The Inevitability of Suffering in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues Essays

The Inevitability of Suffering in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues Everyone likes to heart safe. We try to protect ourselves and those we love, to make them feel safe as well. The idea conveyed about safety in James Baldwins Sonnys Blues is that there is no such(prenominal) thing. The narrator of this story had thought that his brother Sonny was safe. Or at least, that was what he had made himself believe. I told myself that Sonny was wild, but he wasnt crazy. And hed al expressions been a good male child, he hadnt ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful, the way kids can, so quick, so quick, especially in Harlem. I didnt requirement to believe that Id ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, 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 using and peddling heroin. Sonnys friend, the boy w e meet later, had thought the same thing as Sonnys brother had. I thought Sonny was a smart boy...too smart to get hung (49). But they were both wrong. It had been Sonnys brothers debt instrument to look out for Sonny from the time Sonny was born. When he started to walk, he walked from our mother straight to me. I caught him just 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 nothing happen to Sonny (57). But he fails at this, Sonny leaves and gets into trouble. mayhap the narrator felt that if he couldnt keep his brother safe,... ...fe. But he couldnt. And indeed, stupefying, lack 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 sudden how much suffe ring she must have 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 are never safe from it. Total safety is not attainable. Not except in Harlem, but everywhere, there are things that are simply not under our control. Try as we might to block out unpleasant things for those or so 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.