Sonny's Blues

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

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Love is Unconditional ?Sonny?s Blues?, by James Baldwin, is a story about two black brothers who have many differences, but learn how to overcome them and unite as brothers. Baldwin uses many writing techniques that play a huge role in the story. Through plot we learn how important every event in the story is and how critical plot is for the reader to understand.

The setting of the story puts us back in a time period and a place were we can visualize each of the events taking place. Finally we see how Baldwin uses the first person point-of-view through a major character in the story to help fill in any hidden information that the reader might have missed. Through every little dilemma and every disagreeing argument we see that no matter what a brother?s love is unconditional.

The significance of plot in James Baldwin?s ?Sonny?s Blues? is magnified by the story?s complicating incident, technical climax, and dramatic climax in informing the reader that a brother?s love will always be there.

In the beginning, the complicating incident is implied when Sonny gets caught in a raid for using heroin. The narrator shows his love when he refuses to believe that this really happened. In fact he states, ?I had had suspicions, but I didn?t name them, I kept putting them away?(273). This is the same in any family, nobody wants to believe a family member is doing something wrong.

Therefore, the narrator tries to put it past himself and move on, but he knows that he has to face the facts.

Next, Sonny gets out of jail and is in a cab with the narrator going home. There is some discomfort in this picture. For example the narrator says ?..., it came to me that what we both...