"Sonny's Blues"

Essay # 63228

Literature > American
Music Studies

"Sonny's Blues"

An analysis of the symbolism of the music in James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues".

1,013 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2005 United States

Paper Summary:

James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" is a tale about two brothers, the unnamed narrator, who is an upstanding algebra teacher, and Sonny, a jazz musician and ex-drug addict. This paper examines how James Baldwin uses music throughout the story to symbolize salvation and how Sonny's continuing pursuit of music can be seen as a desire to be saved.

From the Paper:

"Another instance where music is mentioned in conjunction with salvation is when the narrator is in a bar with Sonny's friend. The barmaid was dancing to the tune playing on the jukebox, and in keeping time to the music, she smiled and "one saw the little girl, one sensed the doomed, still-struggling woman beneath the battered face of the semi-whore" (ibid, 173). Music brings out the innocence in the barmaid, but there is a sense of hopelessness about her situation. The hopelessness "filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace" (ibid, 173). The people in the bar have no hope of salvation, because "menace was their reality" (ibid, 173)."