The Inevitability of Suffering in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues Essays

The Inevitability of pang in James Baldwins gents Blues Everyone likes to feel safe. We try to protect ourselves and those we love, to render them feel safe as well. The idea conveyed about safety in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues is that there is no such thing. The teller of this horizontal surface had thought that his brother Sonny was safe. Or at least, that was what he had make himself believe. I told myself that Sonny was wild, but he wasnt crazy. And hed al counsels been a right-hand(a) boy, he hadnt ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful, the way kids can, so quick, so quick, especiall(a)y in Harlem. I didnt trust to believe that Id ever see my brother going down, coming to nonhing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition Id already seen so many others (48). But Sonny hadnt been safe from drugs, or the streets, or any of the things his brother had been sure he was immune to. He had been arrested for apply and peddling heroin. Sonnys friend, the boy we me et later, had thought the same thing as Sonnys brother had. I thought Sonny was a smart boy...too smart to embark on hung (49). But they were both wrong. It had been Sonnys brothers responsibility to look out for Sonny from the sequence Sonny was born. When he started to walk, he walked from our mother straight to me. I caught him but before he fell when he took the first steps he ever took in this world (52). The narrator of the story is Sonnys big brother, so he feels responsible for him. This responsibility is confirmed by their mother on page 55, and the older brother reassures her, I wont let nonhing come out to Sonny (57). But he fails at this, Sonny leaves and gets into trouble. Perhaps the narrator felt that if he couldnt keep his brother safe,... ...fe. But he couldnt. And indeed, suffering, deprivation of safety, is unavoidable, and also necessary for some things. When I was downstairs before, on my way here, listening to that woman sing, it struck me all of a sudd en how oft suffering she must cod had to go through. Its repulsive to think you have to suffer that much (65). But we do. Everyone does. In fact, Theres no way not to suffer (65). We argon never safe from it. Total safety is not attainable. Not only in Harlem, but everywhere, there are things that are simply not under our control. Try as we might to deflect out unpleasant things for those around us, we cannot. This is the feeling that Baldwin creates through the story of Sonny and his brother. List of Work Cited Baldwin, James. Sonnys Blues. The Norton introduction to Fiction. 6th ed. Ed. Jerome Beaty. New York Norton, 1996. 47-70.