10/29/2012
The Conflicts between Siblings
In the story “Sonny’s blues”, the Sonny’s brother is the narrator and main character; his name is never mentioned throughout the story. He and Sonny are the two brothers with a big difference of their ages. They don’t spend too much time with each other since they grow up. They have different world. The narrator is a high school algebra teacher and family man. Sunny is through his brother’s eyes, as a quiet, introspective person with a tendency to withdraw inside himself. Sonny is also described by the narrator as wild, but not crazy. He takes drugs which led him to jail. He wants to be a musician because of his passion for jazz. The narrator wishes his brother to have a regular and stable job as himself, but doesn’t work unsteadily as a musician. Sunny doesn’t finish school, so he is hard to find a job which is same as his brother’s thought. He doesn’t have too many work choices like other black youths during the years. Sunny and his brother have different life styles. The narrator promises their mother to take care of Sunny, but he thinks he does not do it well. They have different philosophy and different understanding of career paths. After the narrator’s daughter dies, the narrator and Sunny talk to each other. The narrator finally understands of Sonny’s pursuit of music. In the story “Everyday use”, Dee is oldest daughter of "Mama" and sister to Maggie. She is a educated, worldly, and deeply determined girl; she gets everything what she wants. Maggie is the younger daughter who stays with Mama while Dee goes to school. She wants to stay with her mother because she is an unintelligent and unattractive girl. Dee wants to escape from the village, and she always dresses herself attractively. Dee is successfully to have better education and opportunity to see the world. Maggie gets stuck because of her shy character. Dee is an independent girl, and Maggie is a dependent girl. They have different