James Baldwin’s 1957 short fiction story, “Sonny’s Blues”, was published. It is set in the early days of civil rights. It tells the story about two brothers. One is a victim to Harlem’s drug addiction and the other is a man who wants to change his ways and be successful. The story begins with the brothers describing their problems. We see that Harlem is a significant setting. Sonny was trapped in Harlem by the drug cycle, which was prevalent among African American communities. The story is about people who venture into Harlem hoping to improve their lives.
People were often tempted to escape to Harlem, which was once a popular place to escape to. Baldwin describes Harlem as a place that traps people in “Sonny’s Blues”. He acknowledges that there are many unhappy people in Harlem. However, for those who don’t have the means to pay and are already suffering from the city’s negative habits, it was difficult to escape. Sonny was a heroin addict. Despite his college diploma, it seemed that the narrator was also trapped in Harlem, even though he didn’t succumb to the demands of drugs. Baldwin mentions Harlem’s failing schools and lack of resources, which may also have kept people there. Baldwin’s story shows how success turned to sorrow and poverty. He talks about the horrors of the people, events, and the town. Sonny’s Blues makes the reader forget about the clubs of proliferation tragedies that Billy enumerates: the murder of the uncle, the estranged siblings, Sonny and Sonny being arrested, the sudden death of the daughter by polio and the endless recurrences heroin addiction. Harlem’s dark side can also be attributed to the racism African Americans had been fleeing from. They thought Harlem would save them. They are now seeing that there is an enormous African American population in one place that has been almost abandoned. The African American citizens of Harlem believed Harlem would bring them joy, but now they realize that Harlem was just a place for white cultures to imprison them. It’s crucial to understand Harlem’s past before asking “Sonny’s Blues” questions. Baldwin’s narrative depicts the hardships of racism as well as drug and alcohol abuse and poverty in Harlem in the period between the Harlem Renaissance’s success and the Great Depression. Baldwin’s characters also show that despite the hardships they faced, they managed to be more compassionate and respectful of others through their tragic lives.
