Throughout the story Sonny is “unheard,” in a way that he is unable to speak his mind. When Sonny moves in with his elder brother, who is married, he begins to play the piano consistently. The music begins to bother Isabel, the narrator’s wife, and that’s when it hits the narrator that “they certainly couldn’t throw him out. Neither did they dare to make a great scene about that piano because even they dimly sensed, as I sensed, from so many thousands of miles away, that Sonny was at the piano playing for his life”(). Sonny’s only way of communicating and finding himself was through the playing of the piano; through music. Sonny was going through depression which did not allow him to be able to express himself. He was in complete silent and fought this battle with himself. His only escape was through music. Similarly to Sonny’s situation, the Old man in “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” faces a conflict with himself as well. In this short story an old and young waiter begin to chatter about the Old man sitting in the café. They begin to talk about how the Old man tried to commit suicide. The young and old waiters begin to go into depth about the incident, “What did he want to kill himself for?” Then
Throughout the story Sonny is “unheard,” in a way that he is unable to speak his mind. When Sonny moves in with his elder brother, who is married, he begins to play the piano consistently. The music begins to bother Isabel, the narrator’s wife, and that’s when it hits the narrator that “they certainly couldn’t throw him out. Neither did they dare to make a great scene about that piano because even they dimly sensed, as I sensed, from so many thousands of miles away, that Sonny was at the piano playing for his life”(). Sonny’s only way of communicating and finding himself was through the playing of the piano; through music. Sonny was going through depression which did not allow him to be able to express himself. He was in complete silent and fought this battle with himself. His only escape was through music. Similarly to Sonny’s situation, the Old man in “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” faces a conflict with himself as well. In this short story an old and young waiter begin to chatter about the Old man sitting in the café. They begin to talk about how the Old man tried to commit suicide. The young and old waiters begin to go into depth about the incident, “What did he want to kill himself for?” Then