Struggle In Sonny's Blue By James Baldwin

In life, one will experience many hardships, but family will always be there to support one throughout the hardships. In the short story “Sonny’s Blue” by James Baldwin, the narrator, who is unnamed, struggles to help his brother, Sonny, with his hardships. Sonny, a recovering drug addict, struggles himself about his place and his purpose. Often times our family is there for us through the hard times, but the narrator’s subjective view may blur his perceptions of situations involving his brother, Sonny. Often times in family issues, we believe that we could have done something more. The narrator often struggles with the things his brother has done, and reflects poorly upon himself as a result. A study done by Wei-Che Lin shows that using

There is a significant age gap between the two brothers, which means the narrator has seen many of his brother’s milestones. Jessica Ashbourne did research on the evolution of the relationship between first born and second born children. She found that the relationship will only change during the first two years of the second born child’s life (Ashbourne 148). In the story, the narrator often reflects back upon the earlier times in their lives, and he remembers how innocent Sonny was. This makes it hard for him to see Sonny’s situation clearly. The narrator notices a change in age, he did not look like his brother, “Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like and animal waiting to be coaxed into the light (Baldwin 79).” We see this multiple times throughout the story. The narrator understands the situation Sonny got himself into, but he cannot understand that his “Baby brother” has grown up. He even brings up Sonny’s past love of India, back when he was fourteen (Baldwin 79). Sonny is even surprised he still remembers that, since now he has no interest in going (Baldwin 79). The narrator does not really know who his brother is, or at least not the one who is standing in front of him. He will realize this later in the story, “I suddenly had the feeling I didn’t know him at all (Baldwin 87).” This is the problem with the narrator trying to help Sonny make life choices, he does not really know who his brother is; he only remembers who his brother