Writing Samples - Fall 2011 cont.

Short Paper #3

“Sonny’s Blues”

A Drug Addiction

           In the story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, there are many important themes and passages. One of the most prominent themes throughout the text relates to the drug addiction that the character Sonny has, and how that affects his relationship with his brother, who is the narrator. A passage from the text that sets the scene for the rest of the story is in the opening paragraph. For example, the narrator says,

I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work. I read it, and I couldn’t believe it, and I read it again. Then perhaps I just stared at it, at the newsprint spelling out his name, spelling out the story (366). 

After the narrator reads the article he is referring to in the quote above, he is in shock and does not want to believe that it is true. As the story goes on, the narrator continues to wonder why his brother Sonny started doing drugs in the first place.

          Sonny winds up getting arrested and ends up in jail, which leads the narrator to getting nervous that he is just going to start up on the drugs again once he is allowed out. While the narrator is having a conversation with Sonny’s friend from long ago, he says, “Tell me, why does he want to die? He must want to die, he’s killing himself, why does he want to die” (369). The narrator comes off in these first few scenes as a worried older brother who only wants the best for his little brother. Sonny’s friend stands up for Sonny by saying that people do drugs to live; in reality today, a lot of people would disagree with what he is saying. Drugs slowly kill people, but normally the people doing the drugs do not realize that until they are nearing the ends of their lives. Commonly today, all a drug addict wants is that constant feeling of a high that they get when they do the drug.  The fact that the narrator is so surprised to find out the shocking news, regarding Sonny, it does not help the already unstable relationship he has with his brother.

Before the narrator had gotten married, he made a promise to his mother, when she was on her deathbed, that he would watch over and protect Sonny. The mother says, “You may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you’s there” (375). The mother asked him to do this even though she knew her two boys did not really get along with one another. In order to try and keep his word to his mother, he has Sonny live with his wife when Sonny gets out of jail, while he is over seas. The narrator, who is in the military, is not home to keep an eye on Sonny to make sure that he is going to school, or not doing drugs. Turns out, Sonny does not have a job and ends up skipping school so that he can play the piano. Although the narrator is not fond of the idea of him not going to school, he is happy to find out that the piano might possibly be his new drug. During a class discussion regarding this short story, we came up with the idea that music is something that helps people forget about their problems, and it seems that at this point in the story that is exactly what it did for Sonny.

When the boys’ mother passes away, and the narrator comes home for the funeral, he wants to try and keep his word to his mother, so he asks Sonny what he wants to do. Sonny wants to be a musician. This scene leads to another passage from the text that relates back to the opening of the story. For instance, the narrator says,

I frowned. I’d never played the role of the older brother quite so seriously before, had scarcely ever, in face, asked Sonny a damn thing. I sensed myself in the presence of something I didn’t really know how to handle, didn’t understand. So I made my frown a little deeper as I asked: ‘What kind of musician do you want to be?’ (375).

The first passage I discussed when the narrator is reading the article about Sonny, it gives the reader the feeling that the narrator is in face a concerned brother; because of the way he reacts to the situation. It is not until the end of the story, when this last passage mentioned, helps the reader find out just how much distance is in fact between Sonny and his brother emotionally. By the end of the story, the narrator is trying to make a more conscious effort to learn more about his brother, and repair their relationship.