Racism, Segregation, And Struggle In Sonny's Blues

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Pages: 2

Throughout the story ¨Sonny's Blues¨ we see multiple themes such as family, racism/segregation, and struggle. The one that seemed more compelling to me was the theme of family. This theme is distributed throughout the story, it shows the relationship that Sonny has with his brother isn't a common one in most families. As the story began you could tell that a conflict was happening with the main character and the man in the paper. The plot begins to thicken and we soon find out that the man in the paper is his brother Sonny. This brings on the new theme of family, we can tell that his …show more content…
It seems that he really didn't want to help his brother or didn't know how he would. Strangely enough, this adds on to the theme of family, it shows that people have different types of families. The theme of family continues to build on itself when Sonny comes out of rehab. Sonny and his brother not knowing how to act become distant ¨One Saturday afternoon, when Sonny had been living with us, or anyway, been in our house, for nearly two weeks. I found myself wandering aimlessly about the living room, drinking from a can of beer, and trying to work up the courage to search Sonny's room.¨ this example shows that the main character still couldn't trust his brother completely and also shows that he wanted to avoid his brother by not asking if he still was a user. The main character problem with his brother came from his use with heroin but also his dream of becoming a pianist ¨ You mean you want to be a drummer?¨ I some how had the feeling that being a drummer might be all right for other people but not for my brother Sonny¨. Having Sonny's brother not believing in him or his dreams must have made it hard for him to continue with it. This shows the theme of family because