In "Sonny's Blues," the narrator, who has recently found out that his brother (Sonny) was arrested for heroine, is speaking to one of Sonny's friends. This friend is telling the narrator about when Sonny first became interested in heroine. Sonny had asked the friend "how it felt." This revelation is too painful for the narrator and he stares at the barmaid as a form of distraction.
He paused, I couldn't bear to watch him, I...
In "Sonny's Blues," the narrator, who has recently found out that his brother (Sonny) was arrested for heroine, is speaking to one of Sonny's friends. This friend is telling the narrator about when Sonny first became interested in heroine. Sonny had asked the friend "how it felt." This revelation is too painful for the narrator and he stares at the barmaid as a form of distraction.
He paused, I couldn't bear to watch him, I watched the barmaid, and I listened to the music which seemed to be causing the pavement to shake. "I told him it felt great." The music stopped, the barmaid paused and watched the juke box until the music began again. "It did."
The narrator does not want to hear this about his brother, so he uses music and the barmaid (who is dancing to the music) as a way to avoid suffering. This is similar to a time when the narrator whistles "to keep from crying" when he leaves Sonny's apartment after an argument.
What the narrator does not realize, which Sonny will show him by the end of the story, is that music is better used as a method to express and to soothe suffering than as a method to avoid it.
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