Passion versus Restraint – The Freudian Psychoanalysis of Pursuing One’s Own Function in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”
At first sight, American novelist, James Baldwin, explored the intricacies of racial prejudice through his short story, “Sonny’s Blues”. The short story conceptualized the inevitability of suffering of the Black community in Harlem during the 1950s, and how these people recuperated by relinquishing through substance abuse and violence. By telling a story of a brother through an African-American narrator, Baldwin exemplifies the misery of a Black family and their relationship with the world and their community. In such a matter, the brother’s ways to overcome their conflict challenged one another and succumb to the differences of their ideals. Consequently, through the Freudian concept of the id, ego, and superego, Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” elucidates two philosophies: the superego, as the narrator was focused on his devotion to making moral-based choices that tend to disregard his happiness like becoming a teacher, and the id, as Sonny is a character who pursues personal fulfillment by substance abuse and playing jazz music, to which the blending of two lifestyles creates a new way to cope with racial prejudice and poverty; hence the Freudian characteristic of the actual ego.
In Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, the narrator emphasizes morally-based choices in response to the endless suffering of life. Throughout the story, Baldwin pursues the narrator’s philosophy in-comparison to Sonny’s ideology through a series of fragmented story-telling. In the beginning, the narrator can’t help but feel “a special kind of ice” (Baldwin 1), alluding to an unsettling reaction when he saw his brother arrested, on par with realizing how easily he could’ve suffered the same faith as Sonny. This is done by conceptualizing how fear and drugs destroyed Sonny’s life. Moreover, in Freudian terms, the narrator’s judgment towards Sonny represents the superego in its authoritative form, as our “God-given moral standard” overlaps any other agency in our conscious mind (Freud, “Superego” 3). This demonstrates how the narrator felt that Sonny’s irrational decisions of pursuing music and leaving Harlem are finally resurfacing to cause Sonny more agony, such as getting arrested. Ironically, Baldwin signifies how the narrator’s morally-based decisions suffered the same faith as Sonny’s; similarly to the relentless severity of the superego on an individual (Freud, “Superego” 4). This is shown by the imagery of the narrator’s home, illustrating how “it’s really just like the houses in which Sonny and I grew up” (Baldwin 6), demonstrating that the narrator is still living in the same condition similar to his childhood experience, the one thing he tried to stray away for his family. The author demonstrated that the narrator never left that same tormenting image from his agonizing childhood, even though he devoted so much of his time to getting a good education to avoid poverty. The dread that he tried so hard to stray away led to an endless misery that seems to be inescapable, and thus he clings to the experience of being a teacher and having a stabled family to avoid the life of drugs and crime, only to see his dread rooted deeper in place (Jones 468). Ultimately, the older brother’s response to the endless suffering through pursuing education and self-sacrifices never halted the cycle of agony the brothers are always tormenting.
After analyzing the narrator’s agonizing trail and how the superego commemorates endless torment, we can expand to the Freudian psychoanalysis of the id and artistic gift through Sonny’s characterization. Since he was little, Sonny was passionate about jazz music. This particular interest led him to not being able to finish high school and has consciously brought him to people who use drugs. Baldwin exclaims this contrast between the older brother and Sonny to demonstrate the difference between the unsustainability of their decision, such that in Sonny’s way, superficially, it is mostly dominated by limitless suffering through substance addiction, crime, and homelessness. Sonny’s character circumnavigates through personal satisfaction, which the narrator felt an “icy dread again… with [the] hidden meaning” (Baldwin 6), referring to the narrator’s unacceptance of Sonny’s self-fulfillment of escaping through violence and heroin. Similarly through the Freudian concept of the id, which “is filled with energy reaching it from instincts… only strive to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs…” (Freud, “The Id”). Baldwin illustrates Sonny’s devotion to the creativity of jazz music. To further elucidate, “jazz music fitter the bill with its aspect of ‘primitivism’ and ‘authenticity’ emanating from African Americans’ freedom of expression in their music… To perform it or to dance to it meant that one had the opportunity to indulge in self-expression…” (Wilson 183). Furthermore, in Freudian psychoanalysis, one that possesses an “artistic gift” can recuperate by using it to transform their “phantasies into artistic creations instead of into symptoms” (Freud, “Five Lectures” 2235). The beauty of music is what Sonny used as leverage against his brother to bring relief into his life, even if it is consumed by rage and deprivation. As Sonny states, “people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for’” (Baldwin 10). Conclusively, Baldwin characterized Sonny as someone who is incentivized by the representation of freedom and emotions through music and creativity.
By examining both the narrator’s representation of the superego and Sonny’s relation to the id, we can conclude Baldwin’s centralized theme of combining passion and restrain to form an ideal way to maintain oneself, in compliance with Freud’s actual ego. Baldwin’s use of fragmented story-telling enabled his audience to relate to Sonny’s decisions of pursuing music that led him into drug addiction and homelessness, and the narrator’s guilt of not being able to do anything for his brother; this forms the depth of understanding both philosophies of the characters establishing that no matter the consequences, their decisions matter to them, and more importantly, to each other. An example of this relates to Baldwin’s interpretation of family bonds, such that throughout the story the narrator begins to feel a sense of compassion towards Sonny and his admiration for music, while Sonny changes his perspective of Harlem and decides to stay with his brother. Baldwin demonstrates the importance of this theme through the narrator’s acceptance of Sonny because the narrator recognizes his brother’s individuality shown by his artistry for music. According to Baldwin, “freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did” (20). Consequently, the narrator finally reached the point of benevolence towards Sonny, the act for which will finally set himself free from his failure as an older brother and will make his little brother feel genuine to express himself with ease. Also, relating to the Freudian concept of the id and the superego, the ego’s purpose is to satisfy the id, the external world, and the superego simultaneously, without admitting to its weakness (Freud, “The Ego” 2). Sonny and the narrator’s mutual understanding of their decisions represent the idea of the actual ego to coordinate the self-fulfillment of the id and the morals of the superego to bring about the proper compromise of the two perceived notions while being able to relate it with the reality of the external world. Therefore, Baldwin portrayed the representation of the ego as the mutual benefit of the narrator and Sonny to each other, such that the narrator, depicted by the superego, acknowledged the hopefulness of artistic expression, while Sonny, denoted by the id, learned to accept the compassion and beliefs of his older brother.
With the inclusion of Freudian ideas, Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” conveys the story of two African-American brothers and their ways of coping with social injustices described in the psychoanalysis of the id, ego, and superego. In the instance of escaping from a world full of despair, the narrator restrained himself from the pleasure and temptation of drugs to coexist with anguish and pursue the importance of education for your family, while Sonny antagonized the pain and decided to engage his passion for music and self-worth. Moreover, the Freudian concepts generalized the authenticity of the character’s behavior, elucidating the conflict between passion and restrain. Baldwin recognized this response in the Black community and criticized their misery as failures to understand one another. As mentioned, the narrator’s progression to redefining his sense of compassion towards his brother enabled him to appreciate the beauty of self-fulfillment through music. Ultimately, this fictional story of Black families during the 1950s illustrates family bonds, mutual benefit, endless struggle, and racism; by telling the story of two African-American brothers and what their decisions meant to them and each other, which is how Baldwin represented the suffering African-Americans.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” 1957. PDF file
Freud, Sigmund. “Five Lectures on Psycho-analysis.” 1955. PDF file
—. “The Ego.” Civilization And Its Discontents, 1930. PDF file
—. “The Id.” Civilization And Its Discontents, 1930. PDF file
—. “SUPER EGO Lecture XXXI The Dissection of the Psychical Personality – first excerpt.” Civilization And Its Discontents, 1930. PDF file
Jen Wilson. Freedom Music : Wales, Emancipation and Jazz 1850-1950. University of Wales Press, 2019.
Jones, Jacqueline C. “FINDING a WAY to LISTEN: THE EMERGENCE of THE HERO as AN ARTIST in JAMES BALDWIN’S ‘SONNY’S BLUES’.” CLA Journal, vol. 42, no. 4, 1999, pp. 462-82. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/stable/44323260.
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