Sonny and his brother, our unnamed narrator, are two men who grew up with the same parents, under the same roof, and had the same societal advantages/disadvantages. Given these factors, the two brothers are a lot like and come from the same place. On the other hand, Sonny is an drug user who is also a talented jazz musician while his brother is a mathematician with a family living on his own. The two have difficulties relating to one another but they both appear to want a relationship with each other and before their parents passed away our narrator promised their mother he would look after Sonny. It only took Sonny's arrest and the death of his brother's daughter Grace for the two to start writing to each other. Sonny and his brother are two very different people with their own views on life however they're alike in many ways besides the fact that they grew up in the same house. .

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             Sonny and his brother both came from the same place so it's only natural that they have some similarities even if they don't realize it themselves. "These boys, now, were living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities " Sonny and the narrator both grew up in Harlem which is a very rough place for children to grow up. Living in Harlem they were both held back by the limits set to them by their living situation. Sonny and his brother both knew it would be harder for them to make something of their lives. Despite how they turned both turned out neither one had it any easier then the other to make something of themselves. The brothers also had to experience the difficulties of losing both of their parents which had a key role in their lives. "The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows they won't talk anymore because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him ".