It is in the imagery of music that we come to understand Sonny's character. He is a tortured soul. He represents sadness and feeling, by contrast with his brother who represents fear and reason. Sonny does not avoid the darkness. He dives into it. The darkness and ice nourish him for some reason. He finds it in the blues he plays and in his obsession with music. At the same time, he sinks into his own depths, never able to talk. The image of depth characterizes him. Sonny withdraws into himself. He becomes insular in response to the outside world. His brother remembers him as a child full of "privacy" (1). This suggests a personality trend that contributes to the way he deals with suffering and conflict. After fights with his father, his brother remembers that "Sonny just moves back, inside himself, where he can't be reached" (8). In other...
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