Tristan's Essay

Tristan Yerkes

Mr. Salsich

English 02

22 September, 2008

A Lifelong Funk

Analyzing an Analytical Essay on Sonny’s Blues

Everyone gets the blues. Some people can cope with this sadness better than others, some cannot, and even more people cannot even think of dealing with their blues, and instead let sadness consume, and become them. This particular essay deals with Sonny, and his blues. Ms. Goldman wrote a very informative essay, James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”: a Message in Music, which examines Sonny’s Blues, and what it means.

Goldman’s essay starts off examining Baldwin’s writing style, and a very brief overview of main points in Sonny’s Blues. Goldman goes on to state that the very beginning of Sonny’s Blues sets foundations on which the two main characters’ relationship is built. As Goldman states, “Yet this rude discovery [of Sonny’s drug addiction] sounds the initial note in these two brothers’ growing closeness.” (Goldman, 1) this quote illustrates the kicking-off of the brothers’ newfound relationship, and demonstrates how very distant they really are. After hearing of Sonny, the narrator continues to take proverbial “steps” towards Sonny, such as when he starts to understand the boys he teaches. Goldman continues to make connections and relationships, as she further explains the story, and how the two main characters both draw closer together and grow apart. As Goldman quotes directly from a frustrated Sonny in Sonny’s Blues, “I hear you. But you never hear anything I say.” To which Ms. Goldman boldly comments, “Because he has no one to communicate with, the piano becomes his only source of expression.”(2) To one, this may seem like something to pull the two brothers apart, but as the story progresses, it just becomes another brick in the stonework of their relationship. However, after this Goldman says that Sonny running away was just a way that the other characters reached him. Goldman now relays that once the narrator feels sympathetic with Sonny, and listens to his music, all of his suffering is thrown into perspective. The brothers now apparently forge a newfound relationship, spawned partially by them both witnessing a street revival meeting. Directly after this meeting, Sonny invites the narrator to a concert where, through music, Sonny conveys all the suffering, pain, and emotion he has encountered along his dark and dangerous path to becoming an excellent musician. Through this music, the main character sees how nobody listens, how he should listen, and how Sonny listens. After this Baldwin leaves the story, with no more bumps in Sonny’s life, and the masonry of the brothers’ relationship solid and sound.

Goldman does an excellent job analyzing Sonny’s Blues, relating to the reader what things mean, how they are used, and she never takes anything said at face value. One thing in which Goldman truly excelled at was taking simple comments, annotations, and anecdotes, and elaborating to show what they may or may not signify. As an example, in the first section of the story, when the narrator has just discovered Sonny’s arrest, and the void between them, Goldman comments on a boy whistling, saying, “[he was] the young man who makes himself heard and transcends the disenchantment, the darkness with his song.” Regardless of if this was actually a reference to later on in the story, Goldman made an excellent connection. Although it may be hard to take anything in Sonny’s Blues at face value due to the lack of direct statements, Goldman does an excellent job of analyzing every bit of Sonny’s Blues. During the second movement, in which Sonny comes back home from prison, the simplicity of Sonny’s discomfort at the dinner table is thrown into an intricate fabric work of reasons as to why he is uncomfortable, which all seem obvious once explained. Later on, at the start of the fourth movement, the death of the narrator’s daughter, which is not exactly a simple event, with much emotion from the main character, is cast into even more complexity, as Goldman simply explains how this helped the narrator feel more for Sonny. Goldman doesn’t just elaborate on events in the story themselves, but she even puts them to more use, as she finds meaning for everything. At the very end of the story, after the climax, Goldman has a short section on what Sonny’s blues did for his brother. In this section, Goldman displays how the music summed up, and gave meaning to both of their lives, and even relates Sonny’s blues to the rest of us, and the suffering we feel.

After reading Goldman’s essay, some may feel the blues, but no matter what your way of dealing with the blues may be, Goldman’s essay does have many useful messages contained within it. Goldman’s essay does focus mainly on sad patches of life, with barely any moments of happiness, but regardless, I think she greatly explains and elaborates upon the story of Sonny and his blues. Sonny’s Blues is a very meaningful story, packed with emotion, and pain, it throws light into many cold, hard, dark corners of our lives, which we may have left neglected for a long time, perhaps because of the pain or sorrow. I think James Baldwin and Suzy Goldman helped to throw light into those corners, and better all who read their works and their knowledge of personal relationships.