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Diana (Seo Hee) Cho

Professor Vinh Nguyen

EAC217FC

July 25, 2014

How Does Conflict Reflect on the Living Experiences of Two Characters?

In “Sonny’s Blues”, two characters Sonny and the narrator, show their conflict by

distinguishing what personality each of them has. Sonny is a drug addict and he has dreams of

playing music. He is immature and idealistic because he has childhood innocence. The narrator

in this story feels himself to be more realistic in his thinking of why Sonny should stop thinking

about being a musician. In short, there are two interpretations; one is based on the narrator’s

opinion about Sonny and the other is about Sonny’s own ideas about his future. For both of

them, they create conflict based on their own idea of what is profession like.

Reflecting on the different perspectives of the narrator and Sonny we observe, both of

them prefer their own way to do what they desire. When it comes to the way Sonny behaves and

thinks, they are different from what other people act and feel. For example, Sonny tries to

explain his emotions to the narrator, “I was all by myself at the bottom of something, stinking

and sweating and crying and shaking, and I smelled it, you know? My stink, and I thought I

would die if I could not get away from it and yet, all the same, I knew that everything I was

doing was just locking me in with it” (Baldwin 46). By using heroin almost all the time, Sonny

felt helpless and suffered in his life. He found the way to escape from this drug addiction by

playing music. He finally makes his own life decision to live through music rather than to take

drugs. It is the best solution for him to choose playing music because it is leads to him creating

his own career path. Even though this decision makes the narrator angry and creates conflict

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between Sonny and the narrator, Sonny thinks that it is most important to make a decision in his

own way. Sonny believes playing music still allows him a way to escape his reality and help him

from taking heroin. His decision for the future, which is to be a musician, is very hard for

common people to accept as a solution because he needs to put so much effort becoming a great

musician. Many people think playing music is far from getting a good job. In short, people might

think that Sonny is just exhausted mentally and is not considering what he really needs to do.

Nevertheless, Sonny really pursues becoming a musician by playing the piano. That is the

method that he releases his stress, boredom, and inner-darkness. When Sonny and his friend

‘Creole’ play musical instruments in performances, they all feel they are communicating with

music, they feel something fresh, and become active shaking their whole bodies. When playing

the piano, he feels like “he has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has

to make it do what he wants to do” (47). He can find his own way to make it do everything he is

eager to and feels that he can be motivated to be alive happily. Simultaneously, by escaping from

his mundane life at the moment that he plays, he reflects on his feeling that “everything had been

burned out of it, and at the same time, things usually hidden were being burned in, by the fire and

fury of the battle which was occurring in him up there” (48). This is the most powerful moment

in the story where Sonny discusses a motive for living in his life based on the strength of music.

He states that a strong energy comes to his whole body while playing, not just his mind.

Whenever he plays and listens to music, he feels that his inner and outer behaviors and mentality

are whole, and that is what he lives for. Although people still think that Sonny is abnormal and

entirely different from the way normal people are, the dream that he wants to be a pianist makes

him live ordinarily and looks forward to keeping what he is happy with.

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In contrast with Sonny, the narrator thinks about the definition of dream differently. That

difference causes their serious conflict and is the main focus in this story. In their conversation,

when Sonny insists he wants to be a musician, the narrator asks him “does not all this take a lot

of time? Can you make a living at it?” (38). He strongly disagrees with Sonny because he

believes Sonny cannot realistically make a living and survive this way. For the narrator, the

meaning of dream is to be able to make it a reality. The narrator mainly focuses on how to live

well when he reflects on professions and careers as dreams and goals, while Sonny regards them

as models of what people ought to be. In short, like normal people’s living, the narrator’s view of

a job is that people must follow some rules of school and their parents, finish the school without

any problems, and study with hoping what they should become when it comes to a realistic

future. Even though people might have something they really hope to do now and for the future,

he always thinks that no one can do what they want to do in the end. They have no choice but to

follow what they have to do, ignoring their own opinion and point of view. When he observes

Sonny, he wants to help by instilling his own thoughts and vision of what Sonny should be. All

that Sonny mentions and considers about his own life makes the narrator not “like the way he

carried himself, loose and dreamlike all the time, and I did not like his friends, and his music

seemed to be merely an excuse for the life he led. It sounded just that weird and disordered” (41).

The narrator is definitely practical compared to Sonny. He thinks that everything Sonny desires

is not feasible and useful for Sonny to live in reality. It is not reasonable to lead a life based on

what Sonny indulges in. The narrator insists that Sonny cannot ignore any suffering from his real

life because everybody always has trouble and hardship. He tries to persuade Sonny “there is no

way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it, to keep on top of it,

and to make it seems well, like you” (44). The narrator thinks that if Sonny really wants to be a

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musician, he has to give some compelling reasons why he is giving up going to school and

playing music is helpful based on defining a practical life. In addition, the narrator is also

conservative whenever he says that other people also have their own suffering to try. In other

words, Sonny tries to convince him that “You are just hung up on the way some people try. It is

not your way!” (45), and “I do not give a damn what other people do, I do not even care how

they suffer” (45). While Sonny thinks as long as he has his strong conviction that he needs to do

what he wants and dreams, the narrator only thinks that it is just to think and behave like other

people do. Those conversations especially show how different their personalities and

perspectives are from each other. That is why the narrator wants to understand Sonny, but he was

unable to figure out why Sonny just prefers to play jazz music, by saying “I simply could not see

why on earth he would want to spend his time hanging around nightclubs, clowning around on

bandstands, while people pushed each other around on a dance floor” (36). All of the efforts that

the narrator makes to try and support Sonny do not consider Sonny’s inner life, which leads both

of them to creating a major conflict. He wants to make awaken Sonny from that illusion a

younger brother pursues, based on his own perspective. The narrator believes that Sonny should

solve his problem directly that gives anguish and despair by having responsibility on his work in

school first.

In explaining the situation that the narrator and Sonny confront, the difference is that

their own perspectives occur from opposite attitudes toward occupation. Sonny thinks that

“people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?” (34). He strongly insists

that people can be happy and successful in their lives when they do want they really want, and

that self-assurance can improve them. Sonny thinks that thinking about his future is not

realistically what he is forced to do, but what comes up from his heart. Then, he is against the

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narrator that “what I do not seem to be able to make you understand is that it is the only thing I

want to do” (38), but the narrator cannot understand what Sonny is trying to say, thinking that “I

sensed myself in the presence of something I did not understand” (38). For the narrator, all

Sonny is claiming are totally unacceptable because he thinks it is just extremely hard and weary

to opt for a career in music. Besides, although it leads Sonny to his successful life inside of

himself, he believes it is an unrealistic path to walk. According to the narrator’s viewpoint, the

only way to success is that people have to struggle a lot by following and adapting to the

society’s expectations. That is why he believes Sonny has to endure his school life until he

finishes and re-thinks what he must become in the future. This is the most appropriate way in the

narrator’s opinion.

Nevertheless, the relationship between the narrator and Sonny is finally reconciled after

the narrator goes to Sonny’s performance. Even though they have a difficult time to

communicate with each other, the narrator, in the end, can understand the emotions that come

with from Sonny. “Everything had been burned out of it, and, at the same time, things usually

hidden were being burned in, by the fire and fury of the battle which was occurring in him up

there” (48). In this observance from the narrator, we see he realizes that is the only moment

Sonny looks definitely bright and hopeful, which he has never seen before. Figuratively

speaking, Sonny used to live in the darkness that always give him social and mental problems, so

that he has a lot of fear and discomfort while living. Compared to that daily life when he plays

music, he finally can see the light that represents all of the positive feelings in his outer and inner

life. That warmth comes because music makes him show off a dynamic image of himself. While

Creole and Sonny play the best of their own, Sonny “hit something in all of them, he hit

something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened” (47). Although the narrator

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used to criticize and try to make Sonny get involved in his practical outlook on life, he now

realizes that he does not have to do that way, but rather has to make himself open-minded. It is

more significant to find out what really makes Sonny happier and feel on the top of the world, no

matter what type of job he has. For Sonny, his own motto that encourages him to open his eyes

to escape anxiety, is to try and make it do everything, which is the only way to awaken himself.

In the end, the narrator can hear Sonny and that is the time that he can understand what actually

makes Sonny alive. The moment shows how the narrator has been worried about his younger

brother and how he can open his mind to figure out what Sonny wants to pursue in his life.

Some people of the same type as Sonny usually have much trouble with persuading their

family to understand them. For example, some of parents or siblings, like the narrator, are not

really open-minded whenever those who have optimistic view of life like Sonny thinks, “people

ought to do what they want to do” (34). In short, most family do not allow these good dreamers

to do what they are eager to do, and often force them to do what their family always suggests.

The narrator does not know Sonny has a ‘sad story’ related to his depressed situation and he

struggles with escaping from it before he interacts with Sonny. However, most importantly, the

narrator should make Sonny do what he thinks is the best for making his own living although it is

hard for the narrator to do away with his stereotype that being a musician cannot make Sonny

happy with his life. Sonny also has to be responsible in deciding what he wants to be and more

flexible on discussing his future with the narrator. In addition, as long as they try to make open-

conversations needed or reconcile with each other, they all accept their differences in personality

and behavior. As this gap between both of them always exists, nobody can blame and criticize

who is right or wrong.

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Work Cited

Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." The Art of the Short Story. Illustrated ed. N.p.: Pearson

Longman, 2006. 20-48. Print.