James Baldwin "Sonny's Blues"

Frank Raducz

I read James Baldwin’s short story entitled “Sonny’s Blues” and what stuck with me was the racial segregation that took place in Harlem. A line that stuck with me was when the narrator says that his students are “filled with rage”. This line touches on overall feeling of the African-American community at the time. It is interesting to see the author touch on the notion of rage within a community especially at that time when racial tension was at a high level. It is ashamed that the rage that is felt in the community is caused from the lack of advantages that the community had and this caused some groups of people to delve deeper into committing crimes.

But even though this lack of opportunity had its many negative sides to it, Sonny ends up creating beautiful music through this struggle in his life and in his community. It was also interesting that Sonny’s brother (narrator) and himself never quite got along until he went to go see him play. Before he was so focused on the fact that his brother was on drugs but couldn’t see the talent and passion that his brother had possessed.