Existentialism in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues

This paper discusses the characters Stephen in James Joyce’s famous novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Sonny in James Baldwin’s famous short story Sonny’s Blues and compares their existentialist nature.

Running head: ENGLISH LITERATURE
ENGLISH LITERATURE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH LITERATURE
Modernism refers to the movement in the realms of literature that deals with the literary
compositions of the early twentieth century. There is a discrepancy on the commencement of the
modernism in the literature. A section of the scholars suggests that the modernist movements
around the time after the first world war while there exists another section of the scholars who
opine that the modernism movement in literature had started back in the nineteenth century
(Eysteinsson). The major theme of the stories in discussion refer to the theme of existentialism.
The following paper attempts a discussion on the characters Stephen in James Joyce’s famous
novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Sonny in James Baldwin’s famous short
story Sonny’s Blues. The paper attempts a comparison of the character traits that are depicted by
the two different characters that are presented in the given short stories.
James Joyce is one of the most celebrated writers of the late-nineteenth and the early
twentieth century. The concerned author is known to be one of the greatest poets, short story
writers and novelists of the era who contributed majorly to the avant-grade plays that revolved
around the lives of the people who have been living in the twentieth century. The novel in
discussion, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man revolves around the intellectual as well as
the religious awakening of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus (Joyce). The character is presumed
to be an alter-ego of the novelist and is created to be an allusion to the consummate craftsman
who was presented in the Greek Mythology, Daedulus. The character is known to have been
putting forth the rebellion against the conventions that were instilled in him since his birth. These
conventions majorly referred to the several conventions that were instilled by the Catholic
church and the Irish conventions. This led to the conditions wherein the protagonist had to take a
self-exile from his country Ireland to the European areas (Saleem and Bani-ata). The novel in
discussion attempted a discussion on the existentialist thought processes that were adopted by the

2ENGLISH LITERATURE
author in the matters that are presented within the other compositions of the author like
Finnegans Wake (1939) and Ulysses (1922).
In the given novel, the protagonist is observed to be modelled in the light of the author
himself. The protagonist is observed to have been a thoughtful and sensitive character and is
known to have been reappearing in the later masterpieces that has been composed by Joyce,
Ulysses (Ziegler). The family of the concerned protagonist is observed to have been running into
debt however the protagonist is known to have been getting educated at the best of the schools
and then further into the university for the higher education. The protagonist of the novel finds
the dealing with the various bonds that are imposed socially to be claustrophobic and very
difficult to handle. The course of the novel demonstrates the change in the character of the novel
and the ways in which the protagonist tends to interpret the world around him. The protagonist
experiences a huge transformation during his life at the educational institutions. The major factor
that is revealed in the growth of the artist refers to the instillation of the change in the minds of
the protagonist when he refuses to attend the church and instead get admission into the colleges
(Torchiana). The existentialism that is depicted within the minds of the protagonist of A Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man tends to portray the fact that Stephen faces a change in his beliefs.
The protagonist is known to have been facing a transition from the belief that he had in the
Almighty God to the belief in the aesthetic beauty that is present within the nature that surrounds
the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus.
On the other hand, the character of Sonny as represented by the author James Baldwin in
his famous short story, Sonny’s Blues, is observed to be a person who is addicted to the drug
heroin (Baldwin). The protagonist of the story is Sonny’s elder brother who offers major insights
into the character of Sonny by putting forth the various hardships that he had to face during his

3ENGLISH LITERATURE
lifetime. The character of Sonny is known to have issues regarding the addiction towards the
heroin (Tracy). The author however attempts to point out the major factors that are related to the
passion and the eagerness that is demonstrated by the character towards the given activity of
music, the desire that is expressed by the concerned character in the matters of the change.
The existentialism is majorly depicted through the introvert nature of the given character.
The character of Sonny is known to be withdrawn into himself despite his passion to perform
music. The character is seen to be expressing himself through the jazz music that he has been
playing on the piano. The narrator of the story, the nameless elder brother of Sonny is known to
have been pointing out the fact that the character does not reveal things about the various
dreams, the fears and the hopes that are bottled up within him (Kim). The character in discussion
is observed not to open up about the various challenges that he might have been facing in his life
and keeps all his troubles private to himself.
The character of Sonny is known for the depiction of a craving towards the change within
the given lifestyle. The character is observed to have been craving the change in the surroundings
but feels trapped due to the several wrong decisions that he had taken during his entire lifetime.
The character finds relief through the composition and the performance of the music but he is
incapable of finding a way to do so (Francis). Sonny finds a similarity with the protagonist of
Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus, in the artistry that is present
within the character. The character expresses the existentialist nature of his personality when he
attempts to deal with the various issues as well as express himself through the performance of the
jazz music on the piano. The narrator of the story states that the performance of the jazz music
has been one of the most relieving experiences for Sonny (Women, Hughes, and Wall). The
playing of the jazz music helps Sonny to deal with the various feelings like anger, hostility and

4ENGLISH LITERATURE
resentment and helps them to convert those feelings into the several artistic feelings that are
known for spreading the positivity within the audience that Sonny attempts to address. The drug
addiction helps the character to compose the various types of the jazz music that he has been
composing. The readers of the short story are made to believe that the only drug that exists in the
life of Sonny and is more powerful than the drug of heroin.
Thus, in lieu of the above discussion, it might be pointed out that the given characters of
Stephen in James Joyce’s famous novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Sonny in
James Baldwin’s famous short story Sonny’s Blues bear major similarities in their depiction of
the existentialism. The existentialism that is depicted within the minds of the protagonist of A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man tends to portray the fact that Stephen faces a change in his
beliefs. Sonny in Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues expresses the existentialist nature of his personality
when he attempts to deal with the various issues as well as express himself through the
performance of the jazz music on the piano.

5ENGLISH LITERATURE
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. Sonny's blues. Ernst Klett Sprachen, 2009.
Eysteinsson, Astradur. The concept of modernism. Cornell University Press, 2018.
Francis, Conseula. The Critical Reception of James Baldwin, 1963-2010:" an Honest Man and a
Good Writer". Boydell & Brewer, 2014.
Joyce, James. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Alma Books, 2018.
Kim, Eui Young. "The Sociology of the Ghetto in James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues." The
Explicator (2018): 1-5.
Saleem, Abdul, and Hussam Bani-ata. "Theme of alienation in modern literature." European
Journal of English Language and Literature Studies 2.3 (2014): 67-76.
Torchiana, Donald T. The Joyce Paradox: Form and Freedom in His Fiction. Routledge, 2015.
Tracy, Steven C. "Sonny in the Dark: Jazzing the Blues Spirit and the Gospel Truth in James
Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”." James Baldwin Review 1 (2015): 164-78.
Women, Blues, Langston Hughes, and Cheryl A. Wall. "Whose Sweet Angel Child?." Langston
Hughes: The Man, His Art, and His Continuing Influence 29 (2014): 37.
Ziegler, Heide. John Barth (Routledge Revivals). Routledge, 2014.