Reality In Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin

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The short story "Sonny's Blues", takes place in the streets of Harlem, New York during the 1950's. Sonny's family had never been good at communicating starting with their parents keeping things from them. This leads to all of them searching for alternative outlets to deal with trapped emotions. In "Sonny's Blues" James Baldwin illustrates how trying to escape reality can create communication problems with loved ones. Often those who have a hard time communicating have trouble maintaining good relationships. The brothers had a lot of hard times, but the end of the story Sonny's brother finally start to communicate and understand him through his music.
Sonny and his brother's parents had never really communicated well with them. Their father seemed to be a real tough guy throughout their whole life and used drinking as a way to escape his pain. He always gave Sonny a hard time because "[he] was the apple of his father's eye" (Baldwin 64).When their father died, Sonny was young and their mother told the narrator something they had kept from them for a long time. The boy's father had a brother who died and how that was the reason their father acted the way he did. She then told him that he must …show more content…
In "Sonny's Blues", there were several characters who found alternative outlets including; their mother with religion, their father with drinking, the narrator with education and status, and Sonny who used music and drugs. These various outlets are a result of trapped emotions and lead them all down very different paths in life. The trouble they have with expressing themselves leads to a communication problem. This problem creates the hard times the brothers face in maintaining their relationship. However, over the course of time and with the narrator's undying will to understand Sonny, the problem of bad communication that hinders their relationship is finally solved through Sonny's
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