Which three dominant elements of fiction in "Sonny's Blues" connect to the central idea?

The elements you choose are somewhat subjective. I would say that conflict plays an important role in this story, as the narrator struggles to understand why his brother, Sonny, has been arrested for selling heroin. The conflict is the rift between Sonny and his brother and the way in which their paths have diverged. The narrator works as a teacher and has a family while Sonny is a musician who struggles with drug use. The narrator attempts to piece together his brother's life and understand him, and this attempt is the central idea of the story.

Therefore, in addition to conflict, a main element of the story is character. The narrator defines what is important to him and how his values differ from those of Sonny. The two brothers have very different personalities, and the differences in their personalities are connected to the main idea of the story—which is how people's lives mysteriously diverge and wind up going along different paths.

The other element that is important to this story is point of view. The narrator, who is unnamed, provides his own point of view on Sonny, and Sonny's drug-using friend (whom the narrator meets on the subway) provides another point of view. The narrator goes back in time to try to piece together the elements of his and Sonny's lives that have turned them into the men they now are.

What are the four main themes in "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin?

Based on my interpretation and analysis of the story, the four main themes in "Sonny's Blues" are the formation of identity, personal expression, acceptance, and suffering.

Throughout the story, the narrator struggles to reason with his brother's, Sonny's, life and cannot quite understand the choices that Sonny has made.  Sonny has struggled his whole life to carve out an identity for himself under the shadow of his brother who always seems to make his family proud.  The neighborhood in which they live is less than nurturing, and Sonny falls into the darkness of his surroundings.  Jazz, however, becomes a solace for Sonny, the means by which he defines his person.  The narrator does not understand this element of Sonny until the very end of the story when he goes to see his brother play in his band.  The narrator is taken over by the power of the music, and then begins to understand and accept the life that Sonny has chosen for himself.

What are the four main themes in "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin?

“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is a multi-level story. The unnamed narrator shares the story of his brother whom he learns from the newspaper has been arrested. 

I read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work. I read it and I couldn’t believe it, and I read it again…I was scared, scared for Sonny.  He became real to me again…

This initial event makes the narrator reflect back on his life with his brother Sonny.  There are several themes in the story which portray a man who has struggled all of his life to find his way.

Sonny’s Music

Sonny wants to be a jazz piano player, but the narrator thinks this is a waste of Sonny’s life. The brothers’ inability to see eye to eye on this is what causes so much strife between them. This is the issue that kept the brother at odds.

The brother attends the place where Sonny plays his music.  It is there that the brother realizes that Sonny has a gift and how important music is to him.  Finally, he gets what the other people who are listening to him already know. Sonny belongs in the music world.  The brother sends Sonny a drink, and the inference is that the brothers will be able to resolve their problems and have a familial relationship.

Drug Abuse

Harlem, the setting of the story, has been a center for drugs and alcohol abuse.  The initial event in the story shows that Sonny is still caught in this world.  He claims that he is only selling to make money and that he no longer uses drugs.

Everyone who uses drugs impacts all of the people who love them as well.  It destroys lives and families.  The purpose of the drug use offers the user an escape for a small interim---away from the depression and oppression of racial problems, poverty, and suffering.  Drug addiction plagues the user as a destructive force which wrenches his soul away.

In the story, the brother begins to see that Sonny despite his own problems tries to help the people around him by using music to change their frustrations.  Members of the community come together to watch over and protect those who do have problems.

Family and home

The two brothers love each other, do not understand the other, and  hurt each other.  The story illustrates how much the brothers need each other by the struggles they go through trying to find their common ground. In the end, the narrator makes the connection by looking closer at his brother and finding the value in his life.

The narrator’s mother charged him with becoming “his brother’s keeper” when she asked him to watch out for Sonny.  She understood the difference between the brothers: the younger one was more stable and knew the way out of the suffering of his situation.  On the other hand, Sonny needed support because he was weaker and prone to making poor decisions.

Sonny creates his own family from the musicians with which he plays.  The narrator creates his family with his wife and children.  In the beginning, the narrator does not understand Sonny’s ability to surround himself with people who love the same things that he does. 

Unfortunately for Sonny, these people also serve as a negative influence because they too have drug problems.  Hopefully, with the brother’s new understanding of Sonny, the narrator will help Sonny find his way back to his real family.

What are the four important things to Sonny in "Sonny's Blues", excluding music and drugs?

In James Baldwin’s story, “music” is a very large category, so it is worthwhile to explore what the different aspects of music mean to him. As an artist, Sonny’s appreciation of music is concerned both with its meanings and its formal structures. A different interpretation, however, connects music to Sonny’s concerns with family and community. These values could also be divided among the different groups whose views he values. In another way, “drugs” themselves are not important to Sonny; rather, he appreciates how (in his view) the drugs facilitate his connection with his music.

One of the things that his brother realizes when he goes to the club is that his brother has strong connections to the other musicians. His membership in a specific group of musicians with whom he plays at a given moment are important. Even more so, his position and reputation among the larger community of jazz and blues musicians matters to him.

Family is also important to Sonny. Being estranged from his brother causes him real pain. It also bothers him to think that his brother’s family discourages his presence in their home.

We might also consider nationality as significant to Sonny. The time he spent in Europe was ultimately unsatisfactory, and he returned to the United States. He understood that he had a home in America, despite issues such as racism, that he was not finding elsewhere in his travels.

What are the four important things to Sonny in "Sonny's Blues", excluding music and drugs?

Sonny is a complex character who definitely cares about more than just drugs and music. Here are four of his other passions.

It is clear that Sonny cares a lot about his brother (the narrator) a lot, and vice versa. His brother notes that he was there when Sonny was born, and it makes him catch his breath. When Sonny learned to walk the narrator recalls that:

he walked from our mother straight to me. I caught him just before he fell when he took the first steps he ever took in this world.

Sonny looks to his older brother for hope and guidance, and his brother lets him down along the way, unable to always catch him before his other falls in life. In the end, Sonny is finally able to connect with his brother through music and the narrator sits in awe of his brother's talents. The narrator notes: "Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we could listen."

Besides his brother, Sonny also has a strong bond with his other family members. He shared a special bond with his mother before her death, as evidenced by the conversation she attempts to have with the narrator. In this conversation, she notes that Sonny has a personality capable of getting "sucked under" and asks her other son to watch out for him—to let Sonny know that he's there. Sonny sends his heartfelt condolences when little Gracie dies. Even when he is pretty much forced to live with Isabel's family in his brother's physical absence, he longs to be a true part of that family and is devastated when he learns that he is an outsider to them, something simply to endure.

Additionally, Sonny cares about being respected as both an artist and a human. In the fight with Isabel's family, he realizes that he has neither:

He also had to see that his presence, that music, which was life or death to him, had been torture for them and that they had endured it, not at all for his sake, but only for mine. And Sonny couldn't take that.

In the end, it is music which brings the respect that he has so longed for from his brother.

Separate from respect, Sonny wants a place to truly belong and be accepted. Since his parents' death, he has floundered in several attempts to find his place of acceptance. He doesn't find it in school or Greece or even with his brother for most of the story. Eventually, he finds it in the nightclub downtown. The narrator notes:

I was introduced to all of them and they were all very polite to me. Yet, it was clear that, for them, I was only Sonny's brother. Here, I was in Sonny's world. Or, rather: his kingdom. Here, it was not even a question that his veins bore royal blood.