A captivating tale of relationship of two troubling brothers in Harlem, "Sonny's Blues" is told from a perspective of Sonny's brother, whose name is never mentioned. Baldwin's choice of Sonny's brother as a narrator is what makes "Sonny's Blues" significant in terms of illustrating the relationship and emotional complications of Sonny and his brother. The significance of "Sonny's Blues" lies in the way Sonny's brother describes the relationship based on what he observes, hears, and feels, and how he struggles trying to understand Sonny through the course of the story. This story is told from Sonny's brother's point of view. This story is primarily his brothers life, that how he struggled in his life, and now he is watching his younger brother Sonny going through the same situation, he worries about Sonny's life whether he will be able to escape the trap of the world, which is trapping all the growing young men into it. Sonny's brother sees his brother trying to be a jazz musician, he watches him going through all the difficulties in his life, and how he doesn't want Sonny to be a jazz musician, in the end how he sees his brother Sonny playing at the nightclub. .
Sonny's brother is an algebra teacher. He was totally aware of the situation where Sonny is, till he reads about his brother being picked up on drug use in the newspaper. He is not able to teach his classes properly that day. That's how the story begins As Sonny's brother, the narrator gets to be physically and mentally as close to Sonny as anyone else can. Readers get to know that Sonny's brother is a fairly reliable narrator from the fact that he is an algebra teacher and far less abused by "horse" or "the low ceiling of their actual possibilities" than the kids around the neighborhood, including Sonny. Sonny's brother is aware of what is going on between Sonny and him and accurately describes the relationship, "The seven years' difference in our ages lay between us like a chasm: I wondered if these years would ever operate between us as a bridge.