The setting of Sonny’s blues shows how the environment shapes people’s lives. Most of the story is in the Harlem, where narrator describes darkness, struggle, limited opportunities and insecurity. Baldwin makes Harlem feel heavy, like it pushes people toward pain, drugs or anger. One passage where narrator talks about students and says, “two darkness, the darkness of their lives, darkness of the movies.”. This shows how the real world is painful and even entertainment cannot save them from it. Another moment when he describes about housing projects as looking nice but still full of suffering, ” The big windows fool no one, they aren’t enough to make space out of no space.” This makes the setting of world feel trapped and hopeless showing that people cannot easily scape their struggle and pain.
The relationship between the the Narrator and Sonny changes throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, narrator judges Sonny and doesn’t understand his love for music or his addiction. He keeps distance from him and even admits he did not write to Sonny for long time. As story goes further, Sonny opens up his pain and the narrator also listen to Sonny. One passage when narrator says,” I had held- so long! when he had needed human speech to help him.” This shows the positive growth in their relationship because narrator takes responsibility, become more supportive and listen to Sonny.
One question I have after reading Sonny’s Blues is why people often begin to truly understand others only after experiencing pain themselves. For most of the story, the narrator judges Sonny’s choices and keeps emotional distance from him. It is only after the death of his daughter that he starts to feel Sonny’s suffering as real and begins to listen to him. This is important because it shows how grief can create empathy, but it is sad that it sometimes takes tragedy for people to care. The story made me think about real life, where many people ignore others’ struggles until they go through hardship themselves. It raises the question of whether people can learn compassion without first experiencing loss.
