The Importance of Setting in "Sonny's Blues"

by Emily Voshell

            When reading James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” it’s crucial to understand the cultural importance of the setting and time period of the story.  Although the Harlem Renaissance occurred more so in the 1920s and 1930s than in the 1950s when this story takes place, its effects on the African American culture and the Harlem area were still prominent.  The Harlem Renaissance created a place for “streams of black writers, musicians, performers and film-makers, a refuge from the all-persuasive racism of American society” (Stuart 40).  Harlem became a place separate from society where people were free to do as they pleased which allowed for creative art in the forms of writing, poetry, paintings, and music to flourish; however it also gave life to drug use, sexual adventure, and poverty. 

            The Great Depression and World War II radically changed Harlem.  Individuals had barely any money or hope, and those African Americans who did go off to war received little credit or respect when they returned to the states.  Instead of people venturing into Harlem with hopes of changing their life, Harlem turned into a rundown, poverty stricken city.  A place that was thought of as a place for people to run away to, was a place that trapped people.  In “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin described Harlem depicts this entrapment.   He makes it known that a lot of people are no longer happy there, but for those with no money and who have already fell under the weight of the cities bad habits it was extremely hard to get out.  The most obvious portrayal was Sonny’s addiction to heroine.  The narrator also seemed to be a captive of Harlem despite his college degree, and the fact that he did not succumb to the pressures of drugs.  Baldwin also mentions a failing school system, and lack of resources that may have also kept residents in Harlem. 

            The town’s prosperity which was turned to poverty, and sorrow was also illustrated in Baldwin’s story.  He speaks a lot about the darkness of the events, people, and the town itself, and all of the tragedies that stain the memories of the characters.  According to John Clarborn “[Sonn’y Blues] bops the reader over the head with billy clubs of proliferation tragedies: the uncle’s murder, the estranged brothers, Sonny’s arrest, the daughter’s sudden death by polio, the eternal recurrence of heroine addiction, and all the other tales submerged in the passing references to the background characters that populate the story’s Harlem scene” (90).  Some argue that the darkness that fills Harlem during this time is the racism that African Americans have been running from and thought they’d escaped by going to Harlem was catching up to them.  They’re now realizing there’s a large African American population concentrated in one area that is almost cast aside.  Clarborn argues that “[t]he emotional resonance of the family’s traumas in the South overflows the past and spills into 1950s Harlem” (90). After believing that Harlem would be gratifying, the Afrcan American citizens are beginning to see that it was a place for the dominant white culutre to prison them.   

            It’s important to understand the history behind Harlem when inquiring “Sonny’s Blues” because Baldwin conveys the hardship of racism, drug and alcohol abuse, and impoverishment that filled Harlem at this time between the prosperous Harlem Renaissance, the battles of World War I, the Great Depression, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement.  Baldwin also mimics through his characters that, through the tragic lives they lived they were able to become more appreciative and respectful of life; do you agree with this idea?

Works Cited

Clarborn, John. "Who Set You Feelin'? Harlem, Communal Affect, and the Great Migration Narrative in James Baldwin's "Sonn'ys Blues"." (2010): 89-99. Print.

Stuart, Andrea. "The Harlem Renaissance in the Twenties Produced a Wealth of Black Talent. But What Was its Legacy and Who Did it Really Benefit?." New Statesman. 126. (1997): 40-41. Print.