Analysis

1		Define the "blues" as it is illustrated when Sonny plays it at the end of the story "Sonny's Blues."
2		What does the narrator learn from Sonny's music?

Interpretation

3		Identify the key terms that seem to capture the experience of many Black Americans locked in lives of poverty, abuse, and racism.
4		What does the narrator learn from his younger brother? In what sense is the older brother prejudiced by his own formal education?

Evaluation

5		What criticism might Baldwin intended in his notice, following the completion of the final musical set, that "there was a lot of applause and some of it was real"?
6		To what degree might Baldwin be accused of legitimatising Sonny's lifestyle and its complementary questionable and illegal activities?