Sonny Blues Analysis Essay

Sonny Blues” is a short story written by James Baldwin. This story is told from the first-person point of view by Sonny’s older brother. The narrator who remains nameless throughout the story is a math teacher and learns about Sonny getting arrested for selling and using heroin. He is teaching his class and it makes him think about his own students and what they may become from living in the streets as his brother did. They both grew up in Harlem where as children they faced obstacles and hardships living in a low-income neighborhood. The narrator has created a stable life for himself with his wife and two small children. Sonny has different lifestyle choices, endured incarceration and many other miseries due to his addiction to heroin. Both of their parents have passed away but the narrator remembers his mother stating to him “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 gets with him.” (Mother 102). He felt like he didn’t do what she had asked of him after she was gone, because Sonny was out of control. The narrator was not sure if he could trust Sonny at that time the two argue a lot because Sonny did not attend school and still ran the streets. After years of disconnection the narrator’s daughter died of polio and he finally wrote a letter to Sonny the day of her funeral and which Sonny responded. The two of them have reconnected and soon after Sonny is released from rehabilitation center, he goes to live …show more content…
They both grew up in the same neighborhood but had different views on life. They didn’t get along and could not see eye to eye until Sonny was able to show his brother that music made him alive. The significance of the story is about two brothers and a long overdue reconciliation and final understanding of one