Aha Moment In Sonny's Blues

Whether one is young or old, we’ve all had that “Aha moment!” According to Buzzle, an epiphany is a feeling, a thought, a realization that strikes from within. It’s the essential last piece of the puzzle that brings forth a completely different outlook to the whole picture and sets forth a new perspective to life. Just think of an epiphany like the light bulb finally came on. This occurs in all three short stories that will be discussed more now.
In Sonny’s Blues the narrator was a bit apprehensive towards Sonny’s music and passion for playing the piano. He felt that it would only drag Sonny back down the same road to heroin use that he had recovered from. At the same time the narrator showed a great deal of love toward his brother because he kept his promise to his mother to look out for Sonny. When the narrator sees Sonny perform in the nightclub, he notices that’s the way Sonny escapes his problems. The narrator also at that same moment realized, he too is in a way like his brother, looking
for a way to escape because he feels that he is confined to the city of Harlem and to the projects that he and his family live in.
In the short story, And Sarah Laughed, Sarah is frustrated with the fact that her husband is deaf. She is irritated because she can’t express her feelings and thoughts to him. Her oldest son Abel recently gets married to a young woman named Janice. When the couple visits for the first time Sarah realized that Janice has a certain way of communicating with Abel with her hands. Sarah’s other children quickly pick up on that, and quickly start doing the same. Sarah had tried to have her kids learn to read lips but it wasn’t successful, and seeing them sign annoys her because she is worried that others will judge because her family is different. Also, Sarah doesn’t know how to sign and she in a way is jealous. Sarah finally gives in and starts learning sign language because she realized that she was really that deaf one. Everyone else in the family could communicate except her. The title of this story is appropriate because once Sarah learned to sign she could laugh and communicate with her family and he life had wholeness to it again.
The mother-daughter relationship in I Stand Here Ironing is not the average at all.
After Emily was born, her mother started leaving her with a care giver that she disliked. Emily’s mother was not around during the time when a child wants to cling and bond with the parent. This is a very crucial time in a child’s life, and this causes the initial dent in their future relationship. Emily’s mother then has a second child and she can’t be reassured of her mother’s love because all the attention must be given to the newborn. Emily is then kept from her sibling because she gets the measles. By this time Emily is becoming use to the absence of her mother. Emily goes away to a care home and by the time her mother has the time to actually get close with daughter, Emily has grown distant with her mother and is not accepting the sudden change. At the end the mother realizes that Emily is a product of her environment and even thought she may want a relationship now, Emily may
not.
Everyone in some point in life will reach an epiphany. I believe in order to have one a person must approach every situation with an open mind. Also, be able to understand people and their situations and why they may feel and do certain thing that they do. In Sonny’s Blues, the narrator not only got a better understanding of his brother but realized he needed fixing to. Once Sarah learned to sign, she felt complete being able to have a better relationship and understanding of her husband. She also quit caring what people thought of her and her family. Unfortunately it was a little too late for Emily’s mother in the end. A closed mind and heart will get one nowhere in life or with others.