‘“You know people can’t always do exactly what they want to do -”’ (91). This is the attitude of the narrator towards his brother Sonny in the beginning of “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. ‘”I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?”’ (91). This is Sonny’s attitude throughout the story. The narrator’s attitude changes as he learns to understand his brother and what he is going through throughout the story.
The parents of Sonny and the narrator died by the time Sonny was in high school. This left the narrator in a father role for Sonny. Sonny and his brother grew up in Harlem with limited options open to them. Although they had grown up in the same house under the same conditions, they have both taken away two completely different
It is not until he goes to see Sonny play live on stage that he comes to realize the legitimacy of Sonny's dream. “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life” (102). Seeing and hearing his brother play had taught him many things that night. He saw his brother in a different light. He saw his own life differently. He heard and experienced the music that Sonny has been telling about all along. Sonny had communicated to his brother that evening in ways that words had failed in the past. “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last” (102). The narrator learned that you do have to do what you want in life.
Sonny had fallen into drugs at a young age and has had an ongoing problem with heroine. The narrator doesn’t want to see this in his brother, but now has to face it. “I suddenly had the feeling that I di
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