Sonny's+Blue

Sonny's Blues: The Importance on Knowing Someone

Sonny's Blues written by James Baldwin is about two brother growing up in Harlem together facing many struggles along the way. Some of the struggles they face along the way begin to ruin their relationship with one another,but James Baldwin also tells us that in this story that no matter how hard or bad the struggle is, if a loved one is there to help they can over come it. This is shown in many different ways in Sonny's Blues. Their relationship was very close when they were younger but once their mother died things just went down hill from there. The narrator of Sonny's Blues was acutally Sonny's brother and explains how when their mother died he was in the army and was unable to watch Sonny, and he had to be taken to his wife and their family to be watched while his brother was in the army. This had terrible effects on Sonny. He dropped out of school, only played the piano and started taking drugs. He later stopped playing music after being in an arguement with Isabel. Soon Sonny couldnt take it anymore and joined the navy and forgot about everything and did nothing. the narrator soon began to face even bigger difficulties in order to know more about his brother. The first difficulty he had to face was the embarassment of knowing that his brother was addicted to heroine. The second difficulty included feelings of resentment towards his brother which cut off the communication between them. It was only after the death of his daughter that he was able to write to Sonny and try to get in contact with him. but the main difficulty that Sonny, faced in his life was the death of his parents and the fact that he had no one there for him at that time.

Knowing someone is not an easy task. It takes time to make a relationship with someone and acutally get to know them. Knowing someone is knowing how they are in their own personal atmosphere, and how they react to different things. You can't just know someone by what other people say. You actually have to take the time to analyze them for who they are. Many people theses days think they know someone by hearing what other people say. That is not knowing someone that is just judging someone for who you "think" they are, not for who they truely are.

Actually knowing someone and just thinking your know them are two total differnet aspects. Acutally knowing someone is much harder than thinking you know someone. To know someone for who they truely are you have to pick them out from everyone else in the crowd and find what their interest in life are, such as their hobbies. Knowing someone by what they like will help you get to know them more and watching them actually do whatever it is that they are interested could really change your mind about that someone you may have thought you knew. To know someone by thinking you know them is not actualy knowing them. All that is, is listening to what everyone else and ignoring your own personal feeling on that specific someone. People think they know people mainly by just judging them. DONT JUDGE PEOPLE!!. Dont just judge a peron on how they look, act or what they do. Thos things that you may find strange may be their likings in their own atmosphere. To actually know someone for who they are as themselves, you really have to take pride in that person, and accept wha they do and try and analyze them in oder to know them.