Sonny's Blues

Sonny’s Blues is a story about two brothers. The story is told from the view point of the older brother. Sonny  was seven years younger than his older brother. Their mother dies when Sonny was still in high school. Sonny seemed to have a very free spirit about him. The story starts off by him finding out that his brother has been busted for using heroin. At this time  Sonny and his brother have not talking for quite some time because of past arguments. The story then goes back in time, to him describing/ remembering past conversations/ events with his mother and Sonny.  It then describes when and how Sonny and him began to drift apart. Sonny loved to play the piano. But his brother did not truly think it was a credible way to make a living. Later on when the older brother goes through a tragic time in is life, as he lost his daughter, he decides to write Sonny. He loved his younger brother despite their differences. The story then begins to tell about the reunification of the brothers and how they begin to mend their relationship.

Sonny’s Blues  uses different instances of rhythm. Rhyme is a powerful means of achieving balance , contrast, or echo. Even though Rhymes  can effect the whole work it still  may function in very subtle ways. Different type of rhymes consist of the following: Full, perfect, masculine, feminine, assonance, consonance, slant, off, alliteration, internal, and end rhymes. “Sound and rhythm can have importance even when they have no apparent meaning” (379).

Examples of each are as follows:

Full or perfect rhymes- consists of the similarity of sounds in accented vowels and any consonants that follow-  Date, Fate

Masculine rhyme- the stress is on the final syllable of the words- clown, renown

 Feminine hyme- is one in which the final two syllables rhyme, the first rhyming syllable is stressed, and the final syllable is unstressed -

 Assonance rhyme- consists of a similarity in vowel sounds, but the consonants that follow differ-  diate, lake

 Consonance rhyme- strikes a similarity in the sounds of the final stressed consonant preceding  vowel differs- date, rite

 Slant or off rhymes- words that echo sounds in these ways

Alliteration rhymes- refers to the repetition of intial sounds in words-  date, dud

Internal rhymes- in the middle of a line

end rhymes- in the end of a line