PORTRAYAL OF POWER OF MUSIC AS A MEAN OF REDEMPTION FOR
FAMILIAL BONDS
1
Introduction
James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" was first published in the year 1957 in the year in
the Partisan Review and then finally in the short story collection named Going to Meet the
Man in 1965. The short story, like many of his other works, showed the condition of the
African American society and the representation of art and suffering as mean to symbolize
their struggle. The narrative technique of flashbacks used by Baldwin provides the
protagonist with a better perspective as well as the readers a chance to get a view of the
protagonist and Sonny's childhood. The paper will show how though at the beginning of the
story, the narration shows darkness, poverty, drugs, and suffering, in the end, Sonny finally
gets his elder brother back when the narrator accepts and sees him for who he was. The thesis
statement will be the expression of hope at the end of the story, which redeems not only
Sonny but also the protagonist who had lost a part of his family and his childhood.
Discussion
The story starts with an algebra teacher of reading an article about a drug bust in
which his brother has been caught, which troubles his mind due to memories coming flooding
back to him from his childhood and before he left for the war. Though the story revolves
around the recovery and rehabilitation and finally redemption of Sonny, it is narrated by the
teacher, who is the elder brother of Sonny. He had to go through his day teaching algebra but
is found to be thinking and worrying about the life of his student. The readers later
understand the narrator's point of view better when, in one of the flashbacks, the narrator
explains Sonny as a brilliant kid performing considerably well in his academics (Baldwin).
He was worried because he knew the limited opportunities those children would have and
how in the darkness of hopelessness, many will turn towards drug-like Sonny.
The condition of the African-American community of Harlem is shown to be founded
on the lifeless housing projects which were turned into drug-infested buildings destroying

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