Family Matters “Blood runs thicker than water.” This is a common phrase used to describe the role in family. For some, this phrase is simple to uphold, but for others, such as the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues,” the phrase more difficult to apply. Only in the flashbacks of pain and sorrow that occur throughout the story does the narrator finally discover that he needs to not only aid Sonny, but understand his lifestyle to truly recognize that blood runs thicker than water. Although brothers tend to grow apart from each other as they grow older and begin separate lives, the narrator still finds that he should be his brother’s keeper, no matter what the circumstances. The story begins when the narrator reads about his younger brother, Sonny, being arrested for selling and using heroin.
The poem’s title suggests that the poem is about a certain “Papa”, also known as a father but in fact, it is an exploration of the character's experiences and how the character faced the harsh reality of living with his “Papa’s”. The first text of the poem suggests a lot of things already complaints, disgust, sacrifice, respect. “The whiskey of your breath could make a small boy dizzy” verifies the fact that since childhood, the character had to have the presence of an alcoholic father. He admits that “such waltzing was not easy” and that he “hung on like death.” At the same time, there was resistance and there was surrender. The character, had to tolerate smelling the whiskey in his father’s breath.
Act 1 Scene 1 ( The Narrator makes it to Harlem, he goes to the Jolly Dollar Bar. He enters the bar.) Narrator: “Good Evening Brothers” McAdams: “Shit” Other Man: You said it, man he a relative of yourn? McAdams: “Shit, he god damn sho aint no kin of mine!” Other Man: “He must be drunk, maybe he thinks he’s kin to you.” (The narrator leaves the area in confusion.) Act 1 Scene 2 Narrator: “Well, I’ll be damned if it aint the good brother, Where you been ?
Sonny’s Blues – Sonny’s Catharsis Throughout James Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” (1957), the narrator is trying to make sense of his brother Sonny, a drug addict musician who had been caught using and selling heroin and sent to prison. He continuously comes back to blaming himself and the people near him for what has happened to Sonny. Nevertheless, he never sees the situation from Sonny’s perspective, until the last scene at the nightclub, which is when he starts understanding Sonny’s life and the role of jazz as catharsis for him. When Sonny first asks his brother, the narrator, to go out with him, the narrator “sensed… that [he] couldn’t possibly say no”. This happens right after he’d been watching Sonny through the window of his Harlem apartment, without the haze of his own ego getting in the way of seeing who Sonny really is.
The same bedroom door that he had slammed shut 25 years ago. At this point, Robbie’s father is starting to look at things a different way. He remembers when he tried to help his grandmother when he was a child and he remembers messing up. But most of all, he remembers being forgiven. While Robbie prepares to “run away” his father is busy recalling memories of how his grandmother had not been angry with him when he messes and how she taught him that “from a child is beautiful, anything.” Remembering this, the fathers attitude towards his son is now happy and grateful, a big change from mad and frustrated.
The strained father son relationship that Baba and Amir have is the catalyst for Amir’s crime against his half-brother Hassan. Amir’s strained relationship with Baba and his need for Baba’s acceptance has blinded Amir so that he is unable to see that his actions towards Hassan in the alley were unacceptable. The responder is given as insight into Amir’s thoughts through the use of first person narration, before, during and after the rape. This allows the reader to observe how the strained relationship between Baba and Amir has affected the motivation of Amir to commit his sin. Throughout the early chapter of the book we learn that Amir has “always felt that Baba hatted [him] a little.” He has always longed for his father’s approval, acceptance and admiration, as he feels responsible for the death of his mother.
He told us that if we are being forced here, that we will not gain that much from meeting. However, if we want to be there; then the meetings will help change our lives. This man has been sober for nineteen years. He ended up marrying his girlfriend and he is very active in his son’s live. He states it continues to be a struggle and that he will continually be an alcoholic, but he knows that he has stopped the cycle.
It is at this point, the narrator finally lets go and deals with his own sadness. Certain events in the narrator's life such as the deaths of his uncle, father, and mother have turned the narrator into an unfeeling man who can not forgive his brother Sonny for falling into a life of heroine addiction. Throughout the story the narrator is angered by the the choices his brother makes such as not attending school, drug use, hanging out in nightclubs, and eventually his arrest. The narrator's anger is expressed in one scene where he goes to his brothers apartment and tells Sonny “that he might as well be dead as live the way he was living”(Baldwin, 2007). It is not until the narrator's death of his own daughter Gracie does he try to reconcile with his brother Sonny through a letter to the prison.
In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, the main character, Holden Caulfield, has difficulties coming to terms with his past, which in turn has a negative effect on all present situations. The tragedy of his brother’s death has left Holden empty. It is possible that Holden holds himself partially responsible for Allie’s death and now holds himself back from what his younger brother can no longer do such as mature, excel academically or form relationships. Because of past traumatic events, Holden forces himself into isolation out of his own fear and unknowing.
His friend told his co-worker Billy, who is heartbroken from a serious relationship that he needed a night out drinking and to get laid. The only thing that stops Billy from going out was paper work that needed to be submitted that night. Instead he pressured Harold to do his reports with the excuse of meeting up with clients that will take up his time. If Harold doesn’t accept the task, Billy threatens to tell the boss that Harold is slacking at work. Already Harold is being pushed around to do more paperwork that is not his responsibility.