Sonny's Blues

After thoroughly reading Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, I found myself having a hard time putting it down. This story seems so dramatic and unrealistic at first. However, the more and more I read on, the more and more I found myself able to relate to it. I too grew up not having the best relationship with my sister. My sister went through very similar incidences in her life like Sonny. In one of my blog posts, I posted my own short story, which was somewhat fictional. But the truth is the short story was somewhat fictional, however, most of it was based off of real events that have happened in my life. My relationship with my sister was not that similar to Sonny’s relationship with the narrator, when I was younger. Now that I’ve grown up and lost interest in striving for my older sisters acceptance, I notice her becoming more dependant of me. She has always been depending on others for support because she’s never been able to support herself. She’s also made quite a few bad choices that have caused her, along with my entire family, much pain. Reading this story helped me to shed new light on my personal relationship with my sister. My first instinct is to empathize with the narrator because it is easier for me to relate to the narrator as apposed to Sonny. However, after finishing the story, I am able to say that I have changed my mind. I empathize with Sonny most of all. His difficult struggles and Journey through life, is almost understandable. Now that we’re both older and I’ve grown apart from my sister, I can almost imagine hearing news about my sister from Facebook, or better yet, the newspaper, just the way the narrator heard about his brother being arrested. It brings tears to my eyes when I think about the relationship I have with my sister now, and how if I were a better sister to her I might be able to change the ending to my own Sonny’s Blues.

I took a lot away from this story. More than I ever thought possible.