Sonny's Blues- Scene Transition

     In Jame's Baldwin's short story, "Sonny's Blues", the protagonist's narration jumps around several times in the story. Some scenes are told in a non-linear fashion, and go from the present to the past without much but a paragraph break. The transitions are occasionally jarring in the sense that each flashback occasionally bleeds into another, but in other portions it is smoother. 

    The first few scenes begin at some midpoint between the present tense at the end of the story and the flashback that happens later. The most notable transition is from the semi-present scene in which the protagonist and his brother, Sonny, see the housing project that the protagonist lives in to the past long before the events of the story take place. The flashback scenes that follow are triggered by the appearance of the housing project, and the flashback scenes seem to carry that linear path for a while. When the flashback ends, there is a sense that the narrative must find its footing after being away from the central timeline for so long. While it is a different to read than a traditional transition between scenes, It is important for the readers to have gotten the backstory in that manner because it changes our perspective on Sonny's drug use. 

Some scenes are quick and skip far ahead for the next bit, but others are long and drawn out. I think that while the transitions between these scenes can give a little whiplash, it is important that some move quickly to cover the amount of content needed in the limited time.