JAMES BALDWIN
James Baldwin’s, “Sonny’s Blues” is a story of the title character's rehabilitation from drug addiction, reconciliation with his estranged brother, and recognition as a jazz pianist. In the story we sympathize with Sonny, the drug addict in the story, rather than his brother, the narrator. The story presents a complex picture of drug use as means of coping with sorrow and fear. The story brings to us the relationship between two brothers, who after their parents’ death have drifted apart but at the end, mend their differences to get back their brotherly love. Baldwin has constructed the two brothers exactly opposite of one another. The narrator, Sonny’s elder brother is an algebra teacher with a wife and two children. Sonny on the other hand is not married and wants to make a living out of his passion for music. His brother thinks that “it’s not going to be so funny when you have to make your living at it”.