ESSAY SONNY'S BLUES
A week ago I felt misunderstood, sad, and stressed about school, I had no one to
tell how I felt, my family was busy with their own affairs, and that day I had fought
with my boyfriend. So I decided to lie down while listening to music, I felt heard, that
the music understood what I was feeling, liberated and at peace, a mixture of
feelings that are difficult to explain, but I felt that I was not alone, as if someone
caught me and wouldn't let me fall. The exact same thing happened to Sonny;
although the harsh world awaits Sonny with obstacles and difficulties, music was his
breath of life, the only thing that allowed him to be him and feel free, and fight his
sufferings.
Sonny learned to live life thanks to music, when he played the piano his fingers
were filled with the aura of life which allowed him to keep going. “Then he stepped
back, very slowly, filling the air with the immense suggestion that Sonny speak for
himself. Then they all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and
again one of them seemed to say, amen. Sonny's fingers filled the air with life, his
life. But that life contained so many others” (Baldwin, 47). People have different ways
of dealing with their problems, for sonny playing music was the channel in which he
can make himself understood, understand life, and his trials. Music was everything to
him, it was the air, which allowed him to confront his past.
Playing music, sonny could be different, be the same, he felt free, he knew that
his way he could be heard. “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that
he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we
did” (Baldwin, 47). We can see how the narrator accepts his brother, in addition to
accepting himself, he is dragged into his past but understanding sonny and his music
leads him to the stage of discovery and salvation, where he was lost and now is
Denise Esponda Cruz
A week ago I felt misunderstood, sad, and stressed about school, I had no one to
tell how I felt, my family was busy with their own affairs, and that day I had fought
with my boyfriend. So I decided to lie down while listening to music, I felt heard, that
the music understood what I was feeling, liberated and at peace, a mixture of
feelings that are difficult to explain, but I felt that I was not alone, as if someone
caught me and wouldn't let me fall. The exact same thing happened to Sonny;
although the harsh world awaits Sonny with obstacles and difficulties, music was his
breath of life, the only thing that allowed him to be him and feel free, and fight his
sufferings.
Sonny learned to live life thanks to music, when he played the piano his fingers
were filled with the aura of life which allowed him to keep going. “Then he stepped
back, very slowly, filling the air with the immense suggestion that Sonny speak for
himself. Then they all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and
again one of them seemed to say, amen. Sonny's fingers filled the air with life, his
life. But that life contained so many others” (Baldwin, 47). People have different ways
of dealing with their problems, for sonny playing music was the channel in which he
can make himself understood, understand life, and his trials. Music was everything to
him, it was the air, which allowed him to confront his past.
Playing music, sonny could be different, be the same, he felt free, he knew that
his way he could be heard. “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that
he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we
did” (Baldwin, 47). We can see how the narrator accepts his brother, in addition to
accepting himself, he is dragged into his past but understanding sonny and his music
leads him to the stage of discovery and salvation, where he was lost and now is
Denise Esponda Cruz
