The story of Sonny’s Blues

The narrative of Sonny’s Blues

The narrative of Sonny’s Blues uses the first person point of view. The narrative shows Sonny’s struggles, pain, and the issues he faces as a result of his drug addiction. The setting of the tale in the African American neighborhood of Harlem in New York City suggests that Harlem was still impoverished and experiencing oppression in the 1950s. The story’s point of view enables the reader to assess the significance of the incidents and understand how they affect the lives of the characters. Baldwin’s story is written in the first person to make the tribulations and the experiences of Sonny and his brother more intimate and personal to the reader.

Analysis of Point of View in the Story Sonny’s Blues

Baldwin writes his story using first person point of view featuring an unnamed character who is Sonny’s brother and tells the story. The narrator in this story is revealed to be the protagonist of the story. Baldwin uses first person point of view making the events of the story to systematically unfold to the reader. One can point out that the story concerns the decisions and the struggles of Sonny and how they affect the narrator. The story is primarily built on the significance of brotherhood and family along with the relationship that exists between the Sonny and the narrator. Imprisonment does bring a motif in the story revealed through the narration. Not only is Sonny jailed, but the narrator continuously utilizes the word “trapped” when he describes his brother’s neighborhood. The reader can know that individuals are trapped in the ghetto that brims with anger and the narrator says “rocks in the middle of a boiling sea” referring to the anger (Baldwin, 1957). The narrator brings an insight into the apocalyptic illustration of the anger which runs in Harlem. The story depicts angry figures who appear in the entire story from “the students to the furious man on the street and to the father of the narrator.” Sonny even wonders the way hatred pressures do not explode ripping the neighborhood apart (Baldwin, 1957).

The use of the first person in the story

The use of the first person in the story helps in building the characters in the stories. Indeed, Sonny would have been an unreliable narrator if Baldwin would have used him to narrate the events of the story. This is because of his addiction to heroin which could have acted as an interference to the narration of the story. The narrator and the first person point of view offer a glimpse of Sonny’s life through the struggles. The first person point of view reveals the narrator to be the protagonist of the story, thus one can spend a substantial time with the character and get to know the other characters such as Sonny. The protagonists directly tell the events of the story, and thus the voice in the narration is directly linked to the voice of the character. Indeed, the first person has enabled the reader to tell the character trait of the narrator depicted from his word choice, diction, and sentence structures that the narrator employs in the narration.

The reader can view the narrator as being a dedicated father and a husband

The reader can view the narrator as being a dedicated father and a husband who attempts to integrate himself into the culture of the white and thus disconnects from his African culture and heritage. Besides, he does refuse to understand Sonny’s struggles whose life is twisted by addiction to heroin and a prison sentence. Also, the narrator is an emotional character and finally listens to Sonny’s music which later allows him to understand the suffering of his brother. Sonny comes out as a representation of the African American experiences and heavily struggles with drug addiction and depression. He expresses his pain and suffering through the music, and he can communicate his tribulation. Evidently, the narrator can also be criticized as having a selfish desire to assimilate and lead a respectable life. The narrator does aspire to conform to the conventional culture of the white, and thus he alienates himself from his family and the ways of the African American. The first person point of view permits one to know and see what the narrator experiences and thinks about the events happening in the world around him and his brother.

The use of the first person point of view has allowed an immediacy and connection with the narrator and Sonny

The use of the first person point of view has allowed an immediacy and connection with the narrator and Sonny. The reader is taken inside the narrator’s head and thus providing a direct relation between the narrator and the audience. The emotions developed in the story are not hampered through the distance that is created in the third person narration point of view. Emotions are designed at the point where the narrator feels them. From the story, the suffering of Sonny and the events that happen around him are vividly brought to life through the narrator. As the narrator makes a revelation of his thoughts to the reader, connection and intimacy are created. Due to the connection that is set up in the story, there is the development of believability through the first person narration. The perspective of the first person has helped to break down the barrier of narration, and thus the reader becomes embedded with a sense of getting a direct account of the events from the primary source. The first person voice has given Baldwin’s story more authority which is established to the audience.

An impediment in the used of the first person in the story

An impediment in the used of the first person in the story makes the reader get the story through the filters of the narrator’s biases and memories. The narrator is emotionally involved and thus the reader questions the accuracy of the narration and how precise the narrator’s reconciliations are with the events of the story. Besides, knowing that Sonny struggles with the problem of drug addiction, it becomes difficult for any other person to understand what if feels like to be a drug addict and efficiently communicate to the audience. The narrator himself never experiences the problem of drug addiction. Therefore, it becomes evident that the reader is likely to miss out on some vital aspects of the story, particularly concerning the character Sonny and his problem of drug addiction.

Conclusion

Indeed, the first person point of view brings a careful, dedicated set of the story’s elements and experiences that make the narration interesting to the reader. The technique is an enigmatic form of literature which effectively communicates the events of the story and the importance of brotherhood. Indeed, the narration conveys insights on how music causes a rapprochement between two estranged brothers. Through Sonny’s brother’s narration of the story, the reader is driven to the focus of a growing sense of brotherhood love and places one in the narrator’s position. The narrator informs the reader of Sonny’s imprisonment and lengthy recalls their past and thus connecting it with the present, which later culminates into the climax of the story. Baldwin’s technique of first person point of view disrupts the audience’s sense of chronological time and makes every event appear immediate. Furthermore, the accumulated suffering of the narrator and his brother comes out as a relief to the reader as it happens between the two brothers.

Reference

Baldwin James (1957). Sonny’s Blues. Penguin Books. New York City.