Relationships, have been examined, as a part of life that can be the most challenging for some people. Struggles in relationships exists and there are challenges that everyone faces when they are in a relationship. It is only natural for human beings to question each other and to find answers for all of the questions that haunt an individual. In the short stories “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff and “Sonny’s Bue’s” by James Baldwin, this challenge between the relationship between two different brothers are presented. In both stories, the characters consist of the “good brother”, the one who always does what they are supposed to do; and then there are the characters of the “bad brother”, the one who does not live life the way they are supposed
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Not having the support of a brother could in fact affect the way in how Donald lives now. Pete never offered him a chance and instead harbors these feelings of anger and frustration for Pete. It is interesting to discover why Pete has these feelings. Furthermore, a similar problem is revealed in “Sonny’s Blues” where the narrator is the good brother and the brother Sonny is the one who lives life by on drugs. It is evident that both the narrator and Sonny are not close. Sonny is arrested for heroin possession. The narrator does not find out until he reads it in the paper. This shows that the narrator and Sonny do not have a close bond with each other. However, they do eventually write letters to each other and meet up when Sonny gets out of jail. Despite them speaking with each other, they do not have a good relationship like Pete and Donald. The narrator does not understand his brother and Sonny does not understand him. They both live these different lives, where Sonny allows life to go by and the narrator lives life by teaching and doing things in which he thinks are important. The narrator has this idea that Sonny wants to die because he keeps on doing the drugs, and because he cares for Sonny, he questions him on …show more content…
There is a flashback to when Sonny wanted to go away in the army, just to get out of the house and away, but the narrator kept on making decisions for Sonny instead. “I hear you,” Sonny said to his brother. “But you don’t hear anything I say” (349). There is automatically a loss of communication between these two brothers. This communication is crucial in having a relationship and Sonny and his brother do not have it. There is conflict between the two, conflict in which that affected them to how they are today. Not just anyone decides to go on hardcore and dangerous drugs. Something must have happened while Sonny was a kid. There is unresolved conflict, anger, and repressed desires that created this hole in the relationship between the brother. Despite the conflicts that both brothers fought against, they reached an understanding at the end of each store. In “The Rich Brother”, Pete momentarily leaves Donald alone in the street and drives off. However, he decides to go back because even though Donald irritates him, Donald is still his brother. The same goes for the brothers in “Sonny’s Blues.” At first the narrator doubted that Sonny could become a pianist, but Sonny proved him wrong when he learned how to play the piano by himself. Sonny and the narrator then go to where Sonny performs and he does a wonderful job. The narrator begins to understand Sonny, because
Not having the support of a brother could in fact affect the way in how Donald lives now. Pete never offered him a chance and instead harbors these feelings of anger and frustration for Pete. It is interesting to discover why Pete has these feelings. Furthermore, a similar problem is revealed in “Sonny’s Blues” where the narrator is the good brother and the brother Sonny is the one who lives life by on drugs. It is evident that both the narrator and Sonny are not close. Sonny is arrested for heroin possession. The narrator does not find out until he reads it in the paper. This shows that the narrator and Sonny do not have a close bond with each other. However, they do eventually write letters to each other and meet up when Sonny gets out of jail. Despite them speaking with each other, they do not have a good relationship like Pete and Donald. The narrator does not understand his brother and Sonny does not understand him. They both live these different lives, where Sonny allows life to go by and the narrator lives life by teaching and doing things in which he thinks are important. The narrator has this idea that Sonny wants to die because he keeps on doing the drugs, and because he cares for Sonny, he questions him on …show more content…
There is a flashback to when Sonny wanted to go away in the army, just to get out of the house and away, but the narrator kept on making decisions for Sonny instead. “I hear you,” Sonny said to his brother. “But you don’t hear anything I say” (349). There is automatically a loss of communication between these two brothers. This communication is crucial in having a relationship and Sonny and his brother do not have it. There is conflict between the two, conflict in which that affected them to how they are today. Not just anyone decides to go on hardcore and dangerous drugs. Something must have happened while Sonny was a kid. There is unresolved conflict, anger, and repressed desires that created this hole in the relationship between the brother. Despite the conflicts that both brothers fought against, they reached an understanding at the end of each store. In “The Rich Brother”, Pete momentarily leaves Donald alone in the street and drives off. However, he decides to go back because even though Donald irritates him, Donald is still his brother. The same goes for the brothers in “Sonny’s Blues.” At first the narrator doubted that Sonny could become a pianist, but Sonny proved him wrong when he learned how to play the piano by himself. Sonny and the narrator then go to where Sonny performs and he does a wonderful job. The narrator begins to understand Sonny, because