“Sonny’s Blues” is a story by James Baldwin written in 1957. The story describes a position many adolescents find themselves in when they are in high school. They have to listen to teachers, parents, elder siblings, etc.; however, they have their own opinions, ideas, and passions. Adolescents become very frustrating when they feel that dear people do not understand them or take seriously. This is what happens with the protagonist, Sonny. His brother does not understand his desire to become a musician or join the military. In general, the story is about family, overcoming difficulties, music, and human suffering. The author describes a young man who tries to find his place in the world, understand what makes him happy, express his creativity and originality, and, finally, become accepted and taken seriously by his brother. What is more, the story is about how the decisions people make affect them for a long time. In the course of the story, the author employs numerous powerful symbols including jazz music, light, darkness, ice, etc. to add more depth and meaning to it.
Jazz symbolizes different things to the characters in the story. The narrator, Sonny’s brother, knows nothing about it, but he blames music for Sonny’s addiction. Jazz music makes him sad and angry, and he does not want Sonny to hang out with musicians because he thinks that they all use drugs. At first, the narrator viewed his brother as a desperate and hopeless person; however, after hearing his play jazz, the author realized the deep connection between Sonny and the instrument, which provides a sense of freedom. For Sonny, music is something that makes his life easy and light. Music symbolizes Sonny’s drive to freedom and grief. He loves playing and listening to it, and jazz represents escape for Sonny from the reality, in which he does not feel comfortable. Finally, jazz music has a function of a bridge between brothers because only when the narrator hears his brother play, he begins to appreciate it and understand its meaning for Sonny.
Images of ice appear throughout the story and have a symbolic meaning. When the narrator reads about the arrest of his brother, he describes his feeling, “A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long. It was a special kind of ice. It kept melting, sending trickles of ice water all up and down my veins, but it never got less” (Baldwin). Here, it symbolizes dread and fear, the state of being shocked and afraid of losing a dear person. The ice can be defined as nature’s attempt to block something. And in the story, the narrator tries to lock inside his pain, shock and fear he feels for Sonny’s future. When Sonny returns, the narrator says, “I was filled with that icy dread again” (Baldwin). Ice here represents inner discomfort and the feeling of a hidden threat. This statement tells about the narrator’s helplessness and pain as well as his incapability of dealing with it. Besides, he feels guilty for not helping Sonny when he needed.
Light appears in many forms in the course of the story and illuminates both figuratively and literally. When the narrator and Sonny’s mother tells about their uncle and his death, she recollects a moonlit light and road. Here, the moonlight implies grace and salvation. When Sonny is playing jazz in the club, the spotlight on the young man turns blue, and the narrator feels revelation about his brother and his preferences. The light here represents hope and warmth that can melt any heart. "The lights on the bandstand, on the quartet, turned to a kind of indigo. Then they all looked different there” (Baldwin). It is important here that they all were playing as a group. Besides, the music is described as a wordless conversation among all the players that united them and made them stronger. Looking at the light on the place where the band was playing, the narrator told that the musicians were “careful not to step into that circle of light too suddenly: that if they moved into the light too suddenly, without thinking, they would perish in the flame” (Baldwin). Finally, when Sonny places milk and the Scotch on the piano, the narrator states, “For me, then, as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling” (Baldwin). It symbolizes Sonny’s happiness and inner light due to the music he was playing and its meaning for him. What is more, Sonny’s image for the narrator becomes free and vivid.
The darkness is the exact opposition to the light and constantly follows the characters in the story. “These boys were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives and the darkness of the movies” (Baldwin). Sonny’s addiction to heroin, imprisonment and the general Harlem’s state of life are surrounded by the darkness, which represents personal and social problems, desolation and fear. When adolescents approach adulthood, they will come to the realization that they are limited in their opportunities and begin to use drugs. The darkness of movies will distract their attention from their lives and keep the young men from attempting anything. They live in the darkness of Harlem and do not know how to escape the reality of crimes and drugs that surround them.
The cup of trembling is another symbol in this scene and represents a difficult situation of Sonny. In this case, the author borrows this image from the Bible, where it symbolizes the fear and suffering that have tormented the people. The biblical passage promises a relief from suffering as well as the chance for peace and redemption. “The drink represents more than Sonny’s freedom; it symbolizes Sonny’s redemption – a redemption born of sin” (Tackach 117). Sonny’s drinking from that cup serves as a reminder of all his troubles and inner sufferings he has endured. Like the people from the Bible, he is moving toward salvation; however, his fate still remains uncertain. Possibly, he will continue experience sufferings as if it is the cost he has to pay for being a jazz musician. “The drink is both a Damoclean sword, the cup of the brothers’ communion of understanding, and the emblem of initiation” (Lobb 147). Thus, the drink may also symbolize the beginning of the new relationship between the two brothers, and that the narrator will, finally, believe Sonny and let him live his own life.
The housing projects in Harlem were clear symbols of its fall and decline. The narrator says, “These streets hadn't changed though housing projects jutted up out of them now like rocks in the middle of a boiling sea. boys exactly like the boys we once had been found themselves smothering in these houses, came down into the streets for light and air and found themselves encircled by disaster. Some escaped the trap, most didn't” (Baldwin). Such apocalyptic image may have a biblical undertone because they resemble a kind of hell on earth. The buildings are brutal and cold but they are lifeless and surrounded by misery. The projects are accompanied by the playgrounds which are popular with drug dealers, and people are trapped by the idea of the cheap and affordable existence.
Works cited
Baldwin, James. Sonny's Blues. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1993. Print.
Lobb, Edward. “James Baldwin’s Blues and the Function of Art.” The International Fiction Review, 1979, Vol.6 (2), p. 143-148. Print.
Tackach, James. “The Biblical Foundation of James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature, 2007, Vol.59 (2), p.109-118. Print. \
