SOnny Blues
...is older brother to change his life, go to school, and find direction. However, all Sonny wants to do is play the piano in Greenwich, and his older brother doesn’t understand. “I simply couldn't see why on earth he'd want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on bandstands."(p50).Though the narrator wishes the best for his brother, he is skeptical about Sonny's ability to support himself by performing Jazz. His brother's response to the skepticism shows the narrator how serious Sonny is about his music. Narrarator has lost touch with his heritage, he has became more of a Caucasian in the sense of a “successful” life is one of work and no enjoyment. The brother has really lost sense with who he really is and is in such a hurry he can’t see that he is missing out in and is ignoring his own problems. The narrator first gains musical enlightenment when he watches and listens to the sidewalk revival. He stands at his window, watching and listening to the three sisters and one brother sing their gospel songs. "As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change" The brother also goes through a change, as he sees the music " (p56) “soothe a poison"within the crowd. He notices an impatient man, fumbling for change as if he were late for a meeting. While Sonny was relaxed in a slow walk as if to his own inner music. The narrator was once that impatient man who led the "right" life but had no time to enjoy the music. He is starting to better understand music but still observes it from a distance. Sonny realizes this change in his brother and discusses his past heroine addiction. They converse on suffering and the relief of it. Sonny tells his brother how he suffers and that music helps ease the pain. The narrator discovers the darkness that is in his brother's life. He also understands Sonny's music represents the hope that he never had. At the nightclub Sonny was playing, the narrator realizes that he also has trouble in his life, much like his brother. The crowd welcomes Sonny and they begin to rock. At first...