Listening as the Theme in “Son
Theme is an essential element to any story, serving as a central message the author means to convey to the reader. In “Sonny’s Blues,” a short story by James Baldwin, the theme of the story shows the reader the importance of listening, both in the narrator’s life, but also in the reader’s life. By following the difficult lives of two brothers who grew up in Harlem, New York, Baldwin explains the painful process of one brother’s learning to listen. As the two brothers attempt to heal wounds left from the past, the story illustrates the importance of learning to listen. To Baldwin, listening seems to carry a double meaning: the true ability to communicate with one another and really caring for one another. The relationship between the two brothers shows throughout the story the first type of listening. In the beginning of the story, the narrator is a man who does not know how to listen, and who finds himself unable to assist Sonny in his time of need. When the police arrest Sonny for heroin addiction, the narrator then describes his reaction: "A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting slowly all day long [...] Sometimes it hardened up and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spill
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 904
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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