The Blues of the Ghetto Ring Loud and Heavy
Author’s note: This is a copy of an essay that was written for an English literature course. It is a examination of the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin as it appears in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 9th. edition.
James Baldwin’s work has a way of speaking plainly, yet poetically, about the plight of Black Americans. He manages to paint beautiful and tragic stories that showcase the Black experience of America — from the brightest joys and the darkest lows. In his depictions, he often shares stories that involve dealing with the indignities that the United States has imposed on Black people. More importantly, he often focuses on what those indignities can do to a person’s psyche. In Sonny’s Blue, Baldwin uses the plight of life in Harlem to examine two areas of mental instability that can affect Black people: anxiety and depression.
Sonny’s brother, who remains unnamed throughout the story — as if he could be all of our brothers, deals with an anxiety that stems from life in Harlem. The ghettos of America are places in which Black and brown people have often found themselves funneled into areas of neglect, abandonment and isolation. Sonny’s brother touches on this in his description of the housing project that he calls home when he said, “It hasn’t been up long. A few days after it was up it seemed uninhabitably new, now, of course, it’s already rundown. It looks like a parody of the good, clean, faceless life — God knows the people who live in it do their best to make it a parody” (p. 409). The American government built these large, uninviting housing units for poor people in the city and then did little to help maintain and improve neither the buildings nor the surrounding areas. With a lack of fair access to economic activity and substandard housing, ghettos often become dens of poverty, crime, drug use, and violence.
This is what breeds a lot of anxiety in the Black people who live there. This is the source of the anxiety of Sonny’s brother. In this unsafe and unsecure environment, parents and guardians often fret over their loved ones anytime they leave the safety of home. Sonny’s mother dealt with this anxiety as well. Due to the pain of her husband’s tragic loss of his brother, she understood that the world outside was not kind to Black folks. She knew that it did not matter how you lived your life — the trappings of the ghetto can ensnare anyone (“It ain’t only the bad ones, nor yet the dumb ones that gets sucked under.” p. 411).
My own mother used to tell me that once I became old enough to stay outside late at night, she would have trouble sleeping until she finally heard me come back home. This is a sentiment that I have heard echoed by many of my own family members who still live in the ghettos of New York City today. Sonny’s brother even wonders if he could be doing Sonny harm by returning him to the ghettos of Harlem (“I had the feeling that I was simply bringing him back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape.” p. 410).
The titular “blues” of the story refers to both Sonny’s music and his depression. The depression that Sonny feels is tied to his life in the ghettos of Harlem. The tall walls of the housing projects and lack of social mobility can cause someone to feel as if they are trapped and have no true control over their life. In the conversation between the brothers in the kitchen, Baldwin paints a scene of a younger Sonny struggling with his desire to break free by writing, “Look, brother. I don’t want to stay in Harlem no more, I really don’t.” He was very earnest. He looked at me, then over toward the kitchen window. There was something in his eyes I’d never seen before, some thoughtfulness, some worry all his own. He rubbed the muscle of one arm. “It’s time I was getting out of here.” (p. 415).
Sonny’s anxiety shows in his body language with the rubbing of his arm and failure to maintain eye contact with his brother. He tried to find an escape by obsessing himself with music and piano playing but did so at the expense of school. Once he found himself to be a burden on his hosts, he moved out and found himself in an environment that allowed him to play his blues — at the expense of his sobriety. Drug use can be a means of escape for people who find themselves in hopeless circumstances. Sonny’s drug use allowed him to feel like he could take control of his life (“It makes you feel — in control. Sometimes you’ve got to have that feeling.” p. 420). By the end of the story, Sonny seemed to have gained some measure of control of his life, if at least just for the night, when he was able to focus and play the blues well enough for his brother to fully hear his pain and gain some insight into his struggles.
Through no fault of their own, people who are forced to live in this country’s abandoned and forgotten ghettos often find themselves surrounded by unmanaged squalor and decay. This is an environment that breeds mental instability and a feeling of being trapped and unable to escape for greener pastures. This is the source of Sonny’s depression and what ultimately led to his drug use. This is the source of anxiety that is present in almost every character in the story. This depression and anxiety continues with each generation. The parents of the brothers dealt with emotional stress and trauma that is similar to that of their children. Their father carried the weight of sadness over his brother’s death with him until his dying day. Their mother carried anxiety over her husband’s trauma with her until her death. The brothers both had to manage their own anxieties and sadness. The failures of society to help improve the lives of those who they have condemned to the ghettos weighs most heavily on its inhabitants.
