In life we face many conflicts and struggles with our loved ones, the world and ourselves in general; it is almost inevitable to escape these issues. The only thing we are capable of doing9 in attempting to cope and endure it so that we don’t suffer and die, tolerance is key here. In Sonny’s Blue, James Baldwin potrays ways to tolerate the society and not only accept each other, but also our surroundings and leam to live with it.
Music becomes an increasingly positive affluence and eventually serves as a bridge for light. This essay will discuss the significance of Jazz music and its function in the novel and how it’s used as a mechanism for acceptance. Jazz serves as the backbone of the story which depicts a drug addicted musician, Sonny, who is struggling to prove himself as an artist although he is encumbered with a desperate rage through the use of jazz, the protagonist achieves a calming salvation and at least temporarily is able to kick” his habit. Jazz functions as an outlet for Sonny’s fury. provides a mechanism for his growing self-worth, and transforms his suffering into something beautiful. The story offers a metaphorical comparison of imprisonment.
Sonny is confined to a brick and mortar jail but also is imprisoned by his addiction to drugs. He escapes this latter confinement through jazz, which allows to break free and better know himself. The piano is his vehicle for escaping his emotional prison. Interestingly, this also frees his brother who has been unable to comprehend his brother as a person. Drugs have been prevalent among jazz musicians since the music was created in the early 20th century. Most famous jazz musicians including Charlie Parker, Marles Daves, Bix Beiderbecke suffer with the habit throughout most of their professional career. James Baldwin uses in an elaborate dialogue to explain the value” of drugs for jazz artists.
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The voice of a female singer reminds Sonny that for a minute of heroin feels like sometimes -when its in your veins. It makes you feel sort of war, and cool at the same time and distant… it makes you feel in control. Sometime you’ve got to have that feeling” sonny then adds that drugs are used “in order to keep from shaking to pieces.” Not only are easy outlet for the musicians feelings but their ready availability coupled with peer pressure makes the “clean” musicians the exception not the rule. The Bird also began his musical career at a young age and became an addict while still in his teens. Both he and Sonny used drugs as a reaction to family issues and they both justified their use as an enabler to advance their musical skills. Sonny’s Blues unfolds in the 1940s when segregation was prevalent and in some areas of the country, the law.
Whites clearly dominated the social scene inspiring blacks to adopt their own art through their music as a vehicle tor countering a white controlled society. Most jazz musicians were black (and still are) even through the followers of this music were of all racial backgrounds. Harlem was the center of jazz in New York and also the home of the majority of its artists when white people attended jazz concerts and local clubs, the performers became the attraction. Everyone needs a release from their daily efforts; it can be sports, painting, witing, reading, music, et al. Sonny’s use of Jazz is a successful liberation from the world in general which has resulted in his struggles with society. Jazz can be both a physical and emotional release by fostering both intellectual creativity and physical eftort. When accompanied by the use of drugs it surfers as a temporary escape mechanism from reality. Many curent and former jazz musicians have broken their alcoholic and/or drugs addictions more than once but then returned to their former ways in order to avoid coping with reality.
Throughout the story the relationship between and narrator and Sonny is unstable, there is tension and as far as we know harsh judgments the narrators makes about his brother, Sonny. The narrator appears to never understand why his brother uses drugs and why music is a big part of his life. However, when he listens to his brother playing in the jazz club everything falls right in its place. Finally, he looks at Sonny’s world from a different perspective he was not able to reach until he heard him play music. The narrator says, “T heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth.” The brother is not only is awe but the music playing helps him appreciate the wonder and ditficulty of being a musician, and particular, helps him see Sonny’s suffering. This is exemplified in the drink the narrator purchases for his brother at the end. Furthermore, Jazz is Sonny’s way to dealing with a chaotic world he faces, get through family issues and, most importantly, it is one thing he is able to control, which gives him a sense of comfort. Sonny informs his brother that there are times when a person will do “anything to play, even cut your mother’s throat.. or your brother’s. .
Or your own” (271). In other words, jazz carries much significance to Sonny, its way more than just an instrument, it a way of life. Uncertainty dominates this world, I will never be certain that I will graduate college, physicists are never certain t they will ever prove string theory, and no one will be certain whether no one will ever Suffer. Similar to Sonny, at the end of the story we are unclear of its ending, Is he going to continue suftering to play his music? Ora greater peace awaits him and/or his brother. The author ends the story saying, “the very cup of trembling.” intentionally to prove a point. Fate is always uncertain, but if he has to suffer to pay for being a musician so be it. The milk and the scotch in Sonny’s drink symbolize further tension or/and comfort he will face.
