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Sonny's blues

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Sonny's Blues is a well written book by James Baldwin that captures the feeling of a recovering dope addicted young black man, Sonny, who is seeking a new life with his brother in Harlem with his jazz music as a way of telling his life story. It begins by Sonny's brother finding out in a newspaper that Sonny had been serving a jail sentence for his use of heroin. After a few years of not talking to one another, Sonny sends his brother a letter telling him how much he needed to hear from him while he was away in jail and that when he gets out he wants to meet him in New York. When they meet, they talk and his brother finds himself getting upset after everything Sonny says whether it is about his addiction or about him wanting to be a jazz musician. Sonny's brother is a teacher and he is worried about what Sonny is going to do with his life, so he sends Sonny to live with his in-laws to go to school, but Sonny never goes and he stays in the house the whole time playing music on their piano. Since the brothers are parentless, Sonny's brother is taking on the role of his parents to get Sonny' s life headed in the right direction. Before their mother died she told Sonny's brother a story of how her husband's brother died. Him and his brother were coming home from a club one night, feeling really good after drinking, when a car full of white people sped towards his brother and ran over him, killing him instantly. Since his mother told him that story, Sonny's brother has been worried about his younger brother and where he is going in life. The book concludes with Sonny bringing his brother to a club where he was going to perform with two other black guys on his piano. After listening to him play, Sonny's brother soon heard Sonny's life told and explained in his music, and then that is when his brother understood what Sonny has been going through and what direction he is headed.

This remarkable piece by James Baldwin is about the love of two brothers in a black society. He depicts this in the following excerpt, "Safe, hell! Ain't no place safe for kids, nor nobody," which depicts the streets in which Sonny and his brother grew up. Identity is a big theme in this literary work. Two black men are trying to find themselves and each other in an unforgiving American society.
Sonny and his brother grow up in a home whose uncle was killed as a young man. However, Sonny's father did not want them to know about the brutal world outside on the streets that they walked upon everyday. He wanted them to feel safe and not afraid. Prior to their mother's death she revealed this to Sonny, who by this time had a rocky relationship with his younger brother, uses this information to make amends with his younger brother. He actually starts listening to what his brother has to say and what his desires are for himself. Instead of pushing ideas that Sonny thought would make for a good future for his brother he learned to appreciate his brother's talent. He loosens his control over his younger brother and allows him to be himself. He lets love take the upper hand.
This is a inspirational story about a few African Americans who are each striving to find their own identities-one wants so desperately to be heard while the other is desperately smothering him until finally they realize who they are and the long road that awaits each of them.