Human beings are made of tangible; flesh and blood, muscles and bones, cells and nerves. Man's survival can be dissected in purely scientific, emotionless, artless terms. Evidently the value of anatomy cannot be underestimated, as such it is the lowest foundation of existence. However, when unaccompanied by that which offers grace and comfort, joy and purpose, and, above all, love and understanding, this foundation guarantees only that: existence. A feeble, dispassionate wandering through life at its barest is a feeble prospect, yet it is the only one that the character of Sonny in James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues must face, should he follow in his older brother's wake. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay While there are those who condemn Sonny's drug use as an exemplification of pathetic weakness, it is about much more than that; it's the overture of a child in the darkness, clinging to a glimmer of light that he knows is false, but that he clings to anyway because he so desperately needs something to clutch in his otherwise empty fist. Sonny is not the same as his older brother; his soul is not the same. Sonny has the soul of an artist, the suffering of an artist. Baldwin outlines Sonny as a character who has no alternative to drugs, as a tragic hero with the soul of an artist, through Sonny's suffering and his home. In Sonny's Blues, Baldwin illustrates the notion of suffering as hovering inevitably over all his characters; everyone suffers in some way: from pain, from poverty, from addiction, from limited opportunities in life. All the characters certainly experience agony, but none of them experiences salvation, although they all seek it in their own way. Sonny's brother does this by starting a family, having a career, and creating a home. However, despite the unmistakable value of this, none of this offers salvation to the brother; he still lives in a Harlem housing project which leads him to wonder as he brings Sonny home if he is "simply bringing him back into the danger from which he almost died trying to escape" (Baldwin 840). He who is not stranded in the raging sea of ​​dependence is not free. He makes decisions that he believes are best for him, and it's easy to look at these choices and wonder why Sonny doesn't make them too, why he chooses heroin. Sonny and his brother are not the same, their suffering and their souls are too different and need different means to deal with it. “Heroin… when [it's] in [the veins]… it makes you feel hot and cool at the same time. And distant…and safe…makes [one] feel in control…[is] to bear it, to be able to cope. At any level… so as not to fall apart” (853-854). This is the feeling Sonny is addicted to, the only faint semblance of comfort he finds. The tragic irony is that Sonny finds this facade of consolation in music, his passion, but a passion tainted by vice. This only perpetuates his suffering. In Sonny's Blues, Baldwin closely links the themes of suffering and home. Home is a physical place in Sonny's Blues, but it is also an idea. It's a place to escape, a place to return to, a place with memories both horrible and wonderful. Home is comfort, conflict, pain, suffering and care, all combined. It's an apartment and it's a nightclub. Its residents are both royal and created families. Home is literal but it is also symbolic, as in many ways home is simply the feeling of belonging. The nightclub where Sonny plays the piano is “his kingdom. Here [it is] not even a question that royal blood flowed in his veins” (860). The nightclub is truly the "home" of.