Harlem Renaissance

Drugs:
One of the main themes in "Sonny's Blues" was drugs. Drugs were a huge part of the Harlem Renaissance as well as the overall theme of power and powerlessness in the story. The author did a great job of using drugs to show the affects of them on the characters as well as music.

Throughout the entire story Sonny's situation was highlighted by his brother (Albert, 3). This struggle with drugs did not only effect Sonny but also his brother, because he did not fully understand why Sonny was dependent on these substances. Throughout the entire story, its a constant battle between Sonny and the drugs, and his brother with himself (Albert, 3). Sonny is powerless to the drugs therefore they keep holding him back, and eventually putting him in jail. This theme of drugs seems to be one of the central themes because Sonny wasnt exactly hanging around with the best crowd while he was growing up.


Music:
One of the main topics in "Sonny's Blues," is music. Music in the Harlem Renaissance was starting to broaden up, but one big branch of this broadening was the expression through music (Huggins, 18). This type of "Blues" now came spontaneously as one singer responded to what the other singer had to say. This new type of jazz was called, "Bebop."


When most people think of the Harlem Renaissance they imagine beautiful works of art which show much of the history of the time period, songs which are filled with sadness, love, and fueled by the passion the musicians had for the music. Some even say that "Harlem was reborn in many ways. Jazz and blues composers like Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington created lyrics and beats that reflected the excitement of the time"(Ryan 1). Hearing the words reborn could put quite a shock on someone beacuase that is quite the bold statement to make, however the statement is a just one. Harlem was filled with much grief and hard times due to the crime and drugs going on but through the blues and jazz the people were able to have a few hours a week to just let loose. With the trumpet loud enough to wake the dead it was hard to resist standing up to dance, with the piano so smooth you couldn't help but stand up and want to sing your heart out, and the drums that make you want to dance the night away it was easy for the people of Harlem to fall in love with this genre of music. 


Jazz at the time was a music that was in a way controversial. It was something new at the time that expressed ideas in a totally different way. But jazz is not like any other type of music in which you sing to a rhythm. In jazz, you have to be able to know your instrument very well so that you can create a rhythm to what you want to say. This also has twist to it in which that you have to know what you want to say and be confident about it so that you do not mess it up. (MrKrueger)

Why did people choose Bebop? It was the new creative way of people expressing what they had to say (Huggins, 25). Bebop was a type of music that let the reins loose on the artist giving them no boundaries on how to sing. A very famous artist at the time was Charlie Parker. Charlie Parker was one of the first artists to express himself through "Bebob," which then influenced many more, one of them being Sunny. 

Going into the music industry at the time was not something that was really looked positively at (Huggins, 48). People who went into the music industry were looked at as bums who were too lazy to work for a living. 
But music in this story had another meaning too. It was used for soothing others. For soothing peoples problems and with struggles they had. 


But even thought the the whole story talked well about Jazz/Blues, it started to turn around towards the end. In one scene Sonny starts struggling and stumbling with his piano and his music. He started sining but then stopped and thought and then again stopped and thought and played a different way each time. This refers to how things can go really well at times but at others you encounter rocks in the way.