Heroin Addiction In James Baldwin's Sonny

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The un named narrator of the story finds out from a newspaper that his brother “Sonny” had been arrested on account of his heroin addiction. As the story continues the narrator is preparing his lesson for his algebra class and he thinks about his younger brother as a child. Then he comes upon the realization that his students too, could end up like his younger brother.
When school ends session the narrator starts heading home and he notices one one of his bothers old friends, and that he is waiting for him on the corner of the street. Both of the men begin to walk and converse about Sonny. Some time goes by, and the narrator never writes his brother while he is in jail until the narrators daughter passes away. The narrator receives a letter …show more content…
He remembers one of the last conversations he had with his mother and she told him to look out for his younger brother, she told him that when his father was younger he had watched his younger brother get run down by a car full of white people who never once stopped. The event traumatized the narrators father for the rest of his life. After the conversation with his mother the narrator goes back into the army and doesn’t think much of his younger brother sonny. The narrator then arranges for sonny to live with his wives’ family until sonny graduated form college. Sonny didn’t want to move in with his brothers in laws but did so anyway. Sonny wanted to be a musician so he spent all his time practicing piano. after altercations with sonny and his brother about Sonny’s truancy at school sonny decides to join the navy. After the war The two brothers hadn’t seen or spoke to each other for quite some time when they did finally meet they fought about the choices Sonny had made and sonny told the narrator that he could consider him dead. The narrator knew that someday sonny would need his help and the flashback ends there. After having sonny live in his house for awhile the
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