That is, "Sonny's Blues" helps us to understand the various ways people experience pain and suffering. As a musician and artist, Sonny tries to make known, to speak through his music, the pain he sees around him. Extremely sensitive to that pain himself, Sonny becomes an addict to try to dull his perception of it.
The narrator, on the other hand, denies his own pain and hardship, and that of those around him. But when he is finally forced to see it, he begins to understand Sonny as both an artist and as a recovering addict.
The narrator begins to end his silence toward Sonny and to try to understand Sonny's pain when his own daughter dies. "My trouble," he says, "made his real" (62). We see here the narrator beginning to appreciate not only Sonny's experience, but also the meaning and purpose of blues music, the music he had scoffed at and dismissed when Sonny first mentioned to him his interest in it. A blues musician sings of his sorrow and trouble; listeners are transformed, and their pain is at least momentarily assuaged when they hear another's blues.
The narrator begins to realize the importance of breaking his silence toward Sonny and sharing his own feelings and receiving Sonny's.
Thus, music has a communal function; it tells the stories of a community of people, it evokes feelings in performers and in listeners, helping them to heal from the misfortunes of their lives or to at least find solace in the company of others who are similarly afflicted. The narrator sees that Sonnys fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others (69). The music makes the narrator remember the tragedies that befell his parents, the death of his own daughter and the sorrow of his wife, and he is moved to tears as he feels the power of the music to evoke his own pain. Somehow, this experience is transformative, helping the narrator to see into himself at the same time as he connects with Sonny and the other nightclub patrons.
Music allows the brothers to have a relationship based around understanding one another and being there for each other. The narrator's new realm of thinking begins when Sonny and he watch a street revival meeting. The narrator realizes that their music saves them, for it "seemed to soothe a poison out of them.. The narrator's recognition of the meaning of music and the power it has provokes conversation. Sonny tells his brother that the woman's voice reminded him of what heroin feels like. The narrator explains that music can be a positive alternative to drugs. This begins to show a change in the narrator and his willingness to understand, and listen to his brother. He now shows sympathy and realizes the depth of Sonny's suffering and thinks of ways he can help. Sonny then invites his brother to listen to his music. This event makes their understanding for each other stronger than it has ever been. The leader of Sonny's group steps to the microphone and says, "These are Sonny's Blues." This part of the story provides a feeling that the characters have truly gone through a change and they have done it together. Sonny's music stirs special memories in each of the brother's lives. Music proved to ultimately be the thing that brought them close and gave each of them the brother that they had always wanted, but was never there.
Through the language of music, the narrator and his brother become closer in their relationship. The other brother, driven by the need to help Sonny's troubles, realizes the worries in his own life. Through his music, Sonny could help his brother, and in return, the brother helps him. At the end of Sonny's jazz performance, their views and understandings are still different, but much closer than before. Though they have different interpretations of the black jazz blues, it is their own, and that is what makes music universal and beautiful. Throughout his narrative, the brother changes his view towards Sonny's musical talent. In the end, their relationship is strong, bonded by their understanding of music. Sonny told his life's blues through the jazz he played, and when the brother finally understood and accepted Sonny's music, he understood the tragedies of his brother's life.
In conclusion, during the 1950's, when "Sonny's Blues" is set, was a very important period of development and unity of the civil rights movement. Sonny's Blues" presents this conflicted period and its ideas through the story of two estranged brothers. Their story highlights major aspects of the differences within the black community as represented by their distinct views on Bebop. This new form of jazz was more rebellious and revolutionary, representing the common black' American- telling of his problems and suffering. . Thus, when the narrator finally accepts Sonny and his lifestyle, by extension he accepts himself and his place within the black community. Sonny's music is the symbol of a group's coming together, because the narrator learns to love his brother freely while he discovers the value of a characteristically Afro-American assertion of life force.
Music is a powerful language which speaks to us, moves us, and fills us with emotion. In Sonny's Blues, the voice of Jazz mediates the relationship between two brothers. As the older brother's appreciation of music grows, he understands better the troubles in Sonny's life and as a result realizes the hardships which also fill his life. As more music enters the brother's life, the effects of Sonny's piano playing moves him closer to his sibling.
The two brother's different perspectives on life keep them apart. The relationship they have as brothers proves that their dissimilar interests cause the separation between them. "I didn't write Sonny or send him anything for a long time." (25) Sonny is a musician and endures the day because of it. Music is a savior to him. In contrast, the other brother, who is the narrator, is an educator and worries about Sonny's convictions to finish his last year in school. The older brother......
Already have an account? Log In Now
3836