James Baldwin, "Sonny’s Blues"
Discussion Questions
1.) Discuss the narrator, Sonny’s brother. How does he change/progress throughout the story? Where does he “begin” with regard to Sonny? Where does he “end” with regard to Sonny?
2.) Examine the first section of the story -- pages 27-30. Here, we meet the narrator and see him in a conversation with someone who knows Sonny. What do we learn from this section?
3.) Examine the last section of the story -- pages 46-49. Here, the narrator goes with his brother to the jazz club. What does the narrator see and hear? What does the narrator learn -- and possibly come to understand?
4.) Examine the middle sections of the story -- pages 30-46. How does Baldwin “structure” his story? How does it “move” or “progress”?
pages 30-31 -- Sonny's letter to his brother
pages 31-33 -- Sonny arrives back in NYC
pages 33-42 -- various "flashbacks" or background information -- (break this section down further!)
pages 42-46 -- conversation in the "present" between Sonny and his brother
5.) Make a list of the different types of “love” that are either alluded to or shown in this story. Perhaps think about all the different types of relationships shown or mentioned in this story where “love” might be a part of the relationship. With this story, what is Baldwin suggesting about relationships? About love?
6.) Discuss Baldwin’s “style” as it is shown in this story? How would you describe his “style”? How is his “style” different from other writers we've read?
7.) Analyze the speech -- particularly in the middle of page 45 -- in which Sonny explains to his brother how he has survived (however tenuously) the experience of racism in America. How does this explanation make Sonny a sympathetic character?
8.) Discuss Baldwin's comment on the blues Sonny plays with Creole and the two other musicians at the end of the story -- see especially toward the bottom of page 48. Baldwin's subject is the music, of course, but he is also talking about other forms of creation. What might they be?