A rough storyboard for Sonny's Blues

Don Sampo
Professor Hepworth
English 150
Fiction Storyboard

Sonny’s Blues

Characters: Sonny, his brother, Creole, Dad, Mom, Isabel, Little Grace. Sonny is the main character. Sonny is more of a round character. I think he is dynamic.

Point of view: First person, brother is the narrator. The narrator is a participant, minor character. Brother could be an observer.

Setting: Harlem, New York. 1957.

Symbol: thing that suggests more than its literal meaning. Heroin, Jazz, or the piano.

Tone: attitude. Suffering. Hatred. Bitterness. Misery. Racism.

Style: mode of expression. The language a writer uses. Bookish language, imagery, with lots of feeling.

Theme: whatever general idea or insight the entire story reveals. In "Sonny's Blues," the brother finally comes to understand the darkness and suffering that consumes Sonny, and he begins to appreciate the music that Sonny uses to calm those blues.
Plot: artistic arrangement of the events.
Sonny’s brother is shocked as he reads the newspaper and walks from the subway to his algebra class. He is thinking back about when his brother was younger and straight. He is worried now about his brother’s safety. He could be shooting up somewhere or dealing Horse. Sonny’s brother realized that some of the boys in his class could getting stoned on heroin right there in the bathroom at school.
Sonny got busted for dealing and using heroin. A friend of Sonny’s tells his brother all about it. After a long time, Sonny finally wrote a letter to his brother. He told him that he was sorry and it was really bad in jail. Sonny got out of prison, and his brother got into a taxi with him to talk about his life.
They lived in a rundown housing project. They stopped at Isabel’s place for a while. They spoke with Mama about their father’s brother. Some drunken white guys hit him with their car. The father’s brother used to play his guitar on Saturday nights at different places. Mama is reminding her son that he has a brother. A brother needs looking after.

Sonny’s brother got married and then went back to the armed forces. Sonny wanted to be a jazz musician like Charlie Parker. Sonny played the piano at Isabel’s place. He would go to Greenwich Village to play the piano at a white girl’s apartment. Sonny moved in the apartment at the Village, and he associated with his friends and not his brother. Sonny and his brother got into a fight.

There was a revival meeting with a barbecue down the street. Sonny and his brother attended, but they were still distant. The meeting ended and the brothers talked for quite a while. Sonny talked about hatred and misery and love. He talked about heroin and his addiction.

They went to a nightclub, and Creole met with them. Creole took Sonny by the arm and lead him to the piano. Creole went to his bass fiddle, and another black man picked up his horn. There was Creole, and Sonny, and the other band members playing their jazz. The music was a release from feelings deep inside of Sonny. They were playing, “Am I Blue.” Sonny filled the air with music and life from that piano. Sonny’s brother had tears running down his face. He finally realized Sonny’s piano playing and what it all meant to him.