Sonny's Blues

In short, the story "Sonny’s Blues" is a story about two brothers trying to see eye-to- eye, yet the vehicle which carries this story into the heart of the reader is the metaphor, which is expressed flawlessly through James Baldwin’s use of dialogue. While the two brothers are riding in this cab together the narrator comes to a revelation about their differences which is eloquently written by Baldwin, "Yet as the cab moved uptown through streets which seemed, with a rush, to darken with dark people, and as I covertly studied Sonny’s face it came to me that what we were both seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of us which had been left behind"(74). "(81) This quotation is representative of the struggle that the narrator has with understanding his brother throughout the entire story. Once again the excellent use of dialogue and imagery leave nothing to the imagination. Sonny had tried to escape from Harlem through drug use and eventually finds his true "escape" through music. llows the reader to feel the narrator’s pain. The two brothers ride silently in the cab as they were reflecting upon Harlem where they had both grown up. If the reader actually had a brother who was caught doing Heroin in a raid, Baldwin could achieve this emotional response by saying, "I felt just like I did the day I found out my brother was doing heroin.

The use of dialogue in "Sonny’s Blues" is very effective in conveying emotion to the reader.

Near the end of the story Baldwin gives us some insight into Sonny’s passion for his music. The narrator feels that he has escaped by becoming a school teacher. If Baldwin had written this any other way, the true emotional response of returning home under negative circumstances would not have been achieved. One example other than the "ice metaphor" is when Sonny and his brother are riding in a cab and they head uptown in New York City, towards Harlem. " Most of the general population has not had this experience.