Can one know another's thoughts? Through dialogue, actions, and events, the thoughts and views of a man of whom we know not even a name are shown. The manis the narrator of "Sonny's Blues" and his thoughts we are shown are thosedirected towards his brother. Over the course of the story, there are threemajor stages or phases that the narrator goes through, in which his thoughtsabout his brother change. We see that those stages of thought vary greatly overthe narrator's life, from confusion about his brother to understanding. Eachphase brings different views of his own responsibility toward his brother, hisbrother's manhood, and his brother's sense of reality.Through out the story, three of the narrator's view are changed, the first ofwhich is Sonny's manhood. During the first phase, early in the story, thenarrator showed that he viewed Sonny as a child. "I was beginning to realizethat I'd never seen him so upset before... [and decided this was] one of thosethings kids go through and that I shouldn't make it seem important."(49) Thisquote is an example of how the narrator viewed his brother. He not only thoughtSonny acted as a kid, but was also too young to be planning a future or career."He still wasn't a man yet, he was still a child, and they had to watch out forhim in all kinds of ways."(51) The narrator decided that he would plan Sonny'sfuture and when Sonny rebelled, the narrator saw it as yet another childishaction.Another way in which the narrator's overall view changed was his view on whetherSonny's idea of reality was sound. Still in the first phase, the narrator oftenpresents his view of reality and when Sonny rejects it, the narrator feels Sonnyis being unreasonable. For instance, "'Well Sonny,' I said, gently, "you knowpeople can't always do exactly what they want to do-' 'No I don't think that,'said Sonny, surprising me."(49) Actually, Sonny understood life much moreclearly than the narrator, but the narrator did not real...
