The Changes In The Narrators View Of Sonny Essays -- essays research p

The Changes in the Narrator's View of Sonny Can one know another's thoughts? Through dialogue, actions, and events, the thoughts and views of a man of whom we know not even a name are shown. The man is the narrator of "Sonny's Blues" and his thoughts we are shown are those directed towards his brother. Over the course of the story, there are three major stages or phases that the narrator goes through, in which his thoughts about his brother change. We see that those stages of thought vary greatly over the narrator's life, from confusion about his brother to understanding. Each phase brings different views of his own responsibility toward his brother, his brother's manhood, and his brother's sense of reality. Through out the story, three of the narrator's view are changed, the first of which is Sonny's manhood. During the first phase, early in the story, the narrator showed that he viewed Sonny as a child. "I was beginning to realize that I'd never seen him so upset before... [and decided this was] one of those things kids go through and that I shouldn't make it seem important."(49) This quote is an example of how the narrator viewed his brother. He not only thought Sonny acted as a kid, but was also too young to be planning a future or career. "He still wasn't a man yet, he was still a child, and they had to watch out for him in all kinds of ways."(51) The narrator decided that he would plan Sonny's future and when Sonny rebelled, the narrator saw it as yet another childish action. Another way in which the narrator's overall view changed was his view on whether Sonny's idea of reality was sound. Still in the first phase, the narrator often presents his view of reality and when Sonny rejects it, the narrator feels Sonny is being unreasonable. For instance, "'Well Sonny,' I said, gently, "you know people can't always do exactly what they want to do-' 'No I don't think that,' said Sonny, surprising me."(49) Actually, Sonny understood life much more clearly than the narrator, but the narrator did not realize that then. He thought that perhaps Sonny was just too young or too high on drugs to understand what life was about. Finally, the third view changed was the narrator's responsibility towards Sonny. Before the brothers' mother died, the narrator promised he would take it upon himself to take care of Sonny shou... ... finally started caring about Sonny instead of try to care for Sonny. He no longer saw him as just something to be taken care of, he finally began to see him as a brother. He became sensitive to what offended Sonny and took caution to avoid them. He was willing to be interested in what Sonny interested in. Finally, he was willing to sit and listen to Sonny instead of telling him how to run his life. All of these were drastic changes from when their mother had first died and improved the brothers' relationship. Through out the story it is as if the narrator is descending a stair well. Each stage that the narrator goes through is another flight of stairs and each flight of stairs he descends brings him closer to an understanding of Sonny. The narrator descended one flight and it changed his views one way, another flight and his views changed again. During the whole ordeal he can see Sonny, yet his views of Sonny are distorted or blurred. After each stage he believes his new view is the correct one, however it is not until he reaches the ground that he gets a true idea of what Sonny is like. It is then that he brings himself down to Sonny's level and begins seeing Sonny as an equal.