"I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for? The narrator laments that many of them may already be using drugs, just as Sonny did, and that perhaps the drugs will do "more for them than algebra could." Watch on. It was not to be believed and I kept telling myself that, as I walked from the subway station to the high school. Title story: What an astounding piece of literature. And we stood there for a moment for the lights were very dim in this room and we couldn't see. It is perfection. In contrast, his brother, Sonny, is a musician who has led a much wilder life. Both the narrator and sonny was able to escape the overpowering pull of Harlem in different ways. James Baldwin's Sonny Blues narrates the living conditions of African-Americans back in the 1950s. However, as the story progresses, the death of grace enables the narrator to come in touch with reality, which prompts him to contact his brother setting the journey to the path of redemption. #35. Neither did they dare to make a great scene about that piano because even they dimly sensed, as I sensed, from so many thousands of miles away that Sonny was at that piano playing for his life. Please wait while we process your payment. Order original essays online. Sonny's Blues Lyrics I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work. #3. $24.99 #4. Music is symbolized as an aspect that serves different factors and perceptions in the story. The first type of darkness is the one that was closing in on their lives, and the one on the movies that is making them not see the other type of darkness (Clark 201). You walk these streets, black and funky and cold, and there's not really a living ass to talk to, and there's nothing shaking, and there's no way of getting it out- that storm inside. The music stopped, the barmaid paused and watched the juke box until the music began again. Then he stood up and he told me not to worry about him any more in life, that he was dead as far as I was concerned. This article uses a discussion of Baldwin's short story 'Sonny's blues' as a means of exploring reading and approaches to drug literature. He paused, I couldn't bear to watch him, I watched the barmaid, and I listened to the music which seemed to be causing the pavement to shake. He must want to die, he's killing himself, why does he want to die?". Till the day he died he weren't sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.". Sonny was clearly disappointed and embarrassed by his choice of actions and despite what anyone said, he realized the choice he made was poor and it was time to follow his dream. The literary work tells the story of Sonny and his brother (an unnamed narrator), as they seek to understand how to navigate the delicate and dangerous waters of familial relationships, their role in society and themselves. The story of Sonny is similar to my life in the aspects of family relations aspect.