Music for the Misery

Olivia Denison

Mr. Salsich

English 9

22 September 2008

Music for the Misery;

A Summary, Analysis, and Thoughts About an Essay

Sonny’s Blues, by James Baldwin, is about two bothers who live very different lives in search for common ground The essay by S.B. Goldman contends that the brothers’ rocky relationship is actually a journey to appreciate each other’s differences through the simple act of listening. Goldman presents music, and jazz specifically, as an analogy to the conflicting lives of the brothers. The following discussion is my interpretation of the essay, while expanding on some of Goldman’s ideas.

The author of the essay, Goldman, relates the rocky relationship of these two brothers like four movements in a jazz piece. Sonny’s older brother, Goldman states, “a straight-laced Harlem algebra teacher”(Goldman 1), wants Sonny to do well, but Sonny has his own way of life, which includes being a heroin addict and an aspiring jazz pianist. In the first movement, the brother first recognizes Sonny’s problems, but fails to understand them. In the second movement, the brother struggles to see how Sonny really lives and can only relate to him in terms of his own reality. The third movement is the climax or “crescendo” (Goldman 1), and Goldman explains that “their failure to communicate is at its peak.”(Goldman 2) Finally, in the fourth movement the narrator has an “epiphany” after his daughter’s death and he finally starts to relate to Sonny. “The dry, low, black man said something awful on the drums, Creole answered, and then the drums talked back. Then the horn insisted,…and Creole listened commenting now and then. Then they all came together again, and Sonny was part of the family again.” (Baldwin ) This quote from Sonny’s Blues shows that after having a talk with his brother he is now understood and part of the family. The last line in Goldman’s essay says that, “these blues belong to all of us, for they symbolize the darkness which surrounds all those who fail to listen to and remain unheard by their fellow men.”(Goldman 4) This applies to Sonny and his brother, but they both eventually emerge from the darkness that surrounds them.

Sonny’s blues is more than just a story about two brothers framed by a musical jazz piece. There were other multiple themes such as accepting the differences between people, symbolized through music. The narrator, Sonny’s brother, is a straight-laced guy who doesn’t appreciate crazy music like jazz because he is a very “orderly” (Goldman ) person. Sonny on the other hand is the outcast who likes jazz because it’s disordered like his life. Jazz was the “rebel” music for its day, much like rock and roll in the 50’s and 60’s and alt rock in the 90’s. The old traditionalists do not understand the new “complexity” of the new strange music. But eventually, like the brother, they appreciate it on some level and a new resolution occurs. This rebelliousness or thinking beyond the norm inspires change, which can be good; but a period of difficulty is always encountered with change. Also, before change can occur, both sides must finally listen to each other. But if your personality type or, music preference is different, the lines of communication will be broken. A resolution to a lack of communication occurs with a crisis or “crescendo” (Goldman 1). The narrator’s daughter’s death forced him to reexamine life from Sonny’s perspective and to appreciate the complexity of jazz on a whole new level.

The theme of listening to each other resonates throughout Sonny’s Blues, but can also serve a lesson to the world at large. If people listened to one another more, perhaps a greater understanding of our differences would result. As Creole concluded, “he and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction and madness and death, in order to find new ways to make us all listen.”(Baldwin ) The hope here is that with potential darkness and destruction, a willingness to communicate can save us from ourselves.

Works Cited

Baldwin, James. Sonny’s Blues. [database on-line];available from http://www.wright.edu/~alex.macleod/winter06/blues.pdf (accessed 18 September 2008).

Goldman, Suzy Bernstein. “James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’: A Message in Music.” Negro American Literature Forum; vol. 8, no. 3, Fall, 1994: 231-3. [database on-line]; available from http://www.enotes.com/Sonny’s Blues/james-baldwins-sonnys-blues-message-music (accessed 18 September 2008).