James Baldwin, a classic African American writer, writes “Sonny’s Blues” to show the differences between two brothers and the way that they deal with the world around them. This story clearly shows two extremes of the way people deal with the trials and tribulations of life. Sonny’s brother tries to insulate himself against the problems and ignore the difficulties while Sonny himself faces his problems head on, for better or worse. The troubles in their lives are further exacerbated by the fact that they are African American.
Sonny changes in the way that he comes to learn the error of his ways and ask forgiveness of his family. He struggles on a daily basis. Sonny is the sensitive one who uses his emotions to understand the world around him. After watching a particularly moving performance by another musician, he says, “it struck me all of a sudden how much suffering she must have had to go through — to sing like that. It’s repulsive to think you have to suffer that much” (Baldwin). Sonny intuitively understands that people use whatever they can to get through their suffering, whether that be art, music, drugs, alcohol, or the like. Sonny knows that he must live by his own ideals and be successful in his own ways to be truly alive. Because Sonny is “marching to his own drummer,” his family fails to understand him. “It was as though Sonny were some sort of god, or monster. He moved in an atmosphere which wasn’t like theirs at all. They fed him and he ate, he washed himself, he walked in and out of their door; he certainly wasn’t nasty or unpleasant or rude, Sonny isn’t any of those things; but it was as though he were all wrapped up in some cloud, some fire, some vision all his own; and there wasn’t any way to reach him” (Baldwin). Sonny wants to live his own life and confront the pains of his upbringing in the only ways he can.
However, the transformation of the narrator’s brother is even more extreme. He listens to his brother play and comes to respect that fact that his emotions are right out there for everyone to see. He believes that by denying his true self and closing off those emotions, he will succeed in life as defined by white society.
His cautious nature is shown from the very first when Sonny announces his desire to become a musician, his brother’s statement is “Well, Sonny, you know people can’t always do exactly what they want to do” (Baldwin). Sonny’s brother is ready to deny things that might actually bring him pleasure and satisfaction in life in order to “fit in.” Sonny responds with Sonny responds with “No, I don’t know that. I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?,” (Baldwin), which also speaks volumes about Sonny’s character. Sonny’s brother only chooses to deny the pain around him. When he first learns that Sonny has been arrested for heroin use, he is able to block out his feelings and continue to teach that day.
He fits into society, even coming from the same environment as Sonny. He is a great son and a great parent, a truly responsible adult. He cannot accept his brother because his brother just cannot seem to fit. “I didn’t like the way he carried himself, loose and dreamlike all the time, and I didn’t like his friends, and his music seemed to be merely an excuse for the life he led. It sounded just that weird and disordered” (Baldwin). He simply cannot face the bohemian lifestyle that his brother seems to live, and so he shuts Sonny and his own feelings about his brother out. I had had suspicions, but I didn’t name them, I kept putting them away” (Baldwin). However, after the brother’s own child dies, he can no longer “stuff” his feelings. He then goes to listen to Sonny play. He understands his brother a little better. He also understands blues music a little better. Blues is meant to encompass sorrow and people share their pain as a way to deal with it in listening to blues music. Sonny’s brother has promised his mother to look after Sonny, but when he sees Sonny perform, he understands the meaning of his promise. All these years, he has tried to make Sonny live like he does. That was not the promise.
Through most of this story, Sonny’s brother believes that Sonny wants to die. He uses drugs, lives a nomadic, bohemian lifestyle, and does things that just plain are not good for him. However, Sonny’s friend clarifies things in telling Sonny’s brother that Sonny does not want to die. He wants to live. Sonny uses anything he can in order to truly live his life and not hide from his feelings like his brother does. The incredible transformation that Sonny’s brother goes through is in understanding his brother. Sonny does not want to die. He wants to live but to be successful by his own definition not the definition of success for a black man as defined by a racist society. If one is pigeon-holed by race and discrimination, this is what causes one to feel “dead.” Sonny will not live like that.
When Sonny’s brother goes to the blues club to hear Sonny play, he truly listens to his brother. When Sonny says, It’s terrible sometimes, inside,” he said, “that’s what’s the trouble. You walk these streets, black and funky and cold, and there’s not really a living ass to talk to, and there’s nothing shaking, and there’s no way of getting it out – that storm inside. You can’t talk it and you can’t make love with it, and when you finally try to get with it and play it, you realize nobody’s listening. So you’ve got to listen. You got to find a way to listen” (Baldwin), Sonny’s brother realizes that he must listen to his brother. When Sonny tells him that the addiction can come again, Sonny’s brother realizes that Sonny must face his addiction through music in order to make sure that it does not come again. As he watches his brother, “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others” (Baldwin). He realizes that Sonny is helping himself but also helping others by playing his music. He sees Sonny’s music for the first time as having transformative power. As the Creole man tells Sonny, “he wanted Sonny to leave the shoreline and strike out for the deep water. He was Sonny’s witness that deep water and drowning were not the same thing — he had been there, and he knew” (Baldwin). This man encourages Sonny to put his whole sole on the line. Swimming in deep water is not the same as drowning. Sonny must use the music to get his feelings out, so that he will not be tempted by the drugs anymore. Music has the transformative power to help him do this.
The struggles of these two characters and the way they deal with the stresses of their lives is clearly at least partly a result of race. Sonny’s brother tries to “stuff” his feelings by believing that he can achieve whatever he sets his mind to. He tends to ignore or downplay his race or where he came from in order to assimilate better into white middle class society. Sonny feels that society is wrong in the way it looks at African Americans and that life will always be a struggle for them. He is unaccepting of the prejudices and the fact that he will never enjoy the successes of whites. Sonny’s brother teaches boys who are much like he and Sonny were growing up. They were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone” (Baldwin). These boys do not have good chances of succeeding due to factors in their urban environment like drug use and crime and violence. Sonny’s brother is aware that most of these boys will not “succeed” the way he has but that maybe they will end up using drugs like Sonny and that maybe it did more for them than algebra could” (Baldwin). While all of these young men must face the issues of society that everyone else faces of just making a name for oneself, they must do it in a place that tolerates racism. They must face life in the shadow of poverty and violence that are imposed upon them. Their problems are only compounded by their race.
And so, while Sonny is an addict who becomes a recovering addict, his brother is the one who truly changes. Sonny makes a recovery from addiction, but his true character does not change. He continues to live his life by his own ideals but learns to express his pain through his music, not through using heroin. On the other hand, Sonny’s brother makes some true epiphanies about his brother. He begin to understand the way that Sonny used his drugs and the way he uses his music-as a way to deal with the world around him. He truly learns what it is to be his brother’s keeper. His goal should never have been to change Sonny into something that he wasn’t. It should have been to listen to his brother and understand him, which is what he will do from here on out. His change signals a new beginning for the relationship between these two brothers. He also is able to experience firsthand the redemptive power of blues music. People play and sing to express their pain, sorrow, and disappointment in life. The audience listens for the same reason, and people connect with others. To share one’s pain with someone else helps one deal with life and lessen one’s load. He understands that Sonny truly was “playing for his life” (Baldwin).
