Is Sonny a static or a dynamic character?

Is Sonny a static or a dynamic character?

In short, yes, he is dynamic—though perhaps in a more subtle way than other characters in the Baldwin canon. The essential fact is that, at the chronological start of the story, the narrator and Sonny are living in different mental worlds.

What kind of person is the narrator in Sonny’s Blues?

The first-person narrator of “Sonny’s Blues” is a high school math teacher in Harlem. As the story begins, he has to decide how to handle his brother Sonny’s trouble with addiction.

How does the narrator change in Sonny’s Blues?

After the narrator of “Sonny’s Blues” loses his daughter to the effects of polio, his loss causes him to feel that he can better understand Sonny’s troubles. Later, he gains a greater understanding of Sonny when he comes to live with the narrator, and he perceives how the sensitive and musical Sonny suffers in life.

How are the narrator and Sonny different?

Compared to most of the men in his community, the narrator has succeeded: he has a wife, two children, and a good job as a teacher. Unlike Sonny, the narrator has a difficult time expressing his ideas and emotions, and only when his young daughter dies does he open up and write to his brother.

Why is Sonny’s Blues not in chronological order?

Baldwin eschews chronological time in order to better magnify the extent of Sonny’s suffering and to stress the influence of the past on the present.

Who is the main character of Sonny’s Blues?

narrator

What is the main point of Sonny’s Blues?

“Sonny’s Blues” is a story about pain, suffering, alienation, and anger; however, it is also a story about redemption. At the beginning of the work, the narrator is lost, disconnected from his family and isolated from his community.

What is the purpose of Sonny’s Blues?

Baldwin uses the blues to shape his short story, paralleling Sonny’s musical use of the blues. For both men the blues are a means for expressing themselves. Music is the only way for Sonny to express himself. Throughout the story he struggles to communicate with a brother who refuses to hear him.

Who is the antagonist in Sonny’s Blues?

Harlem sort of looms as a villainous presence throughout the story, and we think that’s what makes the neighborhood the story’s antagonist.

How did Sonny’s uncle die?

The narrator’s mother describes the narrator’s uncle as a man somewhat similar to Sonny—he was a musician and enjoyed a reckless and bohemian social life. He died when, while walking home from a concert with the narrator’s father, a car of drunk racists ran him over.

What happens in Sonny’s Blues?

James Baldwin ‘s “Sonny’s Blues” is the story of a young jazz musician (Sonny) from Harlem, NY who gets addicted to heroin, is arrested for using and selling drugs, and returns to his childhood neighborhood after his release from prison.

What are the symbols in Sonny’s Blues?

Symbols

  • The Cup of Trembling. At the end of the story, the narrator describes a glass sitting over Sonny’s piano as shaking “like the very cup of trembling” to highlight what a difficult and complicated position Sonny is in.
  • Housing Projects.
  • Light and Darkness.

What is the plot structure of Sonny’s Blues?

The plot structure in Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” appears in many ways in the story. The plot in the story is mainly about personal expression. It attempts to illustrate the ability and freedom of personal expression in an environment and circumstances that degrade the entire pursuit to achieve personal freedom.

What is the irony in Sonny’s Blues?

It is Sonny who learns how to deal with his own suffering, thus making him the teacher, and the narrator the student. This in turn creates situational irony, because we would expect the narrator to guide Sonny, not the other way around.

What kind of person is Sonny?

The narrator’s wayward younger brother. Sonny is a troubled young man who becomes addicted to heroin at an early age. Unlike many of the young boys in the neighborhood, Sonny is not hard or brutal. He keeps all of his problems bottled up—except when he plays music.

Why is the story called Sonny’s Blues?

The “Sonny” in the title therefore literally refers to the character of Sonny. But “Sonny” is also a pun on the word “sunny,” which evokes bright imagery. “Blues” is also a pun. Sonny has blues or sorrows because, despite his talents, he can’t seem to get his life together or shake his drug addictions.

What’s the brother’s problem with Sonny?

As he wonders what Sonny’s face is like now, we learn what the newspaper story is about: Sonny, the narrator’s younger brother, has been arrested for selling and using heroin. Apparently the narrator had suspected that Sonny was dabbling in drugs, but he tried to ignore his suspicions.

Why is the narrator nameless in Sonny’s Blues?

The narrator, who is also Sonny’s brother, remains nameless because Baldwin wants to maintain the focus on Sonny’s life and his condition.

How does Sonny’s Blues end?

Baldwin ends the story with an optimistic symbol, a reference to a moment in the Book of Isaiah when God takes suffering from mankind. The narrator, who has finally learned to empathize with and care for his brother, has found relief from his own suffering through Sonny’s music.

What motivates the narrator in Sonny’s Blues?

The narrator is confined to Harlem and, more specifically, to the housing projects that he clearly detests. In addition, he is also trapped within himself, unable to express his emotions or live up to his obligations as a brother until his daughter’s death gives him the motivation he needs to change.

What does the final sentence in Sonny’s Blues mean?

Scholars and critics tend to interpret this passage as God’s expression of forgiveness and humankind’s opportunity for redemption – God has essentially removed the temptation that initially created his anger. For this reason literary critics often read the ending of “Sonny’s Blues” as a symbol of Sonny’s redemption.

What is the setting in Sonny’s Blues?

“Sonny’s Blues” is set in post–World War II New York, in the midst of an important cultural and political revolution that permanently changed the country.

What is the rising action in Sonny’s Blues?

The rising action would consist of the narrator remembering his mother’s words about how important he and Sonny are to each other. It would show the narrator and Sonny reuniting, traveling around the city together, and the conversation between them about his drug use and the reasons for it.

What does the subway symbolize in Sonny’s Blues?

The subway symbolizes a busy pathway, where people are moving constantly. The subway also symbolizes a dark image, a dark image specifically of African Americans living in Harlem.

What is the climax of Sonny’s Blues?

The climax of “Sonny’s Blues” occurs after Sonny returns to Harlem to live in Greenwich Village, and they have a heated argument. James Baldwin, who composed songs at one time for Ray Charles and was close friends with trumpeter Miles Davis and others, gives to his “Sonny’s Blues” much musicality.

What is the resolution of Sonny’s Blues?

The narrator, in the audience listening and watching, understands that Sonny has held onto and built up his personal identity through the blues, and he realizes there is a universal truth to the worthwhile nature of blues. This is the resolution.

What story is told both through and about music in Sonny’s Blues?

Music is mentioned many times throughout “Sonny’s Blues”. The story that seems to be told both through and about music in “Sonny’s Blues” is that music can help us to make connections with other people, which is exactly what occurred between the narrator and Sonny.

Why do you think Sonny is such a private character?

Why do you think Sonny is such a “private” character? Sonny is a private character because he feels misunderstood. When he uses heroin, it makes him feel in control. He relies on heroin.