Monday, 25 May 2009 - 7:53 PM EDT

I think that the narrator in this story learns the lesson of living your dream. He seemed to be really serious about having a job that you could make a living with. He didn't seem to understand that you can live your dream and make a living off of it. He finally learns that you can live the dream when Sonny performs on the piano. The narrator learned from Sonny that you can have fun at your job. I think that everyone should never give up on their dreams and never let them die out.

At the beginning of this story, Sonny was the student. He seemed to look up to the narrator, but he still wanted to do things his own way. He ended up teaching the narrator to be a little less serious in life. I think that his addiction to heroine kind of opened his eyes. He wanted to get out of the city, and his job would have taken him to where he wanted to go. I think that it is important to do what you want to do, and not let any one tell you how to live your life.

Monday, 25 May 2009 - 8:09 PM EDT

The narrator starts out as only being an algebra teacher whose brother gets himself in trouble with heroin, but as the story goes on he starts to think back on his life with his brother and learns that he actually kinda owes his brother for the life he has. By the end of the story he learns that he has learned more from his brother than he wanted to admit in the beginning.

Monday, 25 May 2009 - 9:14 PM EDT

The narrator is a teacher in real life and almost seems to think of his younger brother Sonny more like a student than a brother.  He is living a normal life, whereas Sonny is addicted to heroin.  As the story progresses, they switch roles.  The narrator learns from Sonny.  He honors his mom's wishes to try to look after Sonny after she dies, but Sonny still gets into trouble.  He must have felt like a failure as a teacher and role model to Sonny.  As he tries to understand where Sonny is coming from, he learns how important music is to Sonny.  It is Sonny's way to express his emotions.  The narrator regains his respect for Sonny when he sees him put his heart into his performance in the end.  Sonny was actually able to teach his brother why he is the way he is.

Monday, 25 May 2009 - 11:22 PM EDT

I believe a lot of the story is kinda about becoming teachable. As we know the narrator is accually a teacher but throughout the story it is shown that he starts learing more from Sonny than he thought he could. The narrator has some trubles dealing with Sonny and I think a lot of the frustration he might have had was all because he didn't understand.

Its always hard to teach a teacher but if an experience to a death and having to look after another one seems to humble themselves and will sit back and try to understand what the big picture is. But in the end the narrator was able to be taught and learned from Sonny's performance on the love he has always had in music.

Monday, 25 May 2009 - 11:52 PM EDT

I saw both Sonny and the narrator as teachers, but they were not understanding it until both of them realised that they learned from eachother. I think that they knew who was the one on the "straight and narrow", which is more reliable, but Sonny's passion and internal strength caught my pespect faster because he was an indevidual. Even though his decisions were questionable to society, he still was doing exactly as he planned. He was accepting the fact that he was seen as the student. 

I see this situation almost identically with my brother and I. He is seven years older and was always a positive influence on me, he was seen as beneficial model for my future behavior. Because he was supposed to be my "idol", it was hard for me to want to stay on the same path as him. He was not outgoing, his voice in society was close to nothing most of the time (I mean that with the most respect). He was too reserved to make an impact. Especially on me. I decided to take my own path like Sonny, and as of now, there has been no major problems. A few gray hairs on my parents head, but that is almost guarenteed.

I also saw myself drawn to Sonny through music, it is a certain way to express yourself, plus it is a teaching tool in itself. You learn more about yourself through music than any teacher or sibling can. So even though I don't fall as extreme as Sonny, there is the definite comparison in the ways we choose to draw our life path. 

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 - 12:38 AM EDT

This story showed how strongly and easily addiction can rule your life. The narrator had to learn from Sonny about the struggles and impact of trying to overcome the addiction has put onto him, his piano playing is what frees Sonny's mind and soul, the narrator figures this out when he finally puts himself into his brothers shoes and goes to "Sonny's place" to listen to him play. It's exactly likethe whole asspect of putting yourself in someone elses shoes in order to understand why they are who they are.

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 - 11:16 AM EDT

The narrator in this story seems to worry too much. He is a teacher in real life but what he doesn't know is he's really the student. He learns so many new things when trying to understand his brothers life. I think sonny's addiction kind of showed the narrator how boring and slow his life is. No adventure, no dreams, no fun. Sonny thouhgt him that by just living his life, all the narrator had to do is realize.

I almost think it goes back to his mothers death. Maybe him and his brother just have different ways of handling death and it cause their futures to be nothing alike.

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 - 1:31 PM EDT

As a person, I love the idea of a role model or teacher learning from those they lead. This story showed how life truly is,that we are never to old to learn and how much the one "beneath" us can teach us just as much as you teach them.

To start out Sonny was messing up and learning from his brother but as the story progresses, the two begin to grow closer to one another and begin to discover the deeper hidden inner workings. As a result the narrator also learns more about my parents and why his father was the way he was.

At the end, The narrator is able to take a step back and truly see how much Sonny had grown into a man. he is both shocked and overjoyed at this occasion, much like a father seeing his son buy his first razor. In conclusion perhaps we should approach life from a learner's perspective and not thinking we know it all. "Out of the mouths of babes.."

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 - 8:50 PM EDT

I think that the title of the narrator's profession, a teacher, was what was blinding, at first, the narrator from the lessons he was learning from Sonny. After all, what would Sonny know? He had been caught with drugs and then came up with this dream of being a musician, whereas the narrator had a stable and respectable job, an algebra teacher. What's ironic is that in this story the teacher becomes the student, and the student becomes the teacher. Sonny had it rough for years, but when he finally decided to strive to become the piano player he wanted to be, he succeeded. He really followed through in this dream, and in the end, his brother acknowledged how far Sonny had come by giving him a drink. The narrator saw his progress, and realized that Sonny's accomplishments didn't come from him, they came from Sonny's dream and motivation. This is what Sonny taught his brother, Sonny proved to his brother that, through music, he could follow his dreams and make them real, getting his life back in order. 

Sunday, 31 May 2009 - 10:02 PM EDT

So pretty sure i was  absent when we got this assignment, so im doing it now.

Well, first off this story was very well written. I think that throughout this story both characters learned alot about each other. Both good and bad. Sonny's brother learns alot about how life really is, outside of his little bubble of a life. Sonny just wants to be full of life and out there and his brother likes to be in control and live to what he thinks is the fullest. To him life should be what the american dream is like. Sonny's idea is very different. His idea of life is just relaxing and whatever happens, well happens. I think Sonny learned to be a little more conservative and think about what he is doing. His brother learned to not think about things as much before he does them.