Sonny’s blues revolves around a young man known as Sonny who had a passion of becoming a jazz musician. He gets engaged in drug abuse and later becomes a heroin addict and afterward he is arrested for the sale and use of illicit drugs. More subsequently, Sonny returns to his childhood neighbourhood after he is released from prison.
In comparison to Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin, we can compare the narrative to a film known as Notorious. Notorious is a film that reflected upon the real-life story of Christopher Wallace who also had a passion for music just like Sonny who had a passion for jazz music. Christopher Wallace was a drug addict, and he was also involved in activities of cocaine abuse.
Later, the police caught up with Christopher Wallace, and he was issued some years in prison so that he would come out as a rehabilitated individual. Similarly to Sonny, Christopher Wallace was also the child of a single mother. During his rehabilitation in prison, Christopher Wallace always contemplated on where he went wrong and decided to become a reformed individual.
The narrator of the story is Sonny’s brother. As a teacher, he would always imagine how some of his students are experimenting with hard drugs such as heroin. By thinking of such, the narrator still finds himself thinking about his brother Sonny.
After Sonny was arrested for selling drugs, the narrator has never found it within himself to send a letter to Sonny in prison. But after his daughter died, the narrator decided to write a letter to Sonny in prison. Sonny responded to the letter very quickly, and he was delighted to hear from his brother. Sonny’s response made his brother feel like an “ignorant fool” (109). In the response letter, Sonny highlighted how his life has been full of pain, and he even states that he is grateful that his parents are not still alive to see him wallowing in such a state of sorrow and regret.