1
Sonnys Blues

• By James Baldwin

2
Outline

1. Background
2. Plot
3. Socio-Historical Context
4. Growing up in Harlem
5. Military Service
6. Jazz music, Class Divisions, Racial Politics
7. Characters

3
James Baldwin

• Born 1924 in Harlem
• Compared his stern stepfather to Ishmael in
  Genesis
• First, albeit illegitimate son of Abraham
• Forced to wander in the wilderness after
  legitimate Isaac was born
• Ishmael theme apparent in literature
• Fled the segregated north for France
• Wrote much about black struggles in America

4
Plot Overview

• First person, unnamed narrator
• Stable family man
• Algebra teacher, wife, two sons
• Lost Grace at age two
• Estranged from Sonny
• Story switches from real time to flashbacks,
  including
• Story about uncle getting killed
• Sonnys desire to drop out, lives with Isabel
• Ends at the Jazz Club in Greenwich Village

5
Socio-Historical Setting

• Growing up in Harlem
• Separate but equal
• Predominantly black Harlem, father wont move
  out.
• Defacto segregation
• Narrators students.
• Narrator begins to understand how such a child
  can go wrong.

6
Socio-Historical Setting

• Military Service plays important role in the
  story.
• Blacks have long history of serving in American
  military
• Many hope service to country would prove worthy
  and gain respect from whites.

7
Jazz music, Class Divisions and Racial Politics

• Two black communities
• Sonnys vs. The narrators
• Narrators community
• Middle class
• Downplay barriers to their success
• Believe they can improve their standard of living
  by hard work, determination.
• Eventually assimilate into white America
• Sonnys community.
• More radical, less accepting of status quo
• Struggle against whites fierce
• Feel they will always be shut out from privileges
  whites enjoy.

8
Jazz musics relation

• Narrators world
• Louis Armstrong
• Sonnys world
• Charlie Parker

9
The story

• Is Sonnys Blues a story
• That moralizes against drug use?
• That tries to explain why people become addicted
  to drugs?
• About a mans struggle to kick a drug habit?
• About an artists struggle to kick a drug habit?
• About the effects of drug use on a family?
• About ways in which drug use and self-expression
  can sometimes serve the same purpose?

10
The final scene

• What happens to the brothers at the jazz club?