Portrayal of Music's Power in Redeeming Familial Bonds: Sonny's Blues

This essay provides an analysis of James Baldwin's 'Sonny's Blues', focusing on the portrayal of music as a means of redemption for familial bonds. The essay examines the narrative structure, the characters' struggles, and the themes of hope and reconciliation. It explores how the protagonist's understanding of his brother Sonny's passion for music ultimately bridges the gap between them, leading to a sense of familial connection. The essay highlights the significance of music as a source of solace and a pathway to understanding, particularly within the context of the African American experience in Harlem. Through detailed textual analysis, the essay demonstrates how Baldwin uses the power of music to symbolize the brothers' journey towards healing and redemption, ultimately emphasizing the importance of familial support and understanding in overcoming adversity. The conclusion emphasizes the ray of light, which represents hope for both brothers that together, they would find their way back home.

Running Head: PORTRAYAL OF POWER OF MUSIC AS A MEAN OF REDEMPTION
FOR FAMILIAL BONDS
The portrayal of Power of Music as a mean of redemption for Familial Bonds between the
Brothers
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author's Note:

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PORTRAYAL OF POWER OF MUSIC AS A MEAN OF REDEMPTION FOR FAMILIAL
BONDS
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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PORTRAYAL OF POWER OF MUSIC AS A MEAN OF REDEMPTION FOR FAMILIAL
BONDS
Harlem from the sight which was meant to the focal point of rising. Sonny was one of the
hopeless inhabitants of Harlem, who unlike the protagonist though enlisted in the military,
did not end up with a job. It is also because he was discouraged by the narrator for his choice
of music in bebop. The entire community is shown barely breathing under the darkness, and
almost all the characters have impending suffering and struggle to loom over them (Baldwin).
However, it was the narrator who was able to move on with his life after the war and get a
job, but others like Sonny and his friend, who were artists at heart, could not stand the brunt
of society and tried to escape with the use of the drug.
After the death of his daughter, the narrator relies on the importance of familial
relationship and bonding, which his mother taught him, which made him decide to help
Sonny. When his wife leaves for her parents, he calls Sonny to live with him. Moreover, it
was then he talked with Sonny, a conversation that showed him his perspective, the
compelling reason why he indulged in the drug. He was always discouraged and scolded for
his choice of music, but the music was the only thing that gave him solace in the word where
loss and life were synonymous in meaning for him (Baldwin). When in the end, before going
to a jazz club, Sonny explains the reason why he was inclined towards heroin in the first
place as heroin transport him to a place where he can take all the suffering of his life and yet
had the strength to deal with it.
Conclusion
It is, in the end, the narrator understands the support which Sonny needed to climb out
of the darkness he was living his entire life. He understood how music in whichever form
could be the medium of solace for the person in search of it. He understands how one single
cup of milk was the symbol of expression he wanted to convey to his brother, that he will be
there with him, as a family is supposed to be, as their mother had asked him. The ending of
the story shows the rays of light, which represents hope for both brothers that together, they

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PORTRAYAL OF POWER OF MUSIC AS A MEAN OF REDEMPTION FOR FAMILIAL
BONDS
would find their way back home. The narrator understood Sonny's perspective towards life,
which was the first step to bridge the gap between the brothers.

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PORTRAYAL OF POWER OF MUSIC AS A MEAN OF REDEMPTION FOR FAMILIAL
BONDS
References
Baldwin, James. "Sony’s Blues,” The Jazz Fiction Anthology, Ed. Sascha Feinstein and
David Rife. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2009. 17-48