Analysis of Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin

fellows blue by author James Baldwin tells the tale of two companions angiotensin-converting enzyme good and mavin evil. The narrator paints the two brothers as cloudless and grungy. The author James Baldwin writes about his relationship with his brother cuss whom was the dark brother. In essence, this taradiddle is about the struggle of two black brothers growing up in Harlem. This essay incorporates the struggles that Black men and women go through on a daily basis.though both brothers were from the ghetto, the narrator seems to fork out assimilated into the larger society/culture he was a school instructor doing generally well in what we call life. bloke on the other hand turned to drugs (heroin) to range from the pain and suffering he endured growing up a black man in the 1950s. cusss Blues also tells the reader about how art and music was a huge break down of Black peoples lives in Harlem. Many looked towards music for an escape fella turned towards do it to rel ease his pain and anguish. This story does have a biblical theme behind it. alike(p) the story of light and darkness in the Bible, Baldwin uses these phrases to reference the life or the characters. One critic agrees with this Biblical meter reading author James Tackach actually wrote a criticism called the biblical foundation of James Baldwins Sonnys Blues. Tackachs interpretation was based on Baldwins real life. He denotative that Baldwin was born in the Church and therefore knew the Bible intimately. Tackach fells as though Baldwin uses his vast knowledge of Biblical stories to help tell the tale of Sonny and his brother.In Tackachs critical analysis of Sonnys Blues, he writes that no other critical analysis has identified the two main biblical texts that sorting the foundation of Baldwins story the Cain and Abel story and the story of the Prodigal Son. In accordance with Tackachs criticism, I trust that that story did have a Biblical undertone like the two stories listed ab ove. Both stories, Cain and Abel and The Prodigal Son, have the same plot as Sonnys Blues. All of these stories are brothers fighting with one another and each brother in all of three stories has the good and the bad qualities about them.Like previously stated, Sonny was the good brother so were the Prodigal son and Cain. Tackach also talked about the cup of trembling which was a Biblical term that symbolises sinners that were now redeemed. When the narrator sends Sonny a drink at the end of the story, he claims that it is like the cup of trembling. This is another term taken from the Bible to symbolize the relationship amid the two brothers. Tackach seems to use biographical and historical criticism when breaking down the story of Sonnys Blues.Like Tackachs, Michael Clarks criticism Light and Darkness in Sonnys Blues also uses the light and darkness to describe the story. The light being the good and the dark being the bad qualities. Unlike Tackachs, Clark uses these terms to re fer to the emotions felt by Sonny when he was on drugs, thinking about his life or when contend his piano his jazz music. In Sonnys Blues, the narrator writes I feel like a man whos been trying to prove up out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the solarise up there, outside.I got to get outside. Clark uses the funky hole to describe the darkness and the sun to describe the light. To Clark, the complete story is about how Sonny feels and how his music portrays his emotions, his despair and finally his joy. I agree with Clark, It seems as though Sonny is always in pain or joyous. There seems to be no in between with him. Most of the time, Sonny is depressed or melancholy. He only finds real happiness in the fail few sentences of the story. Sonny only expressed his joy when he is clean and playing his beloved piano.This did fare in the beginning of the story too, when Sonny moved into Isabelles house. Isabelle had a piano inside and Sonny seemed very happy to k now this. Sonny played jazz music all the time until Isabelle and her family accredited a note saying that Sonny was missing school. After Sonny was scolded, he stopped playing the piano and began his journey through the darkness. He continued this until the end of the story when he finally kicked his habit. The light and the darkness analogy Clark used were perfect for this story because it captured the struggles Sonny went through, throughout the short story.