One of the things that struck me in "Sonny's Blues" was the stark resemblance between Sonny and the narrator's uncle. Throughout the story, the narrator is struggling to understand Sonny on a more personal level. The story opens when the narrator, a respectable (though perhaps stuck-up) algebra teacher hears his brother got arrested on heroin charges. The fact that he learns this news through the daily paper and not a relative (or Sonny himself) is indicative of the broken family dynamic. Indeed, both the parents are dead, and Sonny's closest relative seems to be a heroin junkie that seeks out the narrator shortly after this incident. Even after Sonny is jailed, it still takes a while for the narrator to reach out to him. It isn't until his daughter Grace dies from polio that he finally decides it's time to write Sonny a letter. Upon Sonny's return to the free world, the narrator makes an effort to get to know more about Sonny.
At first, the narrator is convinced that Sonny went down a bad, irresponsible path, and there's nothing he could've done about it. Upon further reflection, however, he realizes that he may have played a role in Sonny's demise. He thinks back to the conversations he had with his mother:
"I want to talk to you about your brother," she said, suddenly. "If anything happens to me he ain't going to have nobody to look out for him."
"Mama," I said, "ain't nothing going to happen to you or Sonny. Sonny's alright. He's a good boy and he's got good sense."
"It ain't a question of his being a good boy," Mama said, "nor of his having good sense. It ain't only the bad ones, nor yet the dumb ones that gets sucked under." (116)
Here, the narrator's mother is trying to get him to understand the impact he has on his younger brother. Even though the narrator doesn't know it at the time and dismisses Sonny being a concern, he later comes to realize that there are less tangible things he could've done to protect Sonny. As his mother keeps talking, she opens up to him about his father's brother, which the narrator never knew he had. What struck me about this uncle was his distinct similarity to Sonny. As a young boy, the narrator's uncle "would sing, he had a fine voice, and play along with himself on his guitar" (117). Unfortunately, he would not live to follow his passions, as he was soon run over mercilessly by a carful of drunken white men. The narrator's father, who witnessed this event, was scarred for life.
As the narrator is spending time with post-prison Sonny, he reflects back on this moment. At this point, I found it to be no coincidence that the narrator's uncle was a happy, musical boy who met an unfortunate end. Sonny has also expressed a passion for music, namely piano--a passion that the narrator tried to stray him away from. Upon Sonny's incarceration, his vulnerability to the outside world becomes real. When Sonny asks the narrator if his nephews will even remember him, I couldn't help but compare Sonny to the narrator's uncle. In fact, the uncle's legacy has been lost, as no one in the family even knew who he was. By this token, I had to consider what would have happened if Sonny died of a heroin overdose, or simply drifted away from the family. I think there is something important about one's legacy, especially among their loved ones. It makes me sad that Sonny may have very well been forgotten, just like his uncle, had the narrator not made any attempts to reconnect with him.
You make a really good and interesting post here about the parallels between the narrator and his uncle, ones that I overlooked. It seems that to some extent, the mother of the narrator was trying to warn the narrator of what could happen if nobody was there to support them (in regards to what could be the downward spiral of the narrator's father.)
ReplyDeleteI think it's very intentional that this flashback occurs in the middle of the story. Many people have been blogging about a "transformation" that the narrator goes through and if you continue with that idea, once the narrator puts two and two together, he realizes that Sonny is beginning to show many similarities as his uncle. It seems to be that only then does he realize the meaning of his mother's words of just "being there" and the potentially tragic consequences if he doesn't obey her, which leads to a changed dynamic/interaction between the brothers.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of it this way before, but Sonny's own "uncle" status is connected to what makes the narrator suddenly reach out to him, in his grief after the loss of Gracie. In a sense, he reaches out to the uncle she never knew she had, and Sonny's place as a member of the family is directly reflected on when they talk in the cab about whether or not the narrator's kids will remember him.
ReplyDeleteI wish we'd looked at it more in class, but I think Sonny's letter in response to the narrator's (which we never read) is just wonderful--so different than what we might have expected: compassionate, humble, sincere, not blameful or angry. It's a great first impression of Sonny's character, and how he doesn't fit the mold of what many readers might imagine when they hear "musician busted for heroin."