny's Blues: Themes of Struggle and Redemption

This document provides context about the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. It summarizes the plot, which is about two brothers in Harlem, one of whom struggles with heroin addiction. It notes that drugs are a central theme in the story. It also provides biographical details about Baldwin, mentioning he was born in Harlem and later moved to Paris due to feelings of alienation as a black, gay man in the US. The document lists some key themes of the story, including drugs/alcohol, suffering, and feelings of being trapped.

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Ioana Fx
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102 views1 page

Sonny's Blues: Themes of Struggle and Redemption

This document provides context about the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. It summarizes the plot, which is about two brothers in Harlem, one of whom struggles with heroin addiction. It notes that drugs are a central theme in the story. It also provides biographical details about Baldwin, mentioning he was born in Harlem and later moved to Paris due to feelings of alienation as a black, gay man in the US. The document lists some key themes of the story, including drugs/alcohol, suffering, and feelings of being trapped.

Uploaded by

Ioana Fx
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Guzu Ioana-Cristina,

EF, 3rd year

Sonnys Blues
James Baldwin
James Baldwin 's Sonny's Blues is the story of a young jazz musician (Sonny) from Harlem,
NY who gets addicted to heroin, is arrested for using and selling drugs, and returns to his
childhood neighborhood after his release from prison. He moves in with his older brother (the
story's narrator) and his brother's family. The two brothers sort of reconnect after a very tense
few weeks during which both try to deal with their anger towards each other. Drugs are a central
part of the story, but it's also about family, music, and trying to overcome life's struggles.
Harlem was Baldwin's hometown, and he was born there in 1924. In his teens, he worked as a
Pentecostal preacher, under the influence of his father. Yet as he grew older, he moved away
from the influence of the church. He found himself an apartment in the artist's district of
Greenwich Village, NY and then, in 1948, in part due to the alienation he felt as a gay black man
in the US, he moved to Paris.

Central themes

Drugs and alcohol

You mean they'll let him out. And then he'll just start working his way back in again. You
mean he'll never kick the habit. Is that what you mean? Sonnys brother
When she was singing before," said Sonny, abruptly, "her voice reminded me for a minute of
what heroin feels like sometimes when it's in your veins. It makes you feel sort of warm and
cool at the same time.-Sonny
Some guys, you can tell from the way they play, they on something all the time. And you can
see that, well, it makes something real for them.

Suffering and the feeling of being trapped

You don't know how much I needed to hear from you. I wanted to write you many a time but I
dug how much I must have hurt you and so I didn't write. But now I feel like a man who's been
trying to climb out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there,
outside. I got to get outside.-Sonnys letter to his brother while he was in prison
He had made it his: that long line of which we knew only Mama and Daddy. . . . I saw my
mother's face again . . . I saw the moonlit road where my father's brother died. And it brought
something else back to me, and carried me past it, I saw my little girl again and felt Isabel's tears
again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise.

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