What role or purpose does Harlem serve in the story?

Harlem, a section of Manhattan, is more than a name. It conjures up images associated with African American culture (for purposes of discussion, what follows focuses on West Harlem, populated overwhelmingly by African Americans, in contrast to East Harlem, which is predominately of Latin heritage) as well, unfortunately, images of crime, drugs, and poverty. James Baldwin’s 1957 short story “Sonny’s Blues” was heavily influenced by the African American culture in which he was immersed as a child—a child whose natural father was a drug addict whose wife, Baldwin’s mother, left him because of the addiction. Harlem is an integral part of “Sonny’s Blues,” and not in a particularly positive way. Early in his story, Baldwin’s protagonist and narrator, who, it is revealed, is Sonny’s estranged brother, refers to Sonny in a way that suggests that, for all the titular character’s vices, the pianist and addict is not innately evil:

“I told myself Sonny was wild but, he wasn’t crazy. And he’d always been a good boy, he hadn’t ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful, the way kids can, so quick, so quick, especially in Harlem.”

Just as Baldwin was naturally influenced by the community of his birth, so is the narrator of “Sonny’s Blues.” Baldwin’s story is rife with the type of despondency familiar to residents of poor inner-city neighborhoods. Harlem historically has had high rates of poverty, crime, and drug use, and Sonny’s brother has become extremely cynical in his approach to his community and to his profession as a teacher in an inner-city school:

“. . . here I was, talking about algebra to a lot of boys who might, every one of them for all I knew, be popping off needles every time they went to the head.”

This is the role that Harlem plays in “Sonny’s Blues.” The narrator describes an unpleasant encounter with one of his brother’s junkie “friends” and expresses surprise that the latter individual had not been arrested along with Sonny. As the story progresses, the narrator comes to better understand his brother and the environment in which both brothers existed. That environment was Harlem.