‘Instructor’s Name’
The Theme of Suffering in Baldwin’s Sonny’ Blues
James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’, is a story about a young Black American who gets arrested for using drugs, and how music helps him get back his life. Baldwin has handled a plethora of themes in this brief story like racism, dreams, familial bonds, search for identity and artistic expression. Among these, the one theme which stands out throughout the story is that of ‘suffering’, and the various ways in which Baldwin’s characters handle their suffering. The author creates a brilliant intergenerational portrait of suffering of a black family, and delineates how each one of them deals with it. Lee opines, suffering is the focal point of Baldwin’s work, and his characters are defined by their capacity to endure suffering.
Sonny has big dreams, but does not get the support of his family to pursue his dreams. He has a difficult relationship with his father, and though he was the favorite child of his father and mirrored him in spirit, they two had constant arguments. After losing his parents, even his brother who is just seven years elder to him in age, refuses to take his dream to be a musician seriously. He is put up in his sister-in-law’s house against his wishes, and he feels out of place there too. He skips school and takes to drugs, and loses his way in life. His life is almost a representation of the majority of Black kids, growing up in Harlem during the 1950s. The narrator observes,
“These boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their head bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities.”
For young African Americans, growing up in the pre-civil rights movement era, the possibilities were limited due to the general prejudice and segregation, which existed in the then society. So their dreams were often unfulfilled, and this caused frustration and rage amongst them. Sonny too is a victim of this phenomenon, and he goes down the dangerous path of drug addiction to quench his frustration. As he says, though he knew there is no way to avoid suffering, yet he took to drugs because he did not want to drown in his suffering.
“No there’s no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it.”
This almost causes irreparable damage to him, as he is arrested for his crime and loses his chance to pursue his goal. But once he comes out of the prison, living with his brother’s family makes him, gradually come out of his self imposed shell. His performance, in the night club at the end of the story, aptly captures his struggle to come to terms with his sufferings in life. He first struggles to get the rhythm going in his music, but once he gains confidence he mesmerizes the audience, including his brother, who initially had doubt about his musical talents. Thus music, which is the real passion in his life, helps Sonny conquer his suffering.
Not just Sonny, but all the characters in the story have their own traumatic experiences, and they cope with them in different ways. The narrator’s life is a struggle to come to terms with the miserable truth around him. His brother’s arrest is the first stimulator which induces him, to gauge the black community in which he is an integral part. He observes his students, then the nameless friend of Sonny, the barmaid near the subway station, and he gradually acknowledges the truth about the real situation of the black community, which he was aware of but failed to accept so far. This introspect of his creates an empathy towards his brother, with whom he is no longer in touch with, despite the promise he made to his mother to look after him. His suffering in life, which comes in the form of his daughter’s death, makes him write to his brother and thus opens up a new chapter in their relationships.
The cab journey the narrator takes with his brother in Harlem makes him realize, how very little has changed for the black community in America. He recollects how when he was a child, the older people would hesitate to discuss the plight of the Blacks in front of the children. And to his dismay he realizes very little has changed from those days. Ognibene conveys that the narrator, though is older than Sonny, he is not any wiser than him, and Sonny’s music has indeed helped the narrator reconcile with his racial heritage.
Their father, who is rough and tough in the exterior, too suffers from the shock of seeing his brother run down by a car, with the White men inside not even bothering to stop. His solace is the comforting shoulder of his wife. So each character in the story is burdened by their load of grief and fury, and their attempt to overcome their suffering is the main theme driving the story. Sonny’s music and the appreciation of his brother for his talent in the end, help the brothers to reconcile and find a common relief from their sufferings. Thus as Shuman opines, “Sonny is in a way like the suffering servant found in the Bible, who is ‘despised and rejected of men’ yet bears their sorrows and trials and provides healing”.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. Sonny's Blues. New York: Klett Sprachen, 1957. Print.
Lee, Dorothy H. "The Bridge of Suffering." Callaloo - The Johns Hopkins University Press (1983): 92-99. Print.
Ognibene, Elaine R. "Black Literature Revisited: "Sonny's Blues"." The English Journal (1971): 36-37. Print.
Shuman, R. Baird. Great American Writers: Twentieth Century. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2002. Print.
