Sonny's Blues

"Sonny's Blues" is a 1957 short story written by James Baldwin, originally published in the Partisan Review. The short story focuses on themes of suffering, forgiveness, and music's beneficial power. "Sonny's Blues" is told through the eyes of an unknown narrator, examining into the relationship between two brothers: Sonny, a jazz musician struggling with addiction, and the narrator, an educator dealing with his own inner challenges. Set in 1950s Harlem, Baldwin's narrative analyzes the relationship between individual sorrow and systematic injustice, also as the ways in which music may be utilized to heal and unite one another. Baldwin republished the work in the 1965 short story collection Going to Meet the Man.