Sonny Blues

Sonny's Blues.  I understood it until the end.  I sort of could catch on to the ending, but not really.  I understand Baldwin was trying to make music with his words, but it was hard for me to catch on what those words meant.  All of a sudden he went from Sonny not being fully into yet and still facing the past to it brought the main characters memories back.  

"I heard what he had gone through and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth."

Through Sonnys music he was able to hear about what he went through.  I found it interesting because when they were talking you couldn't really tell what he had gone though.  But in his music, Sonny was able to express it to his brother. 

"He had made it his: that long line, of which we knew only Mama and Daddy."

The wording of this statement sort of confused me.  He had talked about the music explaining what Sonny had gone through, but now it is of the times which their parents were living.  It reminded him of the story of his father and his fathers brother dying.  It brought up sadness and the past and brought him past it.  It goes onto to say that he remembered his daughter dying and his wifes tears and how he was beginning to tear.  It makes me believe the music brought up these feelings because when he wrote Sonny saying his little girl died I had to read that sentence over again.  In the story it says it so nonchalantly like no big deal his daughter died and go straight back to Sonny.  Maybe it was purposeful, so that the readers would think no big deal and skip over it like the character actually does in his life.  Then during the music it brings the past up and all of these things he made no big deal a big deal and now he can reflect on it.  The world stops and "waited outside", so that is what the music is doing stopping the chaos and allowing everything to settle.