Sonny's Blues - Brother's
There is an unconditional love between brothers that cannot be explained but can be misinterpreted as controlling, manipulating, or even hatred. "Sonny's Blues: is written from the older brother's point of view, that he and Sonny lived in Harlem, New York, and all the difficulties they have to go through together and separately before they finally develop a relationship with understanding. James Baldwin's short story is about the love and protection of an older brother who makes decisions that are contrary to what Sonny, the younger brother, has told him are his dreams for his life but ultimately comes to understand it.
The story starts out with the older brother, who is the unnamed narrator, is on the subway, going to work as a teacher and is reading the paper. Unfortunately, that is where he found out about his younger brother getting arrested for peddling and using heroin and this is the first indication of him stepping back into the protective, older brother role when he thinks to himself, "I was scared, scared for Sonny. He became real to me again" (209). He also states that after class was let out, he was sitting at his desk, listening to the boys outside and to their laughter and relating them to his brother. "Perhaps I was listening to them because I was thinking about my brother and in them I heard my brother" (210). He missed Sonny so much and I believe he really didn't realize it until Sonny became a part of his life again, through the newspaper.
When the brother was leaving the school, he noticed one of Sonny's friends waiting for him, whom he refers to as the boy and doesn't like him. The boy was there to tell him about Sonny but the brother tells him he already knows. They walk together to the subway and as they are talking about Sonny and how he got to this point with drugs, he realizes that he doesn't hate the boy anymore, because he's just like himself. The boy feels responsible for Sonny, because he was...
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