The story Sonnys Blues by James Baldwin talks about Sonny who lives in Harlem in the 1950s. The story, is centered about Sonny who is a talented musician, lives a life full of struggles and was trapped in drug addiction which got him in jail while trying to attain success in life. The narrator, Sonnys brother has a very hard time understanding Sonny and believes his brothers choice of being a jazz musician is bad and tries to convince him to finish school you got to finish school. (107). Sonny loves jazz music and hes very talented in it, and despite his brothers rejection of that as a career, he doesnt want to do anything else because it makes him happy, I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for? (107). While some have limited the scope of the story to the conflicts that existed between the two brothers and how Sonny was able to resolve the relationship between him a
nd his brother through jazz music, the author explores a broader theme of how society and family influence can adversely affect or limit ones dreams and aspiration in pursuit of success and happiness. The author takes us through several plot in the story, in understanding this theme by reflecting on several characters that lives in Harlem, New York in the 1950s. As Kelly May stated that literatures enable us experience difficult situations and human conundrums in all their complexity (8). The narrator describes Harlem as a place where kids are disrespectful, festered by drugs, a ghetto environment that is dangerous for kids, between the green park of the stony, lifeless elegance of hotels and apartment buildings, toward the vivid, killing streets of our childhood. And that the streets havent changed much since he was a kid, But houses exactly like the houses of our past yet dominated the landscape (101).