An Investigation of Empathy in James Baldwin's “Sonny's Blues” | Lecture notes Literature

Faculty of Humanities Social Science and Education

An Investigation of Empathy in James

Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”

—

Marie Seljehaug Johansson

ENG-3981 Master’s Thesis in English Literature and Education, 40ECTS

Spring 2019

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Faculty of Humanities Social Science and Education

An Investigation of Empathy in James

Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”

Marie Seljehaug Johansson ENG-3981 Master’s Thesis in English Literature and Education, 40ECTS Spring 2019

Preface

Setting off to write a thesis about literature, I had to ask myself: why do we read literature? Do we do it purely for fun, to escape reality, to learn, be inspired or to feel something? Maybe we read literature to learn about other people, to dive into their reality, in a pursuit to understand them better. If we read a sad story, we react by feeling sad, maybe it even makes us cry. Other stories might make us laugh, feel angry, or shocked. However, what does it matter, having an emotional response to a novel or short story? What is that emotional response good for? Does it lead to anything but self-gratification? Alternatively, does it lead people to turn their heads away from the books and to the faces of people around them? Do they see the sad stories in the faces of real-life people? More importantly, do they act to help those people, to make a change in the real world? Likewise, why do people write literature? Do authors write to cause reactions in their readers? If they do, what reactions do they want? Do they want the reader to feel empathy with their characters? What if authors use empathy as a tool in their work, purely to evoke feelings in the readers? What if they use empathy as a device to gain readers, and not to affect the world in any way that would cause change? What if money is what drives an author to write? If so, why are we still moved to tears, laughter and anger by literature? In our own present, with films, TV and social media, why are we still reading and writing books? Is there a difference between fiction today versus fiction written in, for example, the 1800’s? Could I not write a thesis about empathy and the reader even if it is hard to measure, difficult to define and even harder to prove has any effect for change in the world? The journey to write this thesis has been long, or perhaps just a little bit longer than intended. Life tends to throw you curve balls that in some way or another always tend to lead you where you inevitably were meant to go. Therefore, thank you Marius, for distracting me. For the beginning of my journey, Laura Castor needs a special thanks for giving moral support and mindful life lessons. For the ending of my journey, Justin Parks needs a huge thank you for telling it to me straight. Your words clarified many hurdles and I will remember to always greet you if I see you in the grocery shop.

Abstract
Preface
1 Introduction
2 Theory
- 2.1 Affect study
- 2.2 From Sympathy to Einfühlung
- 2.3 Empathy
- 2.4 An Example Study of Empathy and Reading
- 2.5 An Empathetic Reading
3 James Baldwin..................................................................................................................
- 3.1 Baldwin’s relevance today.........................................................................................
- 3.2 “Sonny’s Blues ”
4 Empathy in Sonny’s Blues
- 4.1 Sonny
- 4.2 Reading
- 4.3 Music
- 4.4 Listening for silences
- 4.5 From Sympathy to Empathy
5 Conclusion
6 Works cited

Page 2 of 44 people who read about the struggles of others would be moved into action to help them. In our time, with social media on smartphones and tablets, as well as TVs and newspapers, we have easy access to people’s lives, and subsequently their suffering. In the Victorian times, these inputs were narrowed to literature and print. Harrison states that in the Victorian era, “Social problem literature, in particular, was predicated on the assumption that readerly emotion would lead to ethical behavior” (262). Literature that focused on poverty was believed to give the reader a more empathetic attitude towards the poor, and as a result lead them to help the poor to end their suffering. The effect of narrative empathy has since then been studied, dismissed and revived in many fields. For instance, Suzanne Keen stresses that there is too much left to learn and understand about narrative empathy “before we place the novel in a service to social goals, no matter how laudable they appear” (xv). Despite this, this thesis wishes to investigate empathy in literature, specifically, how empathy is thematised and activated by James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues.” If authors today do not write to change people’s attitudes towards others, what, then, is their aim? In addition, what does a narrative have to contain to be suitable for an investigation of empathy? Are the reader’s attitude and the suffering of people today so different from those of the nineteenth century that empathy no longer has an important role? In the introduction to The History of English Literature , Michael Alexander argues that what defines a written text as literature “lies in its combination of literary art and human interest. A work of high art which lacks human interest dies” (3). This definition speaks of human interest as a human’s capability to be interested in something. That is, it must be interesting in some way for people to care for it. Alexander argues that humans are interested in change, which leads him to do a discussion about language, literature and historical eras. What if a piece of writing was not considered literature unless it had an interest, a curiosity or concern, for the human condition? It is not easy speaking about one generalisable human condition, even if you can find common denominators such as poverty, hunger, loss and sorrow or inequality. To complicate the matter even more, it is difficult to say that all human beings are interested in the life condition of all people. Hence, the notion of empathy seems to be reliant on who is experiencing it and towards whom. As this thesis will mention later, people tend to care more about people within their social group than those who are considered outside that group. It might be difficult to find a common ground for human interest. This thesis is based on the presumption that we all have a common interest in each other and each other’s wellbeing, even if this might be a notion that is typically gendered: “I observe that

Page 3 of 44 women writers and novelists from around the world endorse the notion of shared human emotions when they overtly call upon their readers’ empathy” (Keen viii). Perhaps it is difficult to find a single human condition that will evoke emotion in all readers. However, some topics could be universal in some sense, for example poverty. Poverty may take on many faces, in many different cultures and countries. However, the notion of not having enough money to feed yourself and your family is the same. Therefore, it could be argued that this human condition would be understood by people despite race, ethnicity or cultural background. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” depicts the lives of African Americans living in Harlem, New York. His short story focuses on two brothers who lived completely different lives, despite being brought up in the same household, presumably with the same possibilities, or rather, lack of possibilities. The life conditions of Harlem are described as a vicious circle of poverty, drugs and a lack of possibilities to get away from this circle. Baldwin also narrows in on the personal experiences of the two brothers, and their relationship. Here, the struggles the two brothers experience could be universal in the sense that they are not bound to place or time. This thesis will investigate how empathy is thematised in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues.” In addition, the thesis will argue that empathy is not only a major theme in Baldwin’s text, but that the text produces empathetic responses in the reader. Baldwin’s short story is especially suited for such an investigation because it invites an empathetic response in the reader. The short story reflects the conditions of people in Harlem, specifically the lives of the two brothers. It gives the reader an insight to the many aspects of being brought up in Harlem. “Sonny’s Blues” particularly focuses on topics such as drugs, poverty and music. The personal relationship between the brothers is also an important part of the narrative. All these elements give the reader a broader understanding of both the inequalities in America, poverty, drug abuse and how people react to them. Even if the short story is set in the fifties, it is relevant today because the social and economic differences between African American communities and white American ones are still high. To do this investigation, this thesis will take a closer look at how narrative techniques can be used to create emotional reactions in the reader, as well as taking a closer look at sections in the text that call for empathetic feelings in the reader. This thesis will also use Baldwin’s essay “Notes of a Native Son” to illuminate elements of “Sonny’s Blues.” “Notes of a Native Son” is a personal essay, part of his essay collection Notes of a Native Son, where Baldwin describes his upbringing and relationship with his father and how he experienced

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2 Theory

2.1 Affect study

When studying feelings in literature and its readers, one field of literary inquiry that seems impossible to ignore is affect theory. Affect theory places emotions back on the map of literary studies. Melissa Gregg and Gregory Seigworth, editors of the Affect Theory Reader , state: There is no single, generalizable theory of affect: not yet, and (thankfully) there never will be. If anything, it is more tempting to imagine that there can only ever be infinitely multiple iterations of affect and theories of affect: theories as diverse and singularly delineated as their own highly particular encounters with bodies, affects, worlds. (Gregg and Seigworth 3-4) Gregg and Seigworth are content that there are no generalisable theories of affect, because affect has to do with emotions, not theory as such. Theories about literature usually denote that there is a certain way of analysing literature, and often this has ignored the reader’s emotion. In dealing with affect, limiting formulas concerning ways of doing things remove the emotion from the reader. Therefore, “a great many theories of affect do not sweat the construction of any elaborate step-by-step methodology much at all, but rather come to fret the presentation or the style of presentation, the style of being present, more than anything else” (Gregg and Seigworth 14). In other words, affect theory does not focus on a method for studying literature. This might be because it is difficult to follow a step-by-step guide and at the same time let yourself be emotionally driven by what you are reading. As mentioned above, emotions and strict rules for reading literature do not go hand in hand. This leads us into the topic of reader response, which will be discussed later. Another writer on affect theory is Jean-François Vernay. In The Seduction of Fiction, Vernay expresses a wish to revive the value of literature. He observes that reading literature today is only focused on critique, and not on a “reflection on the human condition, on the individual and society, on love and hate, joy and despair” (Vernay xxi). He argues that this has resulted in a reduction in students who sign up for literary courses. This is because today’s way of teaching literature does not create a love of literature in students or lead them to become readers of literature. Vernay argues that a focus on human emotion would shift the focus towards why reading is interesting and how teachers could make it interesting for

Page 6 of 44 students. That is, an increased focus on emotion would make literature more interesting to contemporary readers. This thesis will not look further into the topic of teaching literature. However, Vernay’s idea is an interesting one. A change in how we teach literature could open up for more people wanting to attend literary courses. Even if Vernay’s arguments are directed towards professional readers, he also argues that the way literature is taught in schools should reflect the changes we can see in society today. In 2010, the French Ministry of Education “acknowledged the crucial role emotions play when reading fiction” (Vernay ix). Emotions are crucial, not only in our day to day lives, but as part of our education system. The argument is that both human logic and emotion should play equal roles in interpreting literature, because this would reflect society today. Vernay argues that today, emotions have taken a huge part in our everyday life. He goes as far as saying “society is swamped by a cult-like worship of the emotions” (Vernay xxii). Even if this statement has a negative connotation, the change is positive. If literature can make people more empathetic towards others, surely a society focused on emotions is a positive thing. To follow the trends in society, literary studies should consider the changed view on emotional responses, as equally as important as our logical sense. “The cognitive science approach reminds us of the mechanical nature of the human brain and encourages us to recognize the contribution of the emotions to the intellectual process at the heart of the discipline of literature” (Vernay xxiii). In other words, the human brain is divided into two parts. One of the parts is connected to a logical sense, and the other, to an emotional and creative one. Logical sense is often considered better than the emotional and creative, and as a result, human beings sought to make decisions based on logical thinking, rather than following their hearts. What Vernay suggests is that the two parts should be considered as equal. As a result, emotions would be considered equally as important as people’s logical sense. The difference between professional and non-professional readers is that the professional reader, according to Vernay (2), is forced to read, and is subjected to rules about how to read. The non-professionals do not read according to such rules. The latter, he argues, often tend to see the film and not read the book, or they read to pass time or when they are alone, as entertainment. The professional reader will not be distracted by other media, as they will set time aside for reading. The main difference between the two is that the professional reader, under pressure or not, will be able to ask questions about the text on another level than the non-professional one. “The professional reader, even if forced to read at a more demanding level, retains some flexibility in unravelling the text, such as questioning the text further in order to explore the range of effects” (Vernay 2). With this, he implies that the

Page 8 of 44 cold and without feeling. Instead, adherents of this approach wanted to focus on the content of art: symbolism and emotion. After Vischer, a psychologist by the name of Theodor Lipps wrote much about the now popular term einfühlung. Using the Freudian term ego , he defines it as follows: “Einfühlung is the fact described here that the object is ego and thereby the ego object. It is the fact that the contrast between myself and the object disappears” (Jahoda 154-155). Lipps divided the term into two parts: one was based on instinct and the other on imitation. As Lipps describes it, instinct is a reaction that is not reflected upon: “The (mental) activity of creating a facial expression or gesture constitutes an immediate conscious experience, unmediated by any reflection—it is instinctive” (Jahoda 156). Hence, in relation to emotions and experiencing someone else’s pain, it is based on a previous experience in ourselves. That is, because we know that a facial expression like the one associated with anger, is linked with anger, we will experience anger if we see the same facial expression in someone else. Lipps (cited in Jahoda 156-7) argues that this imitation and instinct go hand in hand in the term einfülung. The instinct is what happens inside us when we see others’ facial expressions, which is different from pure imitation because imitation has no such affect. Imitation can be best explained by yawning. Yawning is infectious: if we see someone yawn, an automatic imitation occurs, and we yawn as well. However, there are no inner reactions in this activity. In the early twentieth century, Edward Titchener, another psychologist, would translate the German term into English. Even if it is said that he misinterpreted Lipps’s term einfühlung , his use of the word became important in differentiating between empathy and sympathy. One of Edward Titchener’s definitions was as follows: “Empathy (a word formed on the analogy of sympathy) is the name given to the process of humanising objects, of reading or feeling ourselves into them” (Titchener, 1910, 417, qtd. in Jahoda 162). Even today, the difference between the two terms seems difficult to explain, even if we use the terms differently in everyday speech. Jahoda argues that the only way we could determine a real difference between the two terms would be to do neuropsychological testing to see these emotions represented in the brain. If we use Lipps’ argument about imitation and instinct, sympathy occurs when thinking about the emotions caused by a facial expression or gesture, instead of actually having an emotional reaction to that gesture. As will be explained later, sympathy takes on the same role as pity, because taking in someone’s possible emotional reaction is not the same as understanding their reaction, as with empathy.

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2.3 Empathy

First, we should establish a definition of what empathy really is. The term is widely used in science, as well as everyday speech, and several scholars have attempted a definition (Hammond and Kim 7). Empathy, according to Nancy Eisenberg, is an “affective response that stems from the apprehension or comprehension of another’s emotional state or condition, and which is identical or very similar to what the other person is feeling or would be expected to feel” (cited in Keen 173). In other words, empathy is an emotional response to another’s emotional state or condition that stems from the understanding of that person’s emotional state or condition. Alternatively, you could say that it is the ability to imagine yourself in another person’s position. To be able to imagine oneself in another person’s position, one must be able to identify with that person. As a result, it is commonly believed that one will become more kind to that person. We can understand this by thinking about whom we would empathise with if we had to choose between a person we know and a stranger. People would most likely feel more empathy toward someone they know, because they know their story and understand them. This is what literature can do for people, as it can teach its readers about other people and their stories. As a result, it is believed that they would feel empathy with the characters, and with people resembling those characters in real life. Since literature can teach people to be more kind to others, one could argue that reading literature has an altruistic effect. Altruism is an ethical theory based on people giving of themselves for the good or betterment of society (Keen vii). The conclusion that reading literature has an altruistic effect is a popular one. As we will see later, this altruistic affect might be temporary, and is very difficult to study. Thus, the theory is that reading improves empathy in readers, which ultimately will make them better citizens. Suzanne Keen (vii) is sceptical of this conclusion, because there are too many variables that make a scientific study of this almost impossible. She argues that such variables could be gender, race, age, generation, or the kind of literature used in the study. Canonical and culturally valued literature has long been believed to have positive effects on its reader. Therefore, Keen asks, what makes canonical works different from mass- market literature? In her scepticism, she argues that if reading literature and empathetic narrative techniques have an altruistic effect, these should be further studied for the benefit of society.

Page 11 of 44 empathy it is popularly believed to do, there should be more evidence of this. According to Meghan Marie Hammond and Sue J. Kim, several scholars have criticised empathy, because the term is used with the same structures as the term sympathy. Through sympathy you can distance yourself from another by pitying instead of actually feeling for someone. “The widespread, and sometimes reductive, view of ‘sympathy’ equates it with objectifying pity, which has led to critiques of sympathy as a tool of domination” (Hammond and Kim 9). That way, the term sympathy is often not as highly regarded as the term empathy, because it denotes negativity. The same critique has been led against empathy because the term is used the same way. “Empowered members of the nation thus distance themselves from the poor and marginal” (Hammond and Kim 9). Hammond and Kim (11) argue that empathy also can be negative, and the popular belief that it has positive effects on the reader as well as society could even be harmful. As well as many other critics and scholars, Hammond and Kim do not discard the effects reading can have on a reader or society, but they argue that it should be studied more. This is because of the complex relationship “between reading, literature, empathy, morality, and society” (Hammond and Kim 11). Maja Djikic and Keith Oatley argue that evidence shows that reading literature can change a person’s personality. “The art of fiction is a social influence, but one that helps people to understand and feel, and even change their selfhood, in their own way” (Djikic and Oatley 498). That way, it is not the author who persuades readers to change their minds and teaches them to feel for and understand people better. Instead, it happens through indirect communication (498). Each reader can change their personality, much like we do when we are influenced by people around us. Changes in personality can improve people’s ability to emphasise with others. This way, literature takes a role as a member of society, with abilities contributing to influence the people around it. In other words, people learn through being in a relationship with other people. Getting to know new people will expand their horizons further. Thus, literature has the same ability to teach people about others that they might not otherwise have encountered or established a relationship with. Over the years, the study of empathy has taken a back seat across the academic fields. However, recently researchers in fields like neuroscience, psychology and social science have become more interested in studying empathy. Suzanne Keen argues for neuroscience in relation to empathy, because neuroscience has made it possible to measure reactions in the brain related to empathy. “Neuroscientists have already declared that people scoring high on empathy tests have especially busy mirror neuron systems in their brains” (Keen viii). Vernay

Page 12 of 44 also looks towards neuroscience in his book. He states, “studying literature is a means to cultivate one’s tastes, to shape one’s sensitivity, to guide one’s love, and to reassess one’s priorities and ends” (Vernay x). To do so, Vernay argues that the study of literature, as well as other humanities, ought to look towards science, specifically psychology and neuroscience. The Western world has for too long appreciated the logical and scientific, and the creative, emotional part of us has been considered less valuable. “[T]he psycholiterary approach […] opens up a space in which the formation of our emotions, our joys and sorrows, loves and hatreds, and everything in between, can be openly examined and discussed, potentially improving our capacities for empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence” (Vernay xiv). No matter how educated, a reader manages to get involved in fiction. Emotions should therefore have a place in the discussion. Neuroscience is a science that might be able to conclude how empathy functions in the brain, and if reading has an empathetic effect on its readers. Is there such a thing as a universal emotional response or empathetic reaction? Do all readers react similarly to the same narrative? Patrick Colm Hogan (1) argues the discussion about universalness often lead to arguments about one universal emotional response. That is, that all readers will react the same way to something considered to be universal, for example feeling for a character in distress. Hogan (1) focus his argument on Suzanne Keen, who does not believe that readers have the same empathetic reaction to the same narratives. “As such, and also as a feminist and even as a human being aware of the world around her, she is deeply sensitive to the implausibility of claims that people’s empathic responses are all the same” (Hogan 1). Hogan agrees with Keen that people around the world do not respond the same way to human suffering. However, he argues that there is such a thing as literary universals (1). He argues that literary universals do not mean that people feel the same or respond the same to an event or narrative. One such literary universal principle may be that people tend to be more empathic towards people within their own social group. However, this does not mean that they will all respond identically. Hogan suggests that a discussion about a universal does not have to be the same as saying that all readers will react the same way to a narrative, even if it has a universalness to it, as he argues that literature is often designed to create empathic reactions (3). Hogan (2) also adds that people’s individuality and personality will affect the way they react to a narrative. “Thus, two recipients of a story are likely to have different ethical reactions to a situation insofar as those recipients differ in the emotions and story structures they favor” (Hogan 2). This means that people have different preferences and will

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An Investigation of Empathy in James

Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”

Preface

Table of Contents

2 Theory

2.1 Affect study

2.3 Empathy