Sonny Blues essay

According to James Baldwin’s novel “Sonny’s Blues” Bird Scene 36, My interpretation of it was about a character named bird who was unemployed. It seemed like he doesn’t like to get involved in anything. So far, my interpretation of Bird Scene 36 is about a character named Bird who has his own way of doing things. The main message of this scene is to be a leader, not what others want or expect of you, but its what you expect of yourself in not giving others the satisfaction of being right. The message of this scene is also about avoiding suffering. "Sonny's Blues" opens as the narrator learns from a newspaper that his younger brother, Sonny, has been arrested for dealing heroin. The narrator is taking the subway to his high-school teaching job. At the end of the school day, the "insular and mocking" laughter of his students reminds him that as youths he and Sonny had been filled with rage and had known "two darkness’s"—the one of their lives and the one of the movies that made them momentarily forget about their lives. Leaving the school, the narrator comes across an old friend of Sonny's in the schoolyard.
While Sonny's friend and the narrator talk about Sonny's arrest, they tell each other some of their fears. In front of a bar that blasts "black and bouncy'' music, the friend, who is not given a name, says that he "can't much help old Sonny no more.'' This angers the narrator because it reminds him that he himself had given up trying to help his brother because he had not known how; indeed, he had not even seen Sonny in a year. It disturbs the narrator to see his situation shared by someone who is not even related to Sonny. The friend mentions that he thought Sonny was too smart to get caught in a drug bust. In anger, the narrator criticizes the friend, sarcastically implying that the friend must have been smarter since he had not been arrested himself. The friend pauses and replies that he would have killed himself a long time ago if he were really