"Sonny's Blues" is a 1957 short story[1] written by James Baldwin, originally published in Partisan Review.
The story contains the recollections of a black algebra teacher in 1950s Harlem as he reacts to his brother Sonny's drug addiction, arrest, and recovery.
Much of the story is told through a series of flashbacks as memory and family history are revealed to be central drivers of the trauma and alienation experienced by Sonny and the Narrator.
The story opens with the unnamed narrator reading about a heroin bust resulting in the arrest of a man named Sonny, his brother.
The narrator goes about his day as an algebra teacher at a high school in Harlem, but begins to ponder Sonny's fate and worry about the boys in his class.
Back in the present, the narrator reveals that Grace's death has caused him to reflect on his role as an older brother, surmising that his absence impaired Sonny's personal growth.
While Isabel takes her children to see their grandparents, the narrator contemplates searching Sonny's room.
He changes his mind, however, when he sees Sonny in a revival meeting in the street below his apartment, where a woman sings with a tambourine alongside her brother and sister, and enraptures the audience.
The narrator sends a cup of Scotch and milk up to the piano for Sonny and the two share a brief moment of bonding.
But the story ends with an ominous symbol: the Cup of Trembling, which leaves readers suspecting that the brothers will continue to face challenges in spite of this moment of harmony.
In conclusion, darkness and light are in constant tension throughout “Sonny’s Blues”, and they represent the prevalence and extent of suffering and the existence of salvation and hope, respectively.
Sonny’s drinking from the cup of trembling serves as a reminder of the suffering he has endured, but also offers him a chance for redemption and salvation.
It’s a final recognition of the tension of light and darkness, and how in the presence of suffering, there is still room for salvation and redemption.
It sort of becomes a “parody of good.” It’s a representation of the ever-present societal oppression that African Americans in Harlem faced.
“These streets hadn't changed, though housing projects jutted up out of them now like rocks in the middle of a boiling sea.
This shows that even in the presence of overwhelming darkness, and profuse amounts of suffering, there is still room for light and hope.