An Older Brothers Influence in James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues

In James Baldwin’s â€Å"Sonny’s Blues,† the unspoken brotherly bond between the narrator and his younger brother Sonny is illustrated through the narrator’s point of view. The two brothers have not spoken in years until the narrator receives a letter from Sonny after his daughter dies. He takes this moment as an important sign from Sonny and feels the need to respond. While both Sonny and the narrator live in separate worlds, all Sonny needs is a brother to care for him while the narrator finds himself in the past eventually learning his role as an older brother. When the narrator and Sonny finally get a chance to speak to each other after many years, they begin to slowly open up to each other the grim reality that they face. I said:†¦show more content†¦He knows his brother has as problem with drug addiction, but he does not want to see him give up without a fight. He cares about his brother, which is what Sonny has needed all this time; an olde r brother to tell him that he should not give up, that he should make smart decisions and make something of himself. The narrator is trying to make up for all the time apart that he has spent from Sonny during his time of need, and perhaps that is his way of making himself feel better about abandoning his younger brother so many years before. Sonny has had a problem with drugs for some time, which leads him having to serve a jail sentence. The narrator tries to stay oblivious, which is part of the reason he turned his back on his younger brother for so many years. â€Å"I couldn’t believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn’t find any room for it anywhere inside of me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn’t wanted to know. I had had suspicions, but I didn’t name them, I kept putting them away†(831). The way that he dealt with his younger brother’s problems was by turning his back on them. He knew that Sonny was dealing w ith heavy problems, but chose to look past them and live his own life. He also knows that leaving his brother during the time he needed him the most was wrong of him to do. The narrator goes on to say, â€Å"I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brotherShow MoreRelated The Theme of Identity in Sonnys Blues Essay1622 Words   |  7 Pages James Baldwins short story Sonnys Blues highlights the struggle because community involvement and individual identity. Baldwins leading theme - the discovery of identity - is nowhere presented more successfully than in the short story Sonnys Blues (Reilly 56). Individuals breeds isolation and even persecution by the collective, dominant community. This conflict is illustrated in three ways. First, the story presents the alienation of Sonny from his brother, the unnamed narrator. 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