My favorite story is “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin. Not only was this my favorite story but it was a story that held my attention and it was something that I can relate to. The main characters in this story are Sonny, the younger brother who has just been released from prison, and Sonny’s older brother, who is nameless and just wants the best for Sonny but in some way, he just wants Sonny to pick an occupation that makes sense and that can set him up for life. When Sonny is released from prison due to drug addiction, he tells his brother that he wants to pursue a career in music, preferably jazz. His brother isn’t so thrilled because he doesn’t see how that can help him, in the long run. He thinks of it as a hobby rather than a career. Sonny’s brother had a decision to make, support his brother while he pursues a music career or regret not supporting his brother for the rest of his life. He chose correctly. He went with Sonny to a jazz club in Harlem, and Sonny’s brother found out for himself how good of a musician Sonny is and will be. “Then they all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played. Every now and again one of them seemed to say, amen. Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others. And Sonny went all the way back, he really began with the spare, flat statement of the opening phrase of the song. Then he began to make it his. It was very beautiful because it wasn’t hurried and it was no longer a lament”. This quote is Sonny’s brother realizing how good of a musician Sonny is and he also realized at that moment, in the jazz club, that Sonny knows what he wants to do and he’ll be right there watching him being so proud. The kind of ethics that Sonny seems to follow in this story is the ethics of virtue. Sonny knows the kind of person he wants to be, he knows what he wants to do. He wants to turn his life around from negative to positive and music does that for him. Sonny’s brother, on the other hand, I’m not really sure what kind of ethics he follows. I think he follows the ethics of deontology. He does, in fact, care about his brother, but he thinks Sonny should follow in his footsteps, he went into the army, he finished school and became an algebra teacher. He was brought up to follow rules while Sonny was bought up to follow his own rules. I relate to this story because I have a younger sister and I want the best for her nonetheless, unlike Sonny’s brother, at the beginning of the story, I’m very supportive and I’ll be supportive from the beginning till the end. I’ll ask her questions, of course. But I won’t shut down what she wants to do with her life or not take her seriously, because it is, in fact, her life. All I can do to help her achieve whatever dreams she chooses to make come true is love, support, and protect her through it all.
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