It is a fact that jazz music remains a crucial role player in Baldwin’s short-stories evident in most of his essays and novels. In his most anthologized short story “Sony’s Blues” Baldwin uses jazz to depict the struggle of two young brothers as they attempted to live righteously in a world of hatred and oppression. It is a narrative that gives an incisive portrayal of human bonding and tolerance, set against a backdrop of racial turmoil in mid-century within America (Zimmermanbri, p.1).
Sonny’s Blues is a short-story that revolves around two characters: Sonny and His brother, an unnamed School teacher. The Harlem school teacher is the one narrating the story’s events while sonny is a beleaguered jazz musician. Sonny is forced to move in and live with his older brother and they begin to remember their childhood memories and tried to locate the point of their separation in their lives. Sonny wanted to be a jazz musician but his brother always opposed him. The re-union ended when the narrator’s daughter dies of polio. The two brothers re-unite again and fruitfully works as the narrator after watching his brother on stage realized that they share a deep bond (Zimmermanbri, p.3).
The Short story Review states that “Though “Sonny’s Blue” is one of the many arts of jazz literature, it has remained one of the outstanding genres. Sonny’sBlues is not just a story about jazz but a story told in jazz, through jazz and with jazz” (Zimmermanbri p.1).
Baldwin’s by use of jazz in the story has amplified the story’s emotionweight in a way the words cannot do. Baldwin must have understood the power of jazz in communicating human emotions at such a high fidelity (Zimmermanbri, p.1).
Works Cited
Zimmermanbri. Short Story Review. 28 Nov. 2003. Web. 3 March 2014.
