Critical Research Paper

James Baldwin’s comment on Society told through Freud in “Sonny’s Blues”

“All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone.” (Baldwin, 1). Black People who lived in Harlem during the drug epidemic were most at risk to be addicted to heroin, which became a means of coping with life. What seemed like just “life”, was actually the force of darkness surrounding these individuals and keeping them in the same position for generations to pass. In James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues”, Freud’s concept of artistic gift is used as a contribution to Baldwin’s work to reveal that Baldwin views Harlem as an inescapable “darkness” whose only path is one that leads to death unless one forges a lifestyle for themselves.
In “Sonny’s Blues”, Baldwin includes the recurring theme of darkness to reflect the state of people who lived in Harlem. The darkness was the endlessness that people who lived in Harlem faced during the drug epidemic in Harlem. Darkness haunts those whose race most closely resembles that of darkness who were in Harlem when heroin conquered Harlem. The only escape from this force was through death. In order to cope with the darkness, individuals would either become subjected to heroin or dope addictions or falsify a lifestyle in order to believe that they are living the American dream. However, any route chosen when you are consumed in the darkness would result in you having the same fate as everyone else who experienced bondage to the force, eventually being dead. Becoming addicted to drugs or falsifying the American dream would just be the least stressful and easiest ways to cope with the darkness.
The bondage to the darkness was best explained by the narrator of “Sonny’s Blues” where he said “In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light. Then the old folks will remember the children and they wouldn’t talk any more that day. And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens, he’s moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. He knows that every time this happens, he’s moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It’s what they’ve come from. It’s what they endure. The child knows that they won’t talk anymore because if he knows too much about what’s happened to them, he’ll know too much too soon, about what’s going to happen to him.” (Baldwin, 7) This very situation is reciprocated in “Sonny’s Blues” through Sonny’s father and Uncle, whose fates triggered a concern about Sonny in the Mother. The Mother tells Sonny’s brother “I ain’t telling you all this… to make you scared or bitter or to make you hate nobody. I’m telling you this because you got a brother. And the world ain’t changed” (Baldwin, 9) after she told the brother that their uncle had a passion for music just like Sonny. He ended up being killed by a drunk white man in a car because the Uncle’s skin was one that resembled that of darkness. The mother was weary about Sonny because she believed that Sonny would be the child who would be filled with darkness. The very child who wouldn’t be told about their Uncle’s fate because it would reveal what Sonny’s fate would be when you’re someone who is bonded to the darkness. The mother feared that Sonny would die similarly to the way the uncle died, especially since she believes the world remained the same since the incident.
Darkness is first seen within Sonny when Sonny was revealed to have a bondage to drugs. Upon the narrator’s learning of Sonny’s condition, he says “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out” (Baldwin, 1). The narrator made the remark because finding out that Sonny was drug affiliated meant that Sonny would meet the impending fate or death of everyone else who took the same footsteps as Sonny. Sonny’s addiction continued and made it to the newspaper, which was how his brother found out about his condition. He had been to rehabilitation, which Sonny’s brother was told that rehabilitation was an endless cycle Sonny was expected to eventually end up going right back to rehabilitation until he died, which was expected of someone who is stuck in the darkness. Everyone had lost hope for Sonny, believing that he would be consumed by the darkness and simply end up dead, having done nothing in life. Sonny’s mother warned the narrator of Sonny. She wanted him to take more responsibility for Sonny because she feared that he shares the same fate as their uncle. The mother saw a resemblance between the narrator and Sonny in comparison to their father and uncle. The reason for this was because Sonny realized he had a passion for music and wanted to play jazz, similarly to their uncle who played acoustic guitar. The uncle died for having skin that resembled darkness, when the people driving had skin that resembled light. Essentially, the mother wanted Sonny to have a different fate than what his uncle had.
To relieve the stress for the mother, the narrator agreed to watch over Sonny more. The narrator grew critical of Sonny’s passion for playing jazz, assuming it would keep Sonny consumed by the dark. The narrator refused to accept what Sonny had chosen to make an illusion living the American dream. Being able to play jazz would allow Sonny to falsify a living in America and it would seem like Sonny would have escaped the darkness. Playing jazz music became a coping mechanism for living in a place surrounded by drugs and death. The brother would soon understand this, that his brother would be fine. He would soon understand that he need not take so much responsibility for Sonny, that Sonny would not share the same fate that the mother envisions.
Sonny appeared to have escaped the darkness; he was no longer dependent on a drug lifestyle to live the American dream, and he was not expected to live a fate that would result in him being dead in a way that was like his uncle. Sonny embraced his passion for playing jazz through the piano, because Sonny possessed what Freud calls an “artistic gift”, which was “If a person who is at loggerheads with reality possesses an artistic gift ( a thing that is still a psychological mystery to us ), he can transform his phantasies into artistic creations instead of into symptoms. In this manner he can escape the doom of neurosis and by this roundabout path regain his contact with reality” (Freud, 2235). Freud would call Sonny achieving his goal of wanting to play jazz on the piano a wish fulfillment. Sonny was able to control everything through playing jazz on the piano and not rely on drugs to survive. From a Freudian viewpoint, Sonny had an artistic gift because Sonny was able to turn his “phantasies” of escaping the darkness present in Harlem into an artistic creation. Sonny would disguise his phantasy as a wish fulfillment, since he managed to overpower his brother who had become too overprotective over him. Sonny was able to remain in control and keep from becoming one of the average people who do drugs and eventually die. He became an individual who makes a life out of music and comes close to escaping the darkness. He was able to attain some light despite being expected to have none after being subjected to drug use. However, Sonny is still illusively living the American dream, because Sonny is still part of the darkness. He still lived in Harlem and he was still a black man while doing so. The best method to escape the darkness was to cope with the darkness either through drug use, or Sonny’s method of manipulating his talents to create a lifestyle for himself.
James Baldwin most likely views society as one that may be unfit for those who resemble and live among darkness. “Sonny’s Blues” is suggestive of a real period of time where racism, drugs, and death were prevalent in places such as Harlem. Societies like such are unfair for those who are caught in what Baldwin dubs darkness, because it is beyond their control to try and escape the impending fate. The cycle is repetitive, where generations of people repeat the same fate with no hopes or thoughts of escaping. Baldwin is suggesting that darkness is a force that haunts people who are most likely black and prevents these people from ever achieving a true American Dream. All these individuals are left to do is cope with the darkness by using drugs and becoming oblivious to the trap. However, in “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin uses Sonny to inform the reader that there are more ways than dying or resorting to drugs to escape the darkness. Baldwin most likely wants the reader to believe that they can use artistic creations to forge their own American dream when you are expected to never achieve that dream.
James Baldwin coined darkness as a recurring theme throughout his story to relay the idea that Black people can escape the darkness that may seem otherwise in Harlem. Baldwin believes that people could use an “artistic gift” to be able to craft a lifestyle of their own to cope with the darkness and live a different fate than what is expected of people in Harlem during the Heroin epidemic.

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