"Sonny's Blues", is a story of pain, addiction, and two brothers" search for acceptance. The story is told from the perspective of Sonny's brother, who is a school teacher in Harlem. He finds out that his brother was arrested for using and selling heroin. "Sonny's Blues" isn't just about the pain and sadness in their lives, but it is also about learning to overcome their differences and trying to salvage the bond they once had. Baldwin does an excellent job of showing the frailty of human emotion. .
When Sonny's brother finds out that his brother was arrested, he's initial reaction was total denial. He says, "I couldn't believe it: but what I meant by that is that I couldn't find any room for it anywhere inside me I didn't want to believe that I"d ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face had gone out, in the condition I"d already seen in so many others." (42) Sonny and his brother were raised on the brutal streets of Harlem and grew up around drug dealers. Growing up in Harlem, especially being African-American, meant that there weren't many opportunities for them. Sonny's brother says, "These boys, now, were living as we"d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities ." (42) It isn't surprising that Sonny turned to drugs to escape the dismal future that society has handed him.
Sonny didn't want to believe that his brother had become just another "victim" of the ghetto.