In the short story "Sonny's Blues", Sonny is a jazz musician who became a heroin addict. Sonny's heroin problem was an example of Nurture vs. Nature. Nurture refers to our individual experiences and in life shaping who we are. Nature is the environment, for instance the place the person was brought up in, and the friends the person chose to associate with. Sonny's father died suddenly in a drunken brawl, when Sonny was fifteen. He and Sonny hadn't ever gotten along too well, which was one of the causes that contributed to his heroin addiction. Nature also sways Sonny to do heroin. The environment Sonny lived in was Harlem's projects, which were known for its crime and drug problems. For example, the narrator, Sonny's brother stated that, " The moment Sonny and I started into the house I had the feeling that I was simply bringing him back into the danger he had almost died trying to escape" (945). Many psychologists have stated that the main factors that influences a child !
             are the way parents raise their child, and plus the environment the child is raise in. For example, "Whether a child acquires discipline and self-esteem and becomes well adjusted and productive is largely a function of parental input plus communal support," Hewlett said. (Hewlett & West, 102).
             If Sonny' s parent were more authoritative, warm, responding, with higher standards, Sonny would have become a more self-controlled and self-reliant teen. In contrast Sonny's parents were indifferent, dictatorial and had poor communication skills.
             They did not educate him about life and society. On a daily basis he lived with racism, violence, negative peer pressure, and a lack of personal and cultural identity. What Sonny never knew, was that his father's brother, a musician, was killed when some drunk men hit him with their car. This terrible accident contributed to his father
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