The story “Sonny’s Blues” provides the reader with information about the hard and complicated relationship between two brothers. The narrator of the story is a person who leads a normal life. He is a teacher of algebra who obviously has to work with little children. Therefore, a reader has a certain amount of trust towards the narrator. At the same time, a reader can see the story of Sonny who appears to be narrator’s brother who is always in trouble. The story shows the reader how brothers go from being close and then fighting which leads them to misunderstanding and miscommunication. The author is trying to reveal a hard nature of human relationships through the example of these two brothers who should be close to each other but at the same time they are so far away in terms of the mindset and the understanding of life and the actions that they take and the consequences that may appear afterwards. Settings usually play a very important role in the whole understanding of the stories for readers. Settings usually appeal to reader’s imagination and this story is not an exception.
The very first setting in the story takes place on the train. A reader may assume that it is happening in the morning when many people are going to work. The very first sentence of the story is “I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work” (Baldwin 1). Therefore, a reader
gets already alert that a narrator will be disturbed by something that he or she has read on the train. Later in the story we understand that a narrator is male since he is the brother. However, the setting makes the reader think that since he read about it in the newspaper on the way to work, the information that he had received is not very personal since every person can read it in the newspaper. So the setting for this scene is subway, morning and it is likely to be during the day week since he is a teacher and he is on the way to work. It is quite a casual setting for the type of news that the narrator gets. He figures out that his brother was arrested because he had drugs on him. It is quite devastating news to receive at the beginning of the day. However, the narrator copes with the feelings and goes on with the day. The narrator himself mentions that he felt “scared” (Baldwin 1). And the reader can feel it from him and can share these feelings since many people are scared and worried about their family members even if nothing bad happens to them. It is a human nature to be able to take care of each other, especially of the ones who are very close to us. Therefore, in this scene the setting helps the reader to understand that it does not matter how casual the day may be, people still can get the news that may hurt them to their heart and make them aware that the world is not a safe place to live in and unpredicted things may happen to any person that we know at any time.
The next setting that the author puts his reader in is school environment. He moves on to his work still holding the thoughts of the brother. The narrator cannot stop thinking about the whole situation. Children at school make him think about their childhood and how they were also little and
full of hopes. The school setting helps the author to help to relate the reader to the story. Many people reminisce on their childhood and see it as a time when they had the most opportunities in their lives. The school setting and all the students are there help the reader see that life can be different. More or less all people come from the start. The author provokes a question in the reader’s mind, so what makes other people lives different and not as successful. The narrator mentions that probably the first time that his brother tried heroin was in school which seems to be very upsetting. We can assume that the narrator does not approve of such lifestyle that his brother leads. It is important to notice that no matter how shocking the news that narrator has received he still manages to go through the whole work day which makes him look very responsible in the eyes of the reader. He is being opposed to his brother. They seem to be very different people. The setting and the story that the narrator keeps telling creates an image of their relationship for the reader.
In conclusion, it is necessary to state that settings play one of the most significant roles in “Sonny’s Blues”. The author takes us from one emotion to the other with the help of changing settings. We can see that it is some kind of love and hate relationship which often exists between the siblings. Different places and times combine all the emotions and the memories in a clearer picture and create certain attitudes towards the participants of the story. Therefore, it is important to have good settings in the stories in order to create a proper mood to it. Reader can interpret even little details if he or she is interested in the story.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. Sonny’s Blues. Web. http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1220828.files/Sonnys%20Blues.pdf.
