Karizma Lockhart
ENWR 106
Professor Bosca
February 10, 2015
Better Sooner Than Later No matter how mean siblings can be to one another, they will always look out for each other on bad terms. You can say the meanest things, fight physically and use mom and dad to score extra points. When you see you brother or sister in pain or in need you are going to run to the rescue. In “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin the pair of siblings experience things that are similar to my claim. The love of one sibling to the next can have a great effect on the person they will become when they grow up. Just like the pair of siblings in both narratives, when a sibling becomes real affectionate with you, they immediately put up defense walls. You block your true emotions as if this makes you look wimpy or heartfelt. This reminds me of the time when Donald asked his brother Pete did he ever dream about him. This was Pete’s response, “Do I ever dream about you? What kind of question is that? Of course I don’t dream about you, “Pete said untruthfully. (Wolff, 327) This shows how a sibling can react to the other when it comes to love and affection with another sibling; or just having the simple thought about them. A few paragraphs later after Donald brought up a foul situation in which happened between his brother and him Pete admitted to his recent lie. “I did have a dream about you the other night,” Pete said. (Wolff, 329) I appreciate Pete coming clean. It is okay to think and dream about your siblings and family openly. There is a connection we all have with our blood relatives. Don’t wait until worst case scenario in order to express feelings to a bro or sis but do it all the time to help prevent misfortunes. Just reassuring someone that you care about them goes a long way. It can brighten up one’s day, alter decision making and enables you to get love in return. Not paying attention to your sibling ultimately plays a big role in the bond you build with them. It depends on how weak or how strong that bond is. It also determines what your relationship is when you grow up and mature as well as the type of individual one becomes. In “Sonny’s Blues” by Baldwin the mother of the two boys warned the oldest to look out of for the younger one and be present in his life. Mothers know best. “You may not be able to stop nothing from happening. But you got to let him know you’s there.” (Baldwin, 346) Even when you are busy with your own life you need to stop and check on those around you. The one’s you love most or who are closest to you are solemnly the one’s we easily forget about. “Two days later I was married, and then gone. And I had a lot of things on my mind and I pretty well forgot my promise to Mama until I shipped home on a special furlough for her funeral.” (Baldwin 346) From this day forward Sonny’s older brother wasn’t much a part of his life until it was already too late. Too late meaning there were negative decisions made by him with no real guidance from his older brother. The oldest brother’s youngest daughter died. Sonny was not able to build a relationship with his own niece because the lack of communication between the two. Maybe or maybe not Sonny would have still made these same decisions in his life; who knows. I am just implying that the odds were more likely to happen because of the struggles happening in his life and he didn’t really have anyone to confide in or anyone that took the time to understand him. As an older sibling, the duty needs to be keeping an eye on the younger siblings. Of course they have a lot to do personally with their own lives and should live it however they chose but in some way be role models and they set the tone for the relationship as the oldest. When they go on by living life and not giving much input to what the brother or sister is doing, it actually affects them both. It affects the younger one by the decisions they make and who they grow up to be. It
