Content Synopsis

James Baldwin's short story, “Sonny's Blues,” is told from the first person point of view of Sonny's unnamed older brother. Although the narrator discusses Sonny throughout the story, the story reveals as much about the narrator as it does about Sonny.

The story begins as the narrator, a high school math teacher, ponders on his way to school the newspaper article he has read about Sonny's arrest for drug related crimes. He says that he felt “scared for Sonny” and that he had tried to keep from having to admit to himself that Sonny was a drug addict (103). When school is over, the narrator sits alone in his classroom and listens to his students “shouting and cursing and laughing” outside (104). He realizes that the laughter of his students is not “joyous,” but “mocking and insular” (104). He listens to the students because he recognizes in them Sonny and himself. When he leaves the school building, he sees Sonny's former friend, who says he came to inform him of Sonny's plight. The friend asks what the narrator plans to do about Sonny, and the narrator says, “I haven’t seen Sonny for over a year, I’m not sure I’m going to do anything. Anyway, what the hell can I do? (106). As the conversation between Sonny's friend and the narrator continues, the narrator begins to feel uncomfortable because he is being forced to address Sonny's problems. He says, “All this was carrying me some place I didn’t want to go” (107). In response to questions regarding Sonny's future, the friend informs Sonny's brother that Sonny will get out of jail and continually repeat the pattern of drug use and serving jail time. Sonny's brother views this lifestyle as a death wish and asks the friend why Sonny is “killing himself” (108). The friend replies that Sonny does not “want to die. He wants to live” (108).

Perhaps because he does not know what to say to Sonny, the narrator waits a long time after Sonny's arrest to write him a letter, and Sonny's response makes him feel remorse. Sonny writes that he can’t explain how he ended up in his current predicament and asks if the narrator will meet him when he is released from jail. The narrator maintains contact with Sonny and meets him after his release. He recalls many memories of Sonny such as having been present when Sonny was born, when he spoke his first words, and when he took his first step.

Upon Sonny's release, on the way to the narrator's house where he will live for a time, he and Sonny ride in a taxi through the neighborhood in which they grew up. As they each look out the windows at the Harlem landscape, the narrator contemplates that some escape that impoverished environment while others do not. However, he understands that “what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind” (112). Upon Sonny's arrival to his house, the narrator fears he is leading Sonny “back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape” (113). The narrator feels uncomfortable, and he and Sonny don’t communicate much on the drive. He senses that Sonny also feels awkward. When Sonny asks if they are almost at the narrator's house, the narrator simply says, “Almost” and recognizes that they “were both too nervous to say anything more” (112). When they arrive at the narrator's house, Sonny is more talkative than usual and the narrator feels grateful that his wife, Isabel, seems comfortable around Sonny and is “genuinely glad to see him” (113). The narrator feels awkward, looks at Sonny “for signs” of drug use, and says he wants Sonny to be “safe” (113).

Concern for Sonny's safety reminds the narrator of his father's claim that there is no safe place for anyone. This memory marks a long flashback in the story. The narrator recalls that his father had died when Sonny was fifteen and remembers that Sonny and his father fought with each other even though Sonny “was the apple of his father's eye” (114). He remembers that last time he saw his mother alive she revealed to him that his father had a brother who sang and played the guitar. One night while the narrator's father and uncle were walking home, his uncle was run over and killed purposely and maliciously by a car driven by a white man and full of white passengers. The narrator's mother says the incident devastated his father and made him rage when the subject was mentioned. She says she is telling him the story because he has “a brother. And the world ain’t changed” (118). She asks the narrator to “hold on to your brother” and tells him not to “let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him” (118). The narrator promises, “I won’t let nothing happen to Sonny” (118).

The narrator forgets his promise until he reunites with Sonny at his mother's funeral, during which Sonny tells him that he wants to be a musician. The narrator strives to understand and advise Sonny. He says, “I’d never played the role of the older brother quite so seriously before” (119). The narrator continues to question Sonny about his goals, asks him what type of musician he desires to be, and demands that Sonny answer him seriously. Sonny says he wants to be a jazz musician. When the narrator asks if he wants to play the sort of music Louis Armstrong plays, Sonny says he admires Charlie Parker's style. The narrator questions, almost paternally, whether Sonny will be able to make a living as a musician and Sonny replies that it's what he wants to do. He says, “I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?” (121–22). Although he tries, the narrator cannot understand Sonny's goals and feels that he does not know him. When he scolds Sonny for smoking, Sonny laughs and asks the narrator if he smoked when he was his age. He pleads with Sonny to finish school and promises to help him with his goals when he graduates.

The narrator arranges for Sonny to go live at Isabel's parents, where he plays the piano, perfecting his craft. Sonny spends most of his time listening to records and then play the songs on the piano. Isabel tells the narrator that living with Sonny “wasn’t like living with a person at all, it was like living with sound” (124). She says that nobody understands the music Sonny plays and that Sonny is beginning to distress the family. Although he performs everyday behaviors such as eating and walking and is not “unpleasant or rude,” he seems like “some sort of god, or monster” (125). Instead of attending school, Sonny spends time in Greenwich Village with other musicians. When Isabel's mother confronts Sonny and accuses him of being unappreciative of their hospitality, he leaves and joins the Navy.

After Sonny joins the Navy, the narrator does not see him again for several years, when they are both in New York. They fight every time they visit each other. After one serious fight, the narrator goes to visit Sonny to make amends and begins to sense that Sonny feels closer to the people he lives with than he does to the narrator. They have another fight, and Sonny tells the narrator “not to worry about him any more in life” (126). As he leaves, the narrator tries to keep from crying and whistles, “You going to need me, baby, one of these cold, rainy days” (127).

The narrator does not have contact with Sonny until he writes to him after reading of his arrest in the paper. At this point, the flashback ends, and the story resumes with the narrator's explanation of why he decided to write to Sonny. He explains that his two-year-old daughter, Gracie, had died of polio and that he thinks he may have written Sonny the day Gracie was buried. He explains, “My trouble made his real” (127).

After his release from jail, Sonny lives with the narrator and his family. Almost two weeks later, the narrator is tempted to search Sonny's room for evidence of drug use. Looking out the window, the narrator notices a religious revival taking place outside. Sonny stands among the crowd and donates some change during the offering. Sonny joins the narrator inside and invites him to come watch him perform at a bar later that night. Sonny says the woman's voice who sings during the revival reminds him of what it feels like to consume heroin and says that her suffering enabled her to sing so powerfully. This comment sparks a discussion about suffering. While Sonny's brother maintains that it is best to accept suffering because there is no escape from it, Sonny says that everybody tries not to suffer. He admits that he had wanted to leave Harlem to get away from drugs but that leaving did not help. Sonny and the narrator walk together to the nightclub where Sonny will perform. Upon arrival, the narrator immediately senses that everyone at the bar respects Sonny. The narrator watches the musicians prepare to play. During the performance, the other musicians gather around Sonny. As Sonny plays, the narrator says, “I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting… . I understood … that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did” (140). Sonny's piano playing, or Sonny's blues, brings the narrator a sense of peace regarding Sonny, his parents, his uncle's death, and finally Gracie's death. Sonny nods at the narrator in gratitude for the Scotch and milk he has ordered him, and the narrator says the drink “glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling” (141).

Symbols & Motifs

Music, specifically the blues, is the most significant motif in the story. As Sonny acknowledges, his only source of meaning in life is through music. While the narrator equates jazz music with that of Louis Armstrong, Sonny, Sonny says that he admires the music of Charlie Parker. During the setting of the story, Parker was becoming famous for his bebop style that departed from traditional jazz, the sort of old school music of Armstrong. The narrator's reference to Armstrong and his unfamiliarity with Parker demonstrate his misunderstanding of Sonny as a musician. At the end of the story, Sonny and his brother connect through jazz. Moreover, the blues Sonny plays inspires the narrator to lament not only the deaths of his immediate ancestors but also the ill treatment of blacks in American society. Through Sonny's music, the narrator experiences relief from the grief he has felt for the deaths of his parents, and more recently, that of his daughter, Gracie.

Suffering is another motif that occurs throughout the story. The narrator writes Sonny shortly after his daughter is buried and acknowledges that his own suffering made Sonny's real to him. He has witnessed the hardships of his parents and heard of the atrocious death of his uncle. The narrator fears Sonny's lifestyle will kill him and seeks to reduce Sonny's suffering. Sonny and the narrator have a serious debate regarding whether people should accept suffering as part of life or try to avoid it. Additionally, suffering is the source of the voice of the woman who sings during the revival. Perhaps most importantly, suffering is the source of the blues, specifically the blues Sonny plays; therefore, the story's title, “Sonny's Blues,” represents suffering.

Historical Context

The story is set during the mid-fifties, before the Civil Rights Movement. Racism was rampant in the United States during this time, and blacks were denied equal opportunities. The story exposes a segregated America, as there are no whites in the story except for reference to the men who killed Sonny's uncle. The story about the death of Sonny's uncle illustrates the sort of hate crimes that were widespread, and frequently committed without consequence, during the generation before Sonny's.

Both the narrator and Sonny have served in the military, and the narrator dates one of his reunions with Sonny as occurring long after the war was over. The reference presumably is to the Korean War, a war in which many African American men fought. Ironically, they fought abroad for American rights but received no rights upon their return home to a racist and segregated society.

Societal Context

The story exposes the impoverished living conditions of African Americans living in Harlem in the fifties and shows a segregated America. The narrator describes Sonny, and his childhood neighborhood, as the “killing streets of our childhood,” with “houses exactly like the houses of our past,” and sees the young boys now residing in the neighborhood as being “encircled by disaster” (112), as he and Sonny were during their childhoods. The narrator currently lives in a “rundown” housing project, described as “a parody of the good, clean, faceless life” (112). While his family lives there partly because it's close to his school, he says that “it's really just like the houses in which Sonny and I grew up. The same things happen, they’ll have the same things to remember” (113).

The revival that Sonny and the narrator watch is important to their society. The narrator and everyone else watching has seen these sort of revivals all their lives, yet they still participate. Although the crowd gathered does not seem to believe the revival leaders are holy, they appreciate the gospel singing, which provides for them the same sort of spiritual sensation they gain from listening to the blues.

The family unit is another aspect of society shown in the story. Although conflict existed, Sonny and the narrator were brought up by a sense of strong family unity; moreover, one significant point of the story is the narrator's relationship with his brother, a family member. Additionally, the narrator reveals that his own family is close. He gives the impression that he and Isabel and their two sons spend quality time together.

The family unit expands at the end of the story when Sonny is surrounded by other musicians. Sonny and the other musicians form a sort of subculture in which they bond together. Also, the blues that Sonny plays brings together all African Americans in the broader sense of brotherhood that celebrates African American culture and identity.

Religious Context

The most significant religious allusion is the reference at the end of the story to “the very cup of trembling” (141). Literally, the narrator refers to the cup of Scotch and milk he has bought for Sonny, but the phrase is Biblical. The linking of the drink to the Biblical verse is ambiguous, as Keith Byerman notes, “The cup of trembling was taken from Israel when YHWH chose to forgive the people for their transgressions. But it was YHWH who had given the cup of suffering to them in the first place. Thus, it becomes important to the meaning of the story which verse is being alluded to in the metaphor. If the cup is given, then Sonny will continue to suffer and feel guilt; if the cup is taken away, then Sonny returns to a state of grace” (371).

The blues and religion offer similar spiritual benefits, and the two are compared to each other. During Sonny's performance, the narrator notices that occasionally the other musicians seem to say “amen” (140). Earlier, Sonny connects the woman singing at the revival with the feeling heroin gives and says, “Listening to that woman sing, it struck me all of a sudden how much suffering she must have had to go through—to sing like that” (132). Here, he relates the woman's gospel song to a blues song. At the end of the story, the blues provides the narrator a sort of spiritual healing that one frequently finds through religion.

Scientific & Technological Context

Although science and technology do not play significant roles in “Sonny's Blues,” they are apparent. Technology is downplayed when the narrator explains that “a piano is just a piano. It's made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything” (138). The narrator acknowledges that the musician, not the piano, creates the music. And the music, as demonstrated by the effect Sonny's music has on the narrator, is quite powerful.

Technology also is revealed in the narrator's comment about television. On the taxi ride home, he remarks that the houses in the housing project in which he lives have big windows but that they do not adequately camouflage lack of space. Instead of looking out the windows, the children watch television. Watching television becomes a means of escape for the children, as they look at it instead of at their environment. While they watch television during the day, the children spend time on the housing project playground at night, suggesting both that they cannot see their environment due to the dark and that they are engaging in some sort of mischievous activities.

Biographical Context

Considered one of the most important African American writers of the twentieth century, James Baldwin was born August 2, 1924 in the Harlem District of New York. When James was three, his mother married a preacher, who adopted James. His mother had eight more children, and the family grew up poor. His father was a strict authoritarian and raised the family in a conservative and religious home. In junior high school, Baldwin began writing as a member of the literary club. When he was young, Baldwin worked for awhile as a preacher but when he was eighteen moved to New Jersey to work on the railroad. During the mid-forties, Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village, where he met Richard Wright. Baldwin began writing and publishing editorials, fiction, and book reviews. Baldwin left the United States in 1948 and moved to France because of rampant racism in the United States. Baldwin published his first novel, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” in 1953. Baldwin was active during the Civil Rights Movement, often returning to the United States to participate in political events and social rallies.

Baldwin has a distinguished oeuvre, writing in various genres such as fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction and publishing over twenty books and numerous shorter pieces. Many of his writings address the need for racial equality in America, and he is highly regarded as a spokesperson against racism. Baldwin died on December 1, 1987, in Saint-Paul de Vence, France.

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