Themes in Sonny’s Blues
The first theme evident in Sonny’s Blues is that of struggle and fear. Sonny has to struggle with the challenges of being an African American. He has been arrested for using cocaine and is struggling to be clean again. He expresses this in a letter to the person where he says that he feels like a man trying to climb out of a deep, funky hole and wishes to get outside. Sonny is fearful that he may relapse upon leaving the rehabilitation center and go back to his old ways. This is evident where he says, ‘sometimes I think I’m going to flip and never get outside. The persona is also afraid that sonny will go back to using drugs as soon as he is out. The bad neighborhood that the persona and his brother sonny live in is one that they struggle with. It was never safe for them and other children like them. The author puts it as ‘some escaped the trap, most didn’t’
The second theme is that of love and music. The person has a lot of love for Sonny to the point that he shuts his ears and eyes to the vices that Sonny is engaged in. He chooses to believe that his younger brother is a ‘good boy,’ and despite sonny being arrested, he has hope that he will change. Sonny decides to be a musician. This is something that he has always loved. The narrator shows the feelings of freedom that are brought about by the blues. According to the narrator, Sonny’s music helps to liberate and brings about the sense of freedom, just like it has brought him freedom from all the things that were separating him from his brother, Sonny. Sonny also finds a new family among his fellow musicians as he begins to feel like he is part of the family again.