Sonny’s Blues

“Sonny’s Blues” is a beautiful portrait of the struggles of two African-American men growing up in Harlem in the 1950s. Each brother chooses a different path, and they each form diverging opinions about their sibling’s choices. As time goes on, however, we see the two brothers become closer. For this discussion, please examine Baldwin’s interesting use of narrative to disrupt a linear sense of time in this story. We begin with a scene in the present, move backwards in time, before returning to the present. Why do you think Baldwin chose this nonlinear narrative structure? What does it help him show readers about the lives of the two brothers in the story? How does it change the reader’s experiences of the dramatic events throughout the story?