We all have at least one promise in our lives that we regret not keeping and not all of us have the chance to fix that broken promise. In the story Sonny's Blues written by James Baldwin the narrator gets a second chance to keep his promise. In keeping a promise to mother, who has since passed, he learns something about himself that he would have not learned without the help of the promise he was to keep. Baldwin shows the development of this enlightening process through a very descriptive plot, the clarity of a first person viewpoint, and the inspiring change of the narrator.
             The story moves in a descriptive pattern describing differant situations and how the narrator got into the different situations. As the narrator steers through the events of his story he lets us know how and when things happened to lead him to that point in the story. As young adults the narrator and his brother, Sonny, lost both of their parents in a matter of a year. The narrator made the promise to his mother that he would "hold on to your brother and never let him fall" (49). Years go bye and both boys grow into men and lead separate lives. One morning the narrator picks up a newspaper a reads Sonny's name in the headlines is the most dramatic point in the story. The narrator lets us know that Sonny is in trouble due to drugs. Reading the mews places a block of ice in the narrator's stomach with the memory's of what his brother once was. Even though the thoughts of Sonny ran trough his mind, he did not write until after the death after his little girl. The narrator offers his house to Sonny when he arrives home so he is able to straighten up his live. The suspense comes in not knowing if the narrator will be able to finally keep his promise to his mother and help his brother out of trouble. Sonny returns to his dream of being a performer. The narrator soon learns that the music is what is
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