The Barmaid Tells the Story

When the barmaid is first introduced into the story, a negative connotation begins to develop through the text chosen by the author. Words such as “semiwhore,” “doomed,” and “menace” are used to describe the character and her life (Baldwin 45). These words are consistent with the negative tone of the rest of the story as it goes on to talk about the life of Sonny. The narrator uses the barmaid to symbolize the underlying theme of the story when he uses these words to portray different characteristics. Baldwin writes, “When she smiled one saw the little girl, one sensed the doomed, still-struggling woman beneath the battered face of the semiwhore” (Baldwin 45). This is how the narrator characterizes the barmaid to his audience; simultaneously, the narrator is speaking of the conditions in every character’s life in Sonny’s Blues. Not only through words but also through different behaviorisms is the theme seen through the barmaid. When the narrator sees the struggling and doomed woman, she is dancing and singing. It is assumed that the dancing, singing, and music are her escape from the reality of menace, because when the music stops, the barmaid pauses and looks at the juke box until it resumes. That moment when the music stops is when reality is hardest. Sonny’s Blues is about the hard times in life and learning the right way to deal with them by finding an escape which is shown briefly in the character of the barmaid.

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