Literature response: Sonny's Blues

This short story is about a man and his brother Sonny. It took place in a time of segregation and hatred towards the Blacks. It was discovered in the story that Sonny was a man of music and he used his music escape from the life of darkness around him. Sonny always wanted to be a musician but no one, including the narrator understood why. Years past and the boys drifted apart. After many years of not associating with each other, the narrator hears about his brother and decided to write him. He got a response and they wind up reunited. Upon this reunion, new curiosities about Sonny arise in the narrator's head. He wonders what Sonny had been thinking about and how he had been living. He was scared because Sonny was a dope addict and got into a lot of trouble. Sonny was also a kind of kid who had a certain wall that hid his vulnerability inside. The narrator knew that his brother was like his dad in many ways, including the privacy aspect. He also found out that his dad had a brother, this brother was a musician. He loved playing his guitar and it made him feel at peace. The night he died though, his music died. His guitar was run over by a car. He and the narrator's mother talked about the situation with his dad and his dad's brother and his mother told him that he shouldn't leave his brother alone. When the narrator and Sonny were in the empty kitchen, Sonny revealed that he wanted to be a musician. He wanted to be a jazz musician. The narrator told Sonny that a musician was a hard paying job and he thought of jazz musicians as " good time people", which was what his his dad called it. Sonny told the narrator that it was what he wanted to do and even though it is going to take time he was willing to practice because it was the only thing that truely made him happy. There was a piano where Sonny was staying and he took use of it every day. He was so passionate about his music and it made him happy to be able to improvise the records that he played. When Isabel's family found out Sonny was working with white folks on music, they scolded him and there was silence. The silence was "louder than the sound of all the music ever played since time began," (126). As Sonny got more upset, his music became less frequent and twisted. Another point in the story where music present was when the two sisters and brother started singing, the narrator says, " The music seemed to soothe a poison out of them,"(129). As the lady was singing sonny talked about how, when he heard music, it maked him feel "sort of warm and cool and the same time." He had a good feeling inside of him when he listened to music. It calmed him down. This story shows how music can have an impact on a person's life. When some one is feeling upset or hurt, music can calm him or her down and make them forget about the world around them while they create their music.