Reading Response #3

Stacey McDonald       

ENG 102

What kind of statement is the story making about the kind of life people should live? Both Sonny and his brother have different views on how to live life, do you think the author is supporting one way over another? Why or why not?

I think the statement the story is trying to make about the kind of life people should live is fairly simple; live the life that makes you the happiest.

While it is true that both Sonny and his brother have very different ways of looking at life, I think the author is trying to, through Sonny, make a point that if you’re not living in such a way that gives you a reason to exist, then why are you bothering to live at all? Sonny may have his fair share of problems, but he lives to please no one but himself. He wanted to join the navy after the death of both of his parents, and he did. He wanted to become a musician, and regardless of how his brother felt about it, he did. The music gave him a purpose that nothing else in his life had before. It certainly was not always glamorous, he had been at rock bottom, almost dying trying to escape from it, but he was happy. In lines 204-210, Sonny says “No, there’s no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep you from drowning in it, to keep on top of it, and to make it seem-well, like you. Like you did something, all right, and now you’re suffering for it, you know?...Well you know, why do people suffer? Maybe it’s better to do something to give it a reason, any reason.” I think that’s the real message of the story, every individual is floating around aimlessly just trying to give the world purpose.

If you’re going to have to suffer at some point or another no matter how you lead your life, then why don’t you suffer for a reason? Do something wrong. At least then you’ll be able to make sense of why this suffering is happening to you.

Look at Sonny’s brother. He leads a quiet life, married, with three kids, and he’s a school teacher at the very same kind of school that he and Sonny once attended. He doesn't go out of his way to do anything wrong, but he suffers. His youngest child, and only daughter, Gracie, died at just two years old from polio. He is trapped in the housing projects, the very same ones that he and Sonny talked about some day being able to escape from. He may not be a recovering(?) drug addict as his brother is, but he also can’t explain his suffering in the same way that Sonny can. When he finally hears Sonny play his music, “Sonny’s Blues,” I think he understands what music felt like to Sonny. It speeds through your veins, and can bring you back to places you've once been, places you've never seen, back in front of the ones you've loved and lost, and then, sadly, back to reality. Sonny and his brother may not have the same idea about how to live, but I believe they both want the same things. They both want to happy, and they both want an explanation for the misery they've had to suffer.