Sacrifice In Sonny's Blue

What would you be willing to sacrifice for the one thing that makes you truly happy? Although Sonny does love his family, he also loves his music. The problem being, which does he love more? What is he willing to give up for music? The importance of family is portrayed all throughout “Sonny’s Blue”. Sonny’s has had much suffering throughout his life. But music is what brought him back. First, Sonny is willing to give up his freedom to music. Sonny’s life was hard. He was in and out of jail for drugs. But when he finally got out, music was his one escape. He was a drug addict. So naturally when things got tough and he wanted to get away: there it was. He could just go get a fix and escape reality. Music is life a drug. It can wrap you up and

Sonny loved his family but, they were always doubting him. The Narrator was trying to look after his little brother. It was natural for him to be trying to protect and keep Sonny from harm. The narrator had promised there mother that he would protect Sonny. “"Oh, honey," she said, "there's a lot that you don't know. But you are going to find out." She stood up from the window and came over to me. "You got to hold on to your brother," she said, "and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him. You going to be evil with him many a time. But don't you forget what I told you, you hear?" "I won't forget," I said. "Don't you worry, I won't forget. I won't let nothing happen to Sonny."”(Insert page number). Throughout the entire story every decision that Sonny makes for himself, the narrator is right there telling him why it’s a stupid idea and why he will never be able to do it. Every time the narrator tells him he can’t do something, Sonny works that much harder to achieve that goal. “He looked more helpless than ever, and annoyed, and deeply hurt.” With the narrator consistently belittling Sonny’s dreams, he drifts from his family. Sonny’s family also has a strong hatred for white people. Even the narrator's family has been impacted: the narrator's mother describes how the death of the narrator's uncle led his father to harbor a smoldering rage against white men. There uncle was killed when a car full of white drunk men came at him trying to scare him but the uncle was drunk too. So by the time he jumped he jumped too late and got ran over and the car never stopped. Sonny’s seems to not hold that aggression on all white people because he had been spending time with other musicians in a white girl apartment. “And she finally got it out of him that he'd been down in Greenwich Village, with musicians and other characters, in a white girls apartment.