Sonny's Blues
The article, “Identity”, defines identity as “the search for self and its relationship to social contexts and realities” (Carlton 379). These ideas are seen in Brother, in the short story of “Sonny’s Blues”. Brother describes himself as a black man who has lived in poverty all of his life. He watched a lot of people in his neighborhood, including his brother, Sonny, go down the wrong path of crime and drugs. Brother did not succumb to these pressures, however, he still struggled with the life he had been given. Brother identifies himself as a big brother to Sonny and as a product of Harlem. Throughout the story, Brother talks about the struggles of growing up in Harlem. When Brother and Sonny are riding through their childhood neighborhood, he describes it as “the vivid, killing streets of our childhood” (Baldwin 1733). Brothers experiences in Harlem were real and raw. The intensity of the violence and poverty that he witnessed was still fresh and vivid in his mind. This neighborhood was how he identified himself as a human being. He explains how the life of growing up in the ghetto is a trap that most people cannot escape, “Those who got out always left something of themselves behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap.