Sonny's Blues

I loved this story so much. I’m sorry, I just had to start with that. Everything about it fills me with such a pure feeling that I think reading stories and other literature is really all about. I’m always a sucker for sibling relationship stories, I love an angsty plot with a hopeful ending, and it also happened to tick off dealing with mental issues and overindulgent descriptions of music. I immediately identified with both Sonny and the narrator, and was captivated by their story. I found the scenes between just the two of them the most dynamic, particularly their last scene where Sonny invites his brother to the club to watch him play.

This scene starts with the narrator looking out onto the street below from his apartment, where he witnesses “an old-fashioned revival meeting.” He singles out one woman in particular who sings with what Sonny later describes as a “warm” voice. The narrator spots Sonny on the street, where he gives money to the woman. After exchanging pleasantries and his invitation to the club, Sonny brings up how the woman’s voice reminds him of what heroin feels like. Now, earlier in the story, the narrator maintained that he had no interest in knowing what heroin feels like, but now he’s uncharacteristically hanging on Sonny’s every last word.

One question nagged me throughout the entire story; why did Sonny start doing heroin in the first place? I understand that there was an epidemic going on a the time, and it was particularly a part of jazz culture, but why the need to “feel good” as he so describes it? Or maybe more importantly, what made him feel like he was suffering in the first place? I would say the only logical explanation would be the death of his parents, and possibly feeling abandoned by his brother. These events happen, and his only coping mechanism is the music, and when that’s taken away from him, he leaves. These events are really brought into perspective when he says “While I was downstairs before, on my way here, listening to that woman sing, it struck me all of a sudden how much suffering she must have had to go through--to sing like that.” To Sonny, beautiful music is born out of suffering, and the death of his parents and subsequent lack of support urged him to learn piano, to become blues. The title of this story can be read two ways: Sonny’s Blues, his music, or Sonny’s blues, the depression that drives him to create it.

This scene as a whole is characterized by an inability on Sonny’s part to say what he actually means, or in the exact way he means it. Lines like, “he hoped his eyes would tell me things he could never otherwise say,” and, “I can’t really talk about it. Not to you, not to anybody,” are scattered throughout the section. They serve to characterize Sonny as someone who desperately wants to open up, but feels he can’t. But he does, eventually, and rants about how his own stink disgusted him, but he couldn’t get away from it. Sonny lets it all out for his brother, and I get the sense that he said some things he hadn’t even admitted to himself before this conversation. It’s unbelievably real, and raw, and a catalyst for the final scene where he is able to rediscover his past abilities, become part of a community that is so important to him again, and show to his brother that this is not only a community that’s worthwhile in its own merit, but also the place where he truly belongs.