Richard Wright & James Baldwin Essay Analysis Essay Morgan Greenwade College

James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” is about the complicated relationship between two brothers. The tale opens with a nameless narrator discovering his brother, Sonny, had been imprisoned for the use and distribution of heroin. Until his daughter Grace died, the narrator neglected to write to her uncle in prison. However, after Sonny received the proverbial olive branch, the brothers remained in perpetual communication. In an attempt to reconnect, Sonny was invited to stay at the narrator’s family’s apartment when he was released from jail. In an interminable flashback, the readers are offered insight into the narrator and Sonny’s family environment growing up: Sonny and his father always fought because they were too much alike, and the refined ways his mother would keep the peace. The narrator recollected returning to the army and unwittingly forgetting about his family affairs, at least until his mother died. At the funeral, Sonny told his brother of his dream to be a jazz pianist, but the narrator dismissed him and sends him away to school. However, after some issues with school attendance and differing opinions arise, Sonny rashly decided to join the navy. The narrator recalls that the brothers didn’t see one...