Segregation – prejudice – persecution: Slavery was over, but African Americans were still forced to carve out a grim existence under the impassive gaze of narrow-minded bigots. Soon, the civil rights movement would gain momentum and dramatically change this social exclusion, but James Baldwin writes his story “Sonny's Blues” before this transformation occurs. In the style of other postmodernist writers of his time, Baldwin invents two brothers, Sonny and the narrator, who seem to have given up on finding meaning in their lives: escape, not purpose, is the solution to suffering. Although marginalized by white society, these men are still influenced by external standards, particularly our narrator. Using these two brothers as voices for a larger purpose, Baldwin develops conflicts within the story to depict a battle between society's expectations (our unnamed narrator) and a free, African-American spirit (Sonny) as each of they try to understand how to live in a changing world. Baldwin forces them to grapple with difficult concepts such as escape and suffering in an attempt to guide their race towards the calming balm of reconciliation. The first conflict that Baldwin introduces is the clash between the narrator's expectations and Sonny's desires. Being the more responsible and stable of the two brothers, the narrator is obviously tasked with taking care of Sonny after his parents' death. His mother pleads with him, “You must hold fast to your brother…and not let him fall, no matter what seems to be happening to him…” (Baldwin 30). Seven years older than Sonny and working as an algebra teacher, he seems to have escaped the dark depravity of Harlem and found some peace and happiness with his... middle of paper... and even embraced the their suffering so that their life can continue. His reference to the trembling cup is not simply a symbol of suffering, but also a reference to the pain that Jesus Christ willingly embraced – a pain with which Baldwin's intended audience would have been very familiar. While Sonny's life is indeed about nonconformity and individualism, it is also about reconciliation: not just the reconciliation of two brothers, but also the peace between the African community and the wounds (both mental and physical) they had suffered. The past will never fade away, no matter how stubbornly we try to escape it; The question Baldwin asks his readers is how we will allow him to shape our present and future. Works Cited Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The anthology of jazz fiction. Ed. Sascha Feinstein and David Rife. Bloomington: Indiana SU, 2009. 17-48.