Music and Bible in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues Research Paper

Music and Bible in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues - look Paper ExampleMusic also provides the context for which the narrator finally sees his br separate for who he is at the end of the story while playing eff music. The unnamed narrator of Sonnys Blues engages an estranged and strained relationship with his brother by dint ofout the story. While each is not trying to out-do the other in terms of impressing other people or gaining acclaim of any kind as is the case in most conventional sibling rivalries, it is their opposing lifestyles and attitudes which are fighting against each other as the narrator cannot accept his brothers actions and constantly attempts to coax him into a more traditional and normal lifestyle same(p) his own as he does not understand Sonnys self-destructive behaviours, Tell me, I said at last, why does he expect to die? He must want to die, hes killing himself, why does he want to die? (38). Though the narrator has largely ignored his troubled junior broth er for many years, when he does reach out to him while in jail, their lack of communication is evident as the narrator realises that he does not unfeignedly know his brother at all. His mother asks him to watch out for his brother, You got to hold on to your brother, she said, and dont let him fall, no egress what it looks like is happening and no matter how evil you gets with him (104), but has not done so for years. At the beginning of the story, the narrator sees news of his brothers trouble in the newspaper and it is nevertheless because of this report that Sonny became real to him again (Baldwin 3). The narrator enjoys a conventional and respectable lifestyle he is married with a family, maintains a full-time command job and is a respected member of the community in which he grew up. In stark contrast with this, the younger brother Sonny, has engaged in medicate use since a very young age and has been in trouble with the law consistently. Feeling extremely trapped in his life by set about obstacles typical of that of a black man in Harlem during the 1960s, Sonny represents the problems faced by that community at that particular time (Reilly 56). The dynamics of this relationship is greatly reflective of the biblical story of Cain and Abel from the book of Genesis (Tackach). In the story, Cain is portrayed as being extremely sinful and kills his brother Abel. Though an extreme comparison, the fundamental differences between Cain and Abel and the tensions this causes, reflect the difference between the narrator and his brother as Sonny appears to be corrupted with temptation and sin while the narrator enjoys a highly moral, acceptable and conventional lifestyle. From the very beginning of the story right through to the end, music plays an extremely fundamental and important role in this narrative. It is through music that the narrator finally understands his brother, feels his passion and sees his unique and positive qualities. When he first sees So nny after his stint in jail, he initially does not recognise him Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother Id never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light (Baldwin 35). It is not until the very end of the story, when he and Sonny go to a jazz club