Devaros Burks
English 112
September 8, 2010
Ms. Evans
Family Despair
The short story of Sonny's Blues is told by Sonny's older brother who is the narrator. He tells the story from a personal point of view. The Short story was written by the Author James Baldwin. The story touches bases on several issues involving a family’s strife and the struggle between two brothers who have a bad form of communication. The overarching theme that is being demonstrated throughout the story is Grief. Some minor themes that go along with grief are addiction and responsibility.
To begin with, grief impacted several members of the family in different ways. Even though their father passed on, he dealt with the sadness of losing his brother by being very hard on Sonny. “He and Sonny hadn’t ever got on too well. And this was partly because Sonny was the apple of his father’s eye.” Similar to most parents he wanted only the best for his son. This sadly caused them to have a strained relationship which steamed from the father’s grief. Sonny dealt with the grief through his music and drug use. Many people often need a outlet of sorts to express themselves, sometimes it is positive and in sonny’s case negative. The next person to be affected was the mother, she sort of became way to overprotective of Sonny. In the text on page 326 the narrator mentioned how his mother kept watching the streets. The grief she experienced caused her to feel like she had to shield sonny from everything. The last family member that had a way of coping with his grief was the narrator. For example He kept his emotions bottled up to himself which made him somewhat difficult to read.
As you read and progress through the story you see the narrator deal with the death of his daughter little Gracie. Little Gracie’s death from polio was unexpected and very difficult for the family to handle. After her death the narrator eventually began to write and open up more to Sonny and keep in contact with him. That is how the overall theme of grief is demonstrated in the text.
Addiction is the first symbol that I could relate to personally. Many people that come from urban neighborhoods know a person who has struggled with a drug addiction. In the text on page 321 the narrator who was Sonny’s brother saw a guy who also hung with Sonny. He explained how Sonny’s addiction got him caught up and hanging with an even worse crowd of people. He stated that Sonny was beyond anyone’s help. In this case, the statement reminded me so much of a relative of mine that was chemically dependent and was hopeless of ever getting help from family. The guy also admitted to getting Sonny high for the first time which was a direct component that led to addiction. Sonny’s dependency needed to be addressed or I believe he could have ended up dead. He used the drugs as way to cope with his feelings and was an outlet for stress. When Sonny went to jail it sent him on a road of progression that led him back to his brother. The sadness and darkness that the narrator felt from his brothers’ addiction added to his depression that went on in his life. In short the addiction Sonny faced affected his entire family emotionally not just himself.
Next, the minor theme of responsibility also caused people to experience a sense of grief. “I couldn’t believe it.” At the very beginning of the story the narrator could not believe that his brother was in the newspaper for being caught with drugs. The reading of the article basically made home feel somewhat and or wholly responsible for Sonny’s capture. He ultimately felt like most other brothers do with their younger siblings. A sense over protection is always present to keep that loved one safe but if
it is not fulfilled the person feels a sense of failure. The bond of brotherhood is something that I believe is very strong so when a sibling sees a his brother in trouble the reliability factor comes in.
