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The story opens with the narrator, who reads about his
younger brother named Sonny who has been caught in a
heroin bust. The narrator then goes about his day; he is a
teacher at a school in Harlem. However, he cannot get his
mind off Sonny. He thinks about all the boys in his class,
who dont have bright futures and are most likely doing
drugs, just like Sonny. After school, he meets a friend of
Sonnys, who tells him that they will lock him up and
make him detox, but eventually he will be let out and be
all alone.
Originally, the narrator doesnt write to Sonny. After his
daughter Gracie died of polio, he decided to write Sonny
a letter. Then Sonny wrote back, so they got in contact
again. At this point, we learn how Sonny is related to the
narratorthey are brothers. They keep in contact, and
after Sonny gets out of jail, he goes to live with the
narrator and his family. They eat a family dinner, which
then turns into a flashback about their parents.
The narrator describes his father, a drunken man, who
died when Sonny was fifteen. Sonny and his father had
the same privacy; however they did not get along. Sonny
was withdrawn and quiet; while their father pretended to
be big, tough, and loud-talking.
The narrator then thinks back to the last time he saw his
mother alive, just before he went off to war (most likely
fought in World War II). She told him the story of how
his uncle died (was run over by some drunken white
kids), how his father was never the same, and that the
narrator has to watch over Sonny. The narrator was
these fights, they did not talk to each other for a very
long time.
It then flashes forward, and he talks about Gracie and her
polio affliction. It was then that the narrator decided to
write to Sonny. It seems that the narrator could better
understand his brother now. (My trouble made his
real.)
It then flashes forward to what we would assume is the
present. Its a Sunday and Isabel is gone with the
children to visit their grandparents. The narrator is
contemplating searching Sonnys room and begins to
describe a revival meeting that both he and Sonny are
watching. There is a woman singing, which seems to
hypnotize them both.
Sonny comes into the house, and asks the narrator if he
wants to come and watch him play in Greenwich Village,
and the narrator, unsurely and somewhat begrudgingly,
agrees to go.
Sonny then begins to talk about his heroin addiction in
somewhat ambiguous terms. He says that when the lady
was singing at the revival meeting, it reminded him what
it feels like when heroin is coursing through your veins.
Sonny says it makes you feel in control, and sometimes
you just have to feel that way. The narrator asks if he has
to feel like that to play. He answers that some people do.
They talk about suffering. And the narrator asks Sonny if
its worth killing yourself, just trying to escape suffering.
Sonny says he is not going to die trying not to suffer
faster than anyone else. Sonny divulges that the reason
he wanted to leave Harlem was to escape the drugs.
Major themes