Note: There’s a video at the end of the blogpost. If you don’t end up reading the post, you should still check out the video. I thought it was powerful both as a way of “defending” Sonny and also as a way of challenging the norms of Uni.
It was mentioned in class that the narrator, Sonny’s brother, could potentially come off as smug, especially in the first half of the story. I’ll go through why he comes off like that and then I’ll try and defend him after that.
The narrator is educated African-American male who is an algebra teacher. He has a wife and two sons and he reads about his brother’s legal altercations for heroin usage in the newspaper. When he runs into Sonny’s friend that day on his way home and is asked what he’s going to do. The narrator responds by saying “Look. I haven’t seen Sonny for over a year, I’m not sure I’m going to do anything” (106). He follows by asking what he even can do at this point. Later in that conversation, Sonny’s friend is telling the narrator that Sonny is going to be sent to rehab but “that’s all” (107). The narrator acts like he’s confused and unfamiliar with the situation, when in reality he know’s exactly what they’re talking bout. Sonny’s friend even says, “that’s right, how we he know what I mean” (108). To make matters worse, the narrator doesn’t even contact Sonny immediately, instead choosing to wait a long time before writing to him. So maybe the narrator is smug and just thinks that he’s better than the boys around him.
Or maybe there’s something more? When reading this story, one of the lines that stuck out most to me was when Sonny says “everybody tries not to [suffer]. You’re just hung up on the way some people try- it’s not your way” (133). I immediately connected that to Sonny’s drug use. Drugs are his way of escaping and feeling good, even if just temporarily. So then what was the narrator's way of avoiding suffering? I think the answer lies in the fact that the narrator didn’t contact Sonny until after his daughter died. In fact, it was through his own suffering that he was finally able to understand Sonny’s. The narrator portrays the classic case of if-I-don’t-address-it-it-doesn’t-exist. He chooses to avoid his suffering and distract himself with work or just try and forget. Both of his parents have passed and it almost seems like he wants to make them proud and show him how far he’s come (especially his mom). He’s gotten married, had kids, got an education, started a career, etc but he’s not necessarily smug about it. Maybe he doesn’t want to diminish all that he’s accomplished with the hardships and things that have gone wrong so he just tries to ignore them. Granted, in the process of proclaiming “Mama I made it,” the narrator has forgotten the one thing his mother asked of him- to hold onto his brother and let him know that he’s there for him. But there seems to be an argument for a non-smug narrator.
I see both sides and I’m kind of torn. What do you think? Do you give the narrator the benefit of the doubt? Or is he just a smug, “I’m better than this” kind of guy?
And for the video I promised… it’s not related to my blogpost really but I came across it recently and our class discussion reminded me of it. Sonny wants to be a musician, specifically a jazz musician, at a time where that wasn’t a respectable career. It wasn’t the traditional, safe thing to do, and we see in the story that he faces a lot of opposition from the narrator for his choice. If Sonny was a character today, I could definitely see him making a video like this.
I too was conflicted whether to judge the narrator for being smug or to try and understandy why. After reading the whole chapter, I find myself leaning towards giving the narrator the benefit of the doubt. I mean, he's accomplished so much in his life; he's had to jump through hoops just to finish his education and find a stable job. But, even with all the obstacles in his path, he has never been able to get through to his brother, even though he promised his mother that he would look out for him. In his eyes, I feel like he sees his brother as his biggest failure in life, because he wasn't confident enough to lend a hand and try to understand why Sonny is the way he his.
ReplyDeleteI think that video definitely sums up some of Sonny's ideals in the story—he never seems to outright criticize his brother's own choices, but he also believes that he should have the freedom to pursue his own passions. The parallels Mr. Mitchell drew to potentially similar situations today really stuck out to me in class the other day; it's interesting to me to see how this situation is still just as prevalent in modern society.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point noting that the narrator doesn’t contact his brother until his own daughter dies, when he is finally able to understand someone else’s suffering after going through his own. He definitely disapproved of his brother’s choices--like drugs and the jazz career plans--but I don’t think we can blame him for being arrogant. He had grown up thinking for himself and paving his own future and expected his brother to do the same for himself. Perhaps he wasn’t mature enough yet to feel compassion for someone who didn’t work as hard as he had, and by the end of the story we see his growth and more feeling of responsibility for his younger brother. Also thanks for sharing this video! It’s very powerful, and I think it helps us understand Sonny a little better after not really getting his perspective in the story.
ReplyDeleteI think that the narrator doesn't understand the attraction of heroin (it's not "his way" of avoiding suffering), and he takes a pretty common view of people who use it and struggle with addiction. But I do see him as very much capable of change--the story is narrated by him, and the whole thing serves as a complex reflection on these familial relationships. He initially doesn't *try* to understand where Sonny is coming from, and he clearly views this now as a form of cowardice on his part--he doesn't want to deal. Sonny does end up telling him "how it feels," and his music does a better job than his words. The mere fact that the narrator now understands that musical performance as a form of communication suggests that he views it differently now: he gets that it isn't just "good-time people shoving each other around on a dance floor."
ReplyDelete"“everybody tries not to [suffer]. You’re just hung up on the way some people try- it’s not your way”
ReplyDeleteThis was also *easily* my favorite line in the story. I like it so much because it walks a very fine line. It almost tips over into the realm of pretentiousness and utter cynicism, but it teeters--it doesn't fall into that realm. I think it's essentially true.
But that doesn't mean that all the ways people try to avoid suffering are equal. Some ways allow people to function better in society, form stronger relationships, etc. The heroin junkie is (usually) not going to be able to form the same sort of healthy relationships as someone who, let's say, tries to avoid suffering by listening to music or chain smoking cigarettes.
There's a continuum here.
I could probably argue for the opposite viewpoint as well, it really starts getting really philosophical very quickly
I think both Sonny and the narrator seem like sympathetic characters, as you said. And I agree with your defense of the narrator. I think both the narrator and Sonny have their flaws, but ultimately, they both have had hard lives and they are just trying to get through them in the ways that work best for them. I think if the narrator were truly defined by his "smugness", then he wouldn't have been so emotionally connected to Sonny when he watched Sonny play music.
ReplyDelete