Sonny's Blues

I thought that “Sonny’s Blues”, written by James Baldwin in 1957, was much longer and much different from all of the other stories we’ve read so far in this class, except that it talked about darkness a lot (no shocker there). I actually found it slightly enjoyable to read even though it was so long. I feel like it is one of those stories that has so many hidden meanings though. For instance, when he describes and talks about the revival meeting near the barbeque joint, what was his purpose for describing in such detail what was going on across the street? Did it really add that much to the story, besides an extra page? My strength has never been interpreting literature, so does anybody have any ideas as to why the author was so descriptive about this occurrence?

I also love how you find out as you go what kind of family they are, where they grew up, their beliefs, etc. I think that is a great way to keep readers interested because you want to keep reading so you can find out more about the characters you are reading about. Oh!! Did anyone else notice that some of the characters and their surroundings seem to have been inspired by the writer’s life? He was born in Harlem NY, had a father who was eventually institutionalized, and was discouraged by the racial climate in the United States. All of those things seem to be touched on throughout the story at some point.

Two things that I really appreciated was that the brothers somewhat make up at the end, which is extremely unusual from a story that professor Corrigan assigns. Plus, I really liked the ending too, especially because of how much I love music, so seeing how it was the music at the end that brought everything together was really cool for me.