Summary

The narrator remembers a conversation with Sonny after their mother’s funeral, finally trying to keep his promise to look after his younger brother. There he grills Sonny about his plans for the future. He is dismayed to learn that Sonny wants to be a jazz musician. The narrator shows how far removed he was from Sonny’s sensibilities when he asks if Sonny wanted to play like Louis Armstrong. Sonny doesn’t want to play “that old-time, down home crap” (p. 12) though; he wants to play like bebop musician Charlie Parker. The narrator has never heard of him and thus he doesn’t understand Sonny’s passion. Playing jazz is the only thing Sonny wants to do, other than to get out of Harlem.

At the time, Sonny reluctantly agrees to move in with Isabel’s strict parents and finish school. He brightens when he...