Sonny's Blues

"Sonny's Blues" takes place during the mid-20^th century, probably during the early 1950s. The action of the story occurs prior to the gains made by the Civil Rights Movement, during the dark days of segregation and supposedly "separate but equal" accommodations in public institutions.Sonny's Blues is narrated in the first-person by an unnamed character, Sonny's brother. The story opens as the narrator, who has been estranged from Sonny for over a year, is on the subway, reading about a drug raid in which Sonny has been arrested and jailed. As guilt and sorrow wash over him, the narrator is approached by one of Sonny's childhood friends, an addict who blames himself for Sonny's addiction and subsequent arrest. The narrator and the friend discuss what has happened to Sonny, and we see the narrator begin, with anger, to try to understand how and why Sonny has become an addict.

When Sonny is released from prison, the narrator brings him back to live with his family in Harlem and begins trying to repair their relationship.

At this point in the story, the narrator flashes back to several scenes that occurred during their young adulthood.

Like with so many other stories, in Sonny's Blues the dramatic action mainly concerns the characters' changes or lack of them. The character changes in Sonny's Blues are particularly interesting, and subtle, in part because the plot features a character's battle with heroin addiction, and the narrator's efforts to come to grips with this character's addiction and recovery.

The story reminds me about my brother. He had had drugs problems in the past. This is a problem that we never that it can happen with us. It involve the whole family and it is very difficult