3CXXCE

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Analysis of the sociocultural setting that Influenced James Baldwin’s Composition of "Sonny’s
Blues”
“Sonny’s Blues” is a short narrative composed by James Baldwin in 1998 before the
conclusion of the Harlem Renaissance. In the narrative Baldwin uses two brothers, the narrator
of the narrative who is teacher and the protagonist, Sonny who is the central character of the tale
and who demonstrates a life surrounded by struggle and sorrow. The narrator is a teacher from
Harlem who escaped from a ghetto, establishing a secure and stable life, notwithstanding the
destructive pressures he witnesses rescinding several young Black lives. Specifically, the teacher
views African American teenagers discovering the limits exerted on them by a racist social
setting during the same period when they learn their abilities. The narrator offers a tale
concerning the association between himself and his brother Sonny, which has moved through
different stages of split-up and reunion. After the deaths of the two brothers’ parents the teacher
made an effort to become a father to Sonny but failed believing that his brother had succumbed
to the Haarlem life’s destructive influences. However, the two brothers attain reconciliation, in
which he acknowledges the importance and value for Sonny’s love for and need to become a jazz
pianist. Through Sonny, Baldiwin presents a critical discourse of the struggles experienced by
the African Americans belonging to the lower social class at the time. Baldwin’s point of view
generally revolves around the theme of class supremacy and racial segregation stemming from

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the racism he experienced within the context of the twentieth-century CRM (Civil Rights
Movement) genesis in which he penned his work.
Analysis of the Sociocultural setting that Influenced the Composition of Sonny’s Blues
One of the issues that influenced Baldwin in composing his works included the CRM
(Civil Rights Movement) that articulated black consciousness at the time. The CRM was a
movement that took place between the 1950s and 1960s involving the struggle for social justice
for the Blacks in the USA. According to Francis Baldwin is a mentor in the pains and misery
experienced by African Americans during the CRM period (). The author offers significant
insight into his life and that of the African Americans during the CRM struggle and how these
experiences relate to the social segregation articulated in Sonny’s Blues. In the narrative, the
author articulates the issue of racism through social segregation

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Works Cited
Francis, Consuela. The Critical Reception of James Baldwin, 1963-2010:" an Honest Man and a
Good Writer." Vol. 70. Boydell & Brewer, 2014.