Edwin Vazquez Angela Jacobs ENC 1102 April 1, 2014

Baldwins Sonnys Blues: An Analysis of how he uses Literary Elements to relate to his life

This paper will analyze the short story Sonnys Blues by James Baldwin, with a focus on the use of figurative language, themes, and setting. The short story illustrates the relationship between two troubling brothers as they conflict on discovering one another. Through the use of literary elements such as theme, figurative language, and setting Baldwin is able to portray how Sonnys Blues relates to his life and why he wrote it. He includes a wide variety of morals in his story. For instance, a lesson on drugs and how it can affect you and the people around you, as well a lesson on how you should strive towards what you believe in and to never give up. Baldwin does a great job by emphasizing this by Sonny not being able find anything to keep on the right path until he finds Jazz is his solution. He also provides a bit of irony in the story, like when the narrator is trying to help Sonny he doesnt believe Jazz is the solution and turns away from it, but it turns out that Jazz is what really helped Sonny become a better person. As Joseph Flibbert was trying to state in his article on Sonnys Blues, setting plays a key role in Sonnys Blues and that the story reflects on Baldwins preoccupation with problems of identity, particularly racial identity. This story was written in the 50s which was a time period of racial tension, poverty, and drug issues. Sonny was having trouble with finding out who he is and

found that jazz helped him solve his drug problem as well as his identity problem. Baldwin does a good job by give readers a reason to want to continue on by relating the story to real life situations.