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The Narrator’s Father
The narrator’s father’s brother only appears in “Sonny’s Blues” through the narrator’s memory of a story his mother told him, but nonetheless he is a consequential character because his death is at the center of much of their familial pain. The narrator’s mother describes the narrator’s uncle as a man somewhat similar to Sonny—he was a musician and enjoyed a reckless and bohemian social life. He died when, while walking home from a concert with the narrator’s father, a car of drunk racists ran him over. The death broke the narrator’s father’s heart, leading the narrator’s father to repress his sorrow, which set an example for the narrator to do the same.
The Narrator’s Father’s Brother Quotes in Sonny’s Blues
The Sonny’s Blues quotes below are all either spoken by The Narrator’s Father’s Brother or refer to The Narrator’s Father’s Brother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Sonny’s Blues Quotes
“He says he never in his life seen anything as dark as that road after the lights of that car had gone away.”
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I saw my mother’s face again, and felt, for the first time, how the stones of the road she had walked on must have bruised her feet. I saw the moonlit road where my father’s brother died. And it brought something else back to me, and carried me past it, I saw my little girl again and felt Isabel’s tears again, and I felt my own tears begin to rise. And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.
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The Narrator’s Father’s Brother Character Timeline in Sonny’s Blues
The timeline below shows where the character The Narrator’s Father’s Brother appears in Sonny’s Blues. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Sonny’s Blues
...understand her worry, so she explains that her husband, the narrator’s father, once had a brother who died. The narrator has never heard of this brother before.
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The narrator’s mother recalls that the brother used to play guitar and sing at different places. One Saturday night he and the...
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...road bruised his mother’s feet, and he can see the moonlit night when his father’s brother died. He begins to cry, and remembers that outside the club the world is still...
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