"Sonny's Blues" is a poignant portrayal of African-American life in the mid-twentieth-century. This paper explains that through
the reactions of his
narrator to the story's events, James Baldwin is able to illustrate the shared
experiences of members of his race. The writer points out that the narrator's successful assimilation into mainstream society does not exempt him from the experiences shared by other African-Americans who have not been as able to escape their social roots.