Sonny's Blues and The Hop
February 26, 2018, by Laura
At first, Sonny’s Blues seems to be a story that is merely about two brothers, and their immense amount of hardship and differences; however, the story is about far more than just that. It is about life itself, and the suffering it may bring about. Even more, it is about the culture of Harlem, and how that culture affects it’s people. From the start, readers are aware that something bad has happened to the narrator’s brother, Sonny. Once the narrator begins to further explain the details of his setting, we are forced to believe that what happened to Sonny is partly a result of where and how he grew up. When we are told of the boys playing at school, we cannot help but relate them to a young Sonny. When we read, “it was not the joyous laughter which-God knows why-one associates with children. It was mocking and insular, its intent was to denigrate,” we automatically conclude that there is a high chance that the boys playing in the schoolyard will, too, end up like Sonny. (328) Further into the story, we get a closer look at the “old fashioned revival meeting.” (348) We are told of the avenue, and the narrator makes it seem as if the avenue itself can embody its inhabitants’ experiences there. He shares that people of all ages stopped to congregate around the avenue; moreover, the area was filled with “tough-looking women who watched everything that happened on the avenue, as though they owned it, or were maybe owned by it.” (348) This sentence, alone, captures the feeling outside of the narrator’s apartment. To them, life is revolved around this avenue, and the feelings that emerge from being in its presence. The closing scene of the story lets us know that life, or maybe life where the characters grew up, is full of suffering. That suffering seems to be a vicious circle, and while someone may think they are avoiding it, it will return. Perhaps that it just Sonny’s life, but the story makes it seem universal. Prior to reading “The Hop,” by Sante, I had ignorantly never considered where the heavy use of drugs originated in New York. I was fascinated to learn that much of the drug culture was rooting in Chinese immigration to New York. While opium seemed to be the primary drug when the Chinese first started to come here, it seems like it was a major gateway drug. I was not surprised to learn that, at first, “drugs were a fancy of the middle class; the poor simply didn’t know about them, lacking the sorts of fashionable medicos who might prescribe them.” (142) However, I then learned that opium dens soon became a place where “one could go without being introduced.” (147) This transition surely explains the widespread phenomenon of drug use. The use of cocaine seemed to be more of a trickle-up habit than opium’s trickle-down fashion. Sante shares that “cocaine, available in drugstores for a pittance and consumable anywhere in secrecy, was a poor man’s high at the time.” (148) Both drugs, and maybe now, all drugs, seem to become more and more popular as their usage became more and more secretive.