“Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin is truly an incredible story about love and loss. James Baldwin’s characters in the story give the reader a deeper glimpse into the hardships he faced growing up and how it affected him. James Baldwin grew up in Harlem during the 30s up until the late 40s during this time race relations weren’t the best and he had to deal with these issues. According to Kendall Thomas, professor of law and critical race studies at Columbia University “Baldwin left his country because of racism, and Harlem because of homophobia—two aspects of his identity that made him a frequent target of beatings by local youth and the police.” Baldwin didn’t have it easy growing up and a lot of his writing those hardships he faced shine through. In the book “Sonny’s Blues”, we see through the point of view of the older brother, and at that start, we find out he is a teacher on his way to walk and he is reminded of his brother Sonny who was taken in a police raid. It seems like the brother was trying to think about the good things that Sonny did calling him a good kid. The brother starts to blame the city of Harlem In the Text “Sonny Blues” “he hadn’t ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful the way kids can so quick so quick especially in Harlem”, this quote speaks on how the city treated Baldwin the kids were disrespectful to him for just existing. Well in prison the brothers started to drift apart, Sonny wrote a letter to his brother well he was in prison it took a long time for him to write back to Sonny had some hard moments it was after his daughter had just passed and he realized he needs family more than ever.
This is a story that is far too real, especially during the time it was written according to “THE WAR ON DRUGS: MORAL PANIC AND EXCESSIVE SENTENCES” written by MICHAEL VITIELLO “Moral panic has repeatedly driven policy when states and the federal government have regulated drugs. Responding to that panic, legislators have authorized severe sentences for drug offenses”. People became so fearful of drugs during this time, that there was a large increase in punishment, and areas with a higher population of African Americans were being over-policed. People who were using started to become demonized within their communities all of this and a damaging effect on how people who were addicted were thought of. According to “The effects of Race and Class on community-level stigmatization of opioid use and policy preferences” written by David Chavanne “These results point to class- and race-based territorial stigma affecting how communities with opioid use are judged and whether policies for providing communities with treatment are supported.” This shows that people in different communities were judge much harder then others, an outsider looking in didn’t care about anything else besides race and your social standing therefor it was harder to get support from anyone even families members, Sonny didn’t get a letter back intel he was the last family member the brother had it was hard for the brother to support sonny at the beginning. He didn’t really understand what Sonny was going through.
These themes are recurring without the text after Sonny’s brother reconnects Sonny has a strong desire to become a jazz artist but his brother doesn’t think it is a valuable career choice. James Baldwin grew up during the Harlem Renaissance when they were a huge boost in black artists and black voices in the music scene. This could have led James Baldwin to write a character like this considering he was a black creative during this period. the voice of the older brother could have been the voice of his peers. The Harlem Renaissance didn’t break way for everyone according to the text written by Robert L. Boyd “The Harlem Renaissance and Blacks’ Employmentin Cultural Expression Occupations” “Results show that blacks’ representation in most cultural expression occupations increased only slightly or fell precipitously in New York and Chicago in the 1920s, implying that many blacks who aspired to enter such pursuits in the two cities were discouraged or pushed out by occupational saturation. The study concludes that during the Harlem Renaissance, blacks’ cultural expression employment—a key dimension of blacks’ placemaking—in Harlem and Bronzeville lacked the support anticipated by many studies of urbanism and early twentieth-century black communities.” This may be where the brother in the story is coming from he wanted Sonny to have a stable career choice and a lot of the time artist didn’t get a chance to make it big. James Baldwin didn’t become mainstream till later in his life and again this leads to the question of whether Baldwin sees himself in Sonny and the brother all at once.
