Comparing Love In Sonny's Blues And The Red Convertible

Improved Essays
Love comes in different forms, different styles, and ultimately comes from different emotions. Throughout the stories “The Red Convertible” and “Sonny’s Blues” a love, not loud nor flashy but calm and hidden is shown throughout the relationship of the brothers. Brotherly love is special; it comes from the emotional drive of competition yet, somewhere mixed in this emotion is the desire for one’s brother to succeed. Woven within these stories comes a perspective from which a brother pushes the other to find his passion in life, what drives them daily, what gives them happiness. Shown throughout the stories is a picture of love that each brother possesses for one another. This loving desire displays a beauty and a challenge that each brother must face. However, …show more content…
Ornella d’Souza, a writer for Mother & Baby magazine puts it best as she states, “The bond between siblings is beautiful. This relationship is peppered with fun and laughter, arguments and fists fights, secrets and tears, and affection and innocence”. In “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator shows the reader his frustration for his brother, sonny’s decisions. He also gives us a glimpse for his desire to see sonny succeed. The author writes, “Well I guess it’s none of my business” (126) … “Then I kept in constant touch with him and sent him whatever I could” (127). The reader begins to see a war of emotions taking place in the mind of the older brother. Though he doesn’t want Sonny to be his “business”, Sonny becomes his business because of the inherent brotherly love he has towards him. On the contrary, In the story of “The Red Convertible” Lyman, the younger brother takes on the role of being a guide to assist his older brother in overcome his suffering from PTHD. Though this may seem counter intuitive, d’Souza claims, “While older siblings compete with their younger ones for attention, the younger ones, imitate habits of the older ones leading

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    This further creates tension––and distance––in their relationship. The narrator’s condescending tone when discussing Sonny’s future plans with Sonny reinforces his patriarchal role over Sonny: “‘You getting to be a big boy,’ I said desperately, ‘it’s time you started thinking about your future’” (847). The overly simple language the narrator uses when talking to his brother suggests he views himself as a fatherly and authoritative figure to Sonny, rather than a brotherly one. When Sonny communicates that he wants to join the army, his brother’s desperation to protect him by attempting to convince him to pursue a safer career further belittles Sonny and exacerbates the tension in their relationship: “Then I got mad.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The narrator expressed a fear for Sonny’s situation which conveys his need to reconnect and support his brother. As the narrator explains the poor news, he references that Sonny relevance in his life once again which suggests to the brothers’ lack of communication becomes apparent. The narrator’s lack of action to restore their relationship exhibited he did not desire to reconnect. The death of the narrator’s daughter, Grace, was the peak of his decline.…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Sonny's Blues” offers an excellent template, containing several fascinating characters and relationships. With his quiet and reserved nature, Sonny is a character with hidden depths – a musician who genuinely marches to the beat of his own drummer. Sonny suffers greatly in his life, losing both parents at a young age and straining his relationship with his older brother, causing him to descend into drug addiction. In such a tortured life, Sonny requires a religion, something to believe in – and he finds it in music, eventually achieving salvation through his passion. Although Sonny and his older brother did not always agree, they eventually gain a mutual understanding of each other – Sonny's brother learns to empathize with Sonny's struggles and his love for jazz, and Sonny realizes his brother only ever wanted the best for him.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Living nevily and showing ignorance towards suffering is no way to live at all, we must accept the tragedies of life in order to move on . In Sonny’s blues, by James Baldwin, the Narrator discovers that his brother, the title character Sonny, has been caught for peddling and using heroin, throughout the story he attempts to understand why and discover how he can change Sonny’s habits. The Narrator, in denial about the suffering he has become accustomed to in Harlem, can deny it no more after the literal and metaphoric death of his daughter, Grace, and only finds salvation after listening to and comprehending his brother sonny’s music at the jazz club. Throughout the story, the Narrator must accept the darkness of Harlem, acknowledge his…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is one of the high notes in Sonny’s life. The people Sonny spends time with, his brother doesn’t necessarily approve of, but they act as a second family to Sonny because they are always there for him when he is in that escape he created for himself. Sonny's self-destructive personality, shown by the use of drugs, represent the generation of young black men during this time. In the end, jazz music functions as a bridge between the two brothers, for Sonny it is his piano. Bringing them together on each other’s views and ideas of life, the thought of brotherly love kept them so close even when they didn’t know it.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    English Essay One: In the stories of an “A Rose for Emily” and “Sonny’s Blue’s” there has been a common theme found in both stories the theme being Acceptance. In “A Rose for Emily” she is depicted as an elderly old woman in a town stuck between the transition of the past and the future. Everything around is moving forward but her she is stuck in her ways and is unwilling to change. The people around her don’t accept her lifestyle nor how she is as a person.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This again provides evidence that the narrator's lack of knowledge and understanding of Sonny’s struggles and problems. The major point of misunderstanding and crack in the brothers relationship is when Sonny admits to his ambitions of wanting a career as a jazz musician. The narrator's replies of “I just don't altogether get it” frays their already damaged relationship. This can be traced back to the conversation with the mother. Sonny did not need someone to fix his suffering for him, he needed someone to be there, to listen and support.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sonny’s character is perceived as a confused and lost young boy by the people around him. The narrator feels pity for Sonny and almost blames himself for the way he turned out. The relationship between Sonny and his brother is distant and slightly stiff. Sonny feels he has disappointed his brother and their deceased mother. The behavior of Sonny and his addiction has strained and impacted his relationship with his brother a great deal.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the characterization of " Sonny’s Blues” we Have: (the older brother, Sonny: "The minor brother of the" the main character, Isabel: "The wife, the mother:" and the Mother "). Setting: "Sonny’s Blues" takes place in Harlem during the decade of 1950s. The city plays a very important role in the narrative, as part of the reason Sonny becomes drugs is escaping the sense of being caught…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He had promised to protect Sonny and keep him going in the right path. He makes this promise hard to keep when he selfishly disapproves of Sonny’s dream to become a musician. Reilly noted that the possibility of Sonny 's being a jazz rather than a classical musician had "seemed—beneath him, somehow” (Reilly). The Narrator unintentionally ruins his relationship with his brother. The lack of understanding of his generation entices him to pretty much gives up on Sonny up until his daughter’s death.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He said, “I’d never played the role of the older brother quite so seriously before,” (Baldwin 282). When Sonny declared, “I’m going to be a musician”, (Baldwin 282), the narrator became very concerned that Sonny was being foolish. He wanted Sonny to finish school and focus on making a living rather than choosing the life of a musician hanging around nightclubs. Sonny became very defensive and said to his brother, “But what I don’t seem to be able to make you understand is that it’s the only thing I want to do” (Baldwin 283). After many arguments the two brothers eventually fell out and Sonny did not want to have anything to do with his…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, we see the situation through the eyes of Sonny’s unnamed brother who is narrating it and living it. The two brothers live in two different worlds, with the narrator living a mundane life of a teacher, and Sonny living a life of struggles with becoming a famous musician and his addiction to drugs. Sonny’s addiction to drugs has caused a lot of problems which not only affected his life, but also the life of his brother. In the start of the short story Sonny’s problem with his heroin addiction can already be seen take place.…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues is a tale of suffering. It is the story of two brothers from Harlem who cope with their pain and suffering in different ways. Sonny is shown as a troubled youth who grows into a troubled man.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For instance, Sonny has to deal with drugs and Gregor turns into a beetle and becomes ill. Although many people would not have the patience to help someone through these stages, in each case, families did what they had to do to help. First, in Sonny’s Blues, family relations played an influential role in the way they grew up. In this work, the family history which result in the father having a brother who was a musician, then the narrator and sonny who was a musician, and the narrator two son may go down that path too.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sonny’s Cup of Trembling “Sonny’s Blues” begins with the narrator reading about his brother being arrested for selling and using heroine. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬He describes the struggles and hardships that his family, especially Sonny, goes through. Even though the two brothers lived together for so long, they did not have a very close relationship, but towards the end of the story, the two begin to understand each other more. At the end of the story, Sonny invites the narrator to accompany him to a local nightclub where he plays a new type of freeform jazz on the piano. As his brother plays, the narrator finally realized and understood his brother’s struggles.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays