Carina Nieves
Professor Spatafora
ENG.101
11/01/07
Comparison Essay
In “Sonny’s Blues” written by James Baldwin
two brothers, one an inspiring musician, the other a school teacher, are torn apart by their
differences. The unnamed narrator is telling the story about his life and his brother, Sonny.
The narrator lives “It might be said, perhaps, that I had escaped, after all, I was a school
teacher, or that Sonny had, he hadn’t lived in Harlem for years.”(Baldwin 77) The story of
“Sonny’s Blues” shows how two brothers can put aside their differences all through one
brothers’ music.
The story is told from the unnamed narrator’s point of view that happens
to be Sonny’s older brother, he isn’t given a name so he is just called narrator .The narrator is
described as being seven years older than Sonny. He describes this as “The seven years
difference in our ages lay between us like a chasm: I wondered if these years would operate
between us as a bridge.”(Baldwin 71) He is a high school teacher in the city and in the
beginning of the story he remembers the days when Sonny was a young boy “When he was
about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of
copper in it; and he’d had wonderfully direct brown eyes, and great gentleness and
privacy.”(Baldwin 71) The unnamed narrator doesn’t seem to want to believe that his brother
is a drug addict and it hurts him to take in the truth of reality. He also is very strict and goes
by the rules and tries to make decisions for Sonny without even asking him. When he finally
sees Sonny he criticizes his decision to become a musician saying” You know people can’t
always do exactly what they want to do.”(Baldwin 83)
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He is married to Isabel and has two kids with her and one of his kid’s names Gracie dies of a
sickness. He also worries about Sonny way too much. The narrator doesn’t seem to listen to
his brother and in the story we can see how this kind of relationship is bad.
Sonny is the exact opposite of his brother, he is carefree
and doesn’t let anyone stand in his way of his true dreams which is to become a musician”I
think people ought to do what they want to do-. “(Baldwin 83) He is very arrogant, shy,
doesn’t get along with his brother and hates to be criticized. I think that he should have stood
up for himself a little more when he was younger. Every time his brother says something to
him about his life he gets mad. He is mad because the narrator doesn’t listen to him and I
think what causes the problems is their lack of understanding of each other’s differences.
This is how he conveys his feelings inside of him”You can’t talk it and you can’t make love
with it, and when you finally try to get it and play it, you realize nobody’s listening. So
you’ve got to listen. You got to find a way to listen” (Baldwin 90) On the other hand it seems
to be that Sonny has a really good relationship with his brothers’ wife Isabel. Sonny and
Isabel have a good report rather than Isabel and the narrator. I think that Isabel happens to
like Sonny more because when she sees him her face is described as being vivid again.
(Baldwin 77)
In comparing Sonny and his brother they both have careers that have an
impact on people’s lives. The narrator is a school teacher and by being a school teacher you
can automatically say that a person who is a teacher wants to make a difference in a child’s
life by encouraging them to learn. It’s the same way with Sonny, being a musician and
making music as a career. Through his music he can make people feel how he feels. “Every
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now and again one of them seemed to say, amen. Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his
life. But that life contained so many others.”(Baldwin 94) Another comparison between both
brothers is that they are not very talkative to each other. They like to keep their feelings
inside.
This story illustrates how two brothers who were born seven years apart,
both grew up together in Harlem and are two completely different individuals yet are able in
the end to connect with each other through one brother’s music and still find it in their hearts
to make up with each other. At this point the narrator sees a halo on top of Sonny’s head.
“For me, then as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother’s head like
the very cup of trembling.”(Baldwin 95) This symbolizes that there is hope in the brother’s
future together again in Harlem.