While reading this, I found myself relating quite a lot to it. Primarily in the way that James Baldwin describes the relationship between the two brothers. When he describes the situation that Sonny found himself in, with drugs and all, I couldn’t help but relate. It hit hard when he stated, “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out, in the condition I’d already seen so many other.” You never imagine someone so close to you falling down this road, possibly ruining their life. I had a friend who fell down this road and we were so far from each other for me to even help her through this. But then even if I was I would think just like Sonny’s brother, “I haven’t seen Sonny in over a year, I’m not sure I’m going to do anything. Anyway, what the hell can I do.” You can only help people who see the wrong in what they’re doing. The part of the story that interested me the most was when Sonny and his brother are at the nightclub. At the nightclub, his brother gets a glimpse of his world. This is when Sonny’s brother finally realizes that Sonny’s love for music was not such a bad thing after all. You can see how moved he was by this side of Sonny when it states, “I saw my little girl again and felt Isabel’s tears again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise.”
