In the short story Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, the narrator who is Sonny’s brother eagers us into his life and his brothers. The narrator is an algebra teacher, who lives in Harlem with his wife and her family. During the beginning of the short story, he is on his way to school, while reading the newspaper. He reads a tragic scenario of someone’s imprisonment for using and selling heroin who is his brother Sonny. As we analyze the narrator’s personality to this news, we can imply that he did not want to believe the news, even though deep down he knew it was true. He sympathized for his brother’s reality because he knew his brother was a talented kid, he reminisced about his promise to his mother, that he shall always be his brother’s keeper since he is the oldest and he supported Sonny’s love for jazz music.
When Sonny’s brother is in the subway reading that his brother Sonny was imprisoned, he felt a great block of ice in his stomach that will not go away. For instance, when he explains, “all this was carrying me some place I didn’t want to go. I certainly did not want to know how it felt. It filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace; and this menace was their reality.” This signifies the emotions he was dealing with the news of Sonny. He in fact cares for his brother even though they were not a part of each other’s lives after their parents passed. He then rants about how he had a feeling that his brother was “dabbling” with drugs growing up. He wondered how his students might also be dealing with drugs from the way they presented themselves in class. Although, this is where the narrators regard begins with his brother’s imprisonment, other factors let us know that his sympathy for his brother is a reflection of his own problems he deals with.
The narrator has a life to maintain and has his own problems to deal with. He and his wife Isabel lose a daughter from Polio disease. Learning this, helps us understand that the narrator has problems of his own. Having lost his daughter makes him feel the need to write to his brother in prison. When Sonny receives the letter, Sonny is amused to have finally heard from his brother in years. “You don’t know how much I needed to hear from you. I wanted to write you many a time but I dug how much I must have hurt you and so I did not write. But now I feel like a man who has been trying to climb up out of deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outside.” The narrator explains that he felt like a bastard after receiving the letter from Sonny but he felt more relieved as well as Sonny did. Sonny’s brother describes how he was into jazz music and playing the piano growing up after their parents passed and while in prison he noticed that Sonny still had the urge to be a musician when being released but to not think that being a musician had anything to do with his imprisonment. To sum up, these scenes in the short story take us to how the narrator reminisces about how his mother told him that he should always be his brother’s keeper no matter the circumstances.
As we can see that both the brothers are far from being stable in their own lives emotionally, we can say that they both still need each other at this time. Sonny explains to his brother that he never contacted him because of how hurt he has left him by his actions and decisions growing up leaving the family. The brother reminisces about a story his mother told him about how his uncle, who had passed away. This foreshadow is the reason why he felt the need to be back in Sonny’s life for guidance, brotherly love and advice. When Mama says:
“Oh honey, she said, “there’s a lot that you don’t know. But you are going to find it out…you got to hold on to your brother… and don’t let him fall no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you get with him.” This is a great factor of Sonny’s brother regard progressing throughout the story for Sonny.
To conclude, these were some evidence in the short story that the narrator grows regarding his brother Sonny. From him not wanting to care for his brother’s reality to then realizing that his brother needs him as well as he does, they both show regards throughout the story. Their mother was also a great factor for them to come together and be there for each other.
Work Cited
Baldwin, James. Sonny’s Blues. Harlem: 1957. Print.
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