Grace was just shy of two years old at the time of her death. She suffered from Polio, and her passing resulted from a physical fall that left her all “twisted up” (Baldwin 50) and unable to catch her breath. In a flashback, the narrator tells the audience that “When people have a lot of children, they don’t always start running when one of them falls” unless accompanied by a scream. However, Gracie’s fall was accompanied by a startling silence that was enough to alarm her mother, Isabel. When Isabel came into the room, she saw the state her daughter was in and soon after, Gracie had passed. Traumatized and in grief, the narrator and his wife mourned the loss of their youngest child. However, this heartbreaking turn of events can be seen as somewhat of a blessing in disguise, because it triggered an urgency in the narrator to reconnect with Sonny. It is for this very reason that Grace is one of the most essential characters in the story because of what she embodies. The day of her burial, Grace’s father was inspired to write to Sonny. Much to his surprise, Sonny wrote back. However, the narrator says Sonny’s response made him like a “bastard” due to its conscience-stricken nature. Sonny explains to his brother how ashamed he is for the pain he has caused in the past, and tries his best to explain himself in…show more content… He looked very unlike my baby brother”. Yet, he goes on to say there is another side of his brother that he has never seen that began to show. That first night, the narrator could not seem to get comfortable around Sonny, stating everything he did or said came across awkward. He looked for signs of addiction, not out of spite, but because he was searching for something that would let him know Sonny was
