Sonny's conflicts in Harlem

1. Harlem is an area located in the northern part of Manhattam. The first people to settle there was the Dutch by 1600's. After World War I to the middle of 1930 the African American population started to move in to Harlem. The white population tried to stopped the influx of blacks. White landlords made difficcult for blacks to rent housing in the area, they charged more the rents to blacks than to whites for the same apartament. Soon the area was known as the Renassaince of Harlem where flourished the jazz, musicians, poets, writers, and many others African American talents (columbia.edu).

1. Harlem is the setting Sonny grew up. He chose the wrong friends from the neighborhood. Sonny was a dreamer who wanted to scape from suffering from anything that will hurt him. Right before his mother death, Sonny was already addicted to drugs. He tried to scape joining the military, but Harlem was part of his life and inside of his soul. Harlem was the place where Sonny discovered his music talent, and his misfortune of drug addiction which was just too powerful (ucdavis.edu).

2. The African Americans have participated from every single war. The mainly motivation for the blacks enlist to military was the idea to become slave free. There are many black heroes who represented the country bravely, but the midia would expose only the whites as heroes on TV. The military would accept the blacks especially in wars while in peacetimes the whites were the favorites (nps.gov). One famous colored troop is the 369th Infantry Regiment in World War I also known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Before this event, the blacks were sent to wars only to labor work while the whites would go to fight, but the Harlem troop was determined to gain their place in the trenches showing how much they could be part of the American country (worldwarI.com).

2. Sonny knew that the Harlem streets was killing him little by little. In order to scape from the "killing streets", Sony wants to enlist to the army or navy where he could get free education and ironically feel free from his childhood house and sourrounding area (ucdavis.edu).

3. Billie Holiday's song: "A Fog Day" by George and Ira Gershwin. A foggy day, in London town. It had me low, and it had me down .I viewed the morning, with much alarm. The British Museum, had lost its charm How long I wondered, could this thing last, But the age of miracles, it hadn't past, And suddenly, I saw you standing right there And in foggy London town, the sun was shining everywhere (sing365.com).

3. The song "A Fog Day" takes place in London, but if we change the city to Harlem and it would perfectly describe Sonny's feeelings and sadness. Sonny shows that he has been through to a lot of pain, and he somehow thinks that he can find sunshine in his music and in the army.

4. Bebop started as a form of jazz in the 1940's. The protagonists of this new style of music and performance were trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker. They made the songs more melodic and minimized the number of musicians in the band. They also used more swing style, but the type of songs wouldn't permit them to dance. New York was the first area where many other bands would get together in clubs to play bebop (hypermusic.com).

4. Bebop is a melodic type of song that says more about suffering and someone's pain. Sonny thought that as a black person he never would have the opportunity in American society unless something drastically would change. Sonny found his way as a musician to express his feelings and anger. In a conversation with his brother he confesses that he was using drugs and had dropped out of school, because he doesn't believe in hard work to change his life. On the other hand, his brother contested Sonny by arguing that there is another way to have a better life. The brother believed in hard work and education to succeed and one day be part of the white society (ucdavis.edu).