Olivia's Essay

Olivia Denison
Mr. Salsich
April 16, 2009
English 9

Little Brothers:
A Comparison between a Poem and a Story

How are you supposed to react when you feel like you’ve lost a little brother or sister? Your attempts at finding them seem hopeless and all you have left are memories. These memories help to mend a strained relationship. The struggle between loss and reconciliation (FAST) is a central theme in the story, “Sonny’s Blues” and the poem, “The Little Brother Poem.”

As I read “The Little Brother Poem” by Naomi Shihab Nye, I identified some figurative language. The author uses imagery and metaphors to express the theme of the poem, moving on. Ms. Nye sympathizes with her brother that “It’s a large order I know, dumping out a whole drawer at once, fingering receipts and stubs, trying to put them back in some kind of shape so you’ll be able to find everything later, when you need it, and you don’t have so much time.” The metaphor at the end of the poem compares receipts and stubs to her brother’s life events and the memories that they may evoke (FAST) when he is close to dying. Imagery is used in her descriptions of their childhood and how some of the simple moments with her brother were actually the most fun and memorable. For example, the time when he “ran miniature trucks up [her] arms” or when she “told him monkeys arrived in the night to kidnap boys with brown hair.” I can imagine both of them smiling, laughing, talking, while her brother is imitating the sounds of a car driving on her arms. (ASYNDETON) I can also envision him reacting, screaming and hiding under the blanket when she told him monkeys come at night. (PERIODIC SENTENCE) She also uses imagery in the beginning of the poem to describe the things she is throwing away that once belonged to her brother. She says she “keeps finding little pieces of junk […] stashed away in the shed for future uses.” I can picture her sifting through a broken-down shed filled with her brother’s mementos as her eyes fill with tears, smiling all the while. (PARTICIPLE PHRASE, CLOSER) Ms. Nye’s use imagery is beautiful and magnetic, making the reader yearn (FAST) for more.

There are many similarities between “Sonny’s Blues” and “The Little Brother Poem”, as both are based on a relationship with a little brother. Sonny’s brother says, “I was sitting in living room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My trouble made his real.” This parallels (FAST) the poem when Ms. Nye asks, “Long distance I said are you happy? And your voice wasn’t sure. It sounded small, younger, it sounded like the little brother I don’t have anymore.” Likewise, Sonny’s brother can relate this to Sonny, because sitting in the living room alone; he doesn’t seem to have a little brother anymore, since Sonny is in jail. At the end of both the poem and the story, similar resolutions (FAST) occur. When Ms. Nye contends at the end of the poem, “It’s a large order I know, dumping out a whole drawer at once, fingering receipts and stubs, trying to put them back in some kind of shape so you’ll be able to find everything later, when you need it, and you don’t have so much time” reminds me of when Sonny’s brother proclaims, “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did…I heard what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in the earth.” These two quotes are comparable, because they both give examples of understanding one another and the struggle their little brothers will face before they die. A final comparison can be made when Ms. Nye states, “You’re not little anymore. You passed me up and kept reminding me I’d stopped growing. We’re different, always have been.” In the first and second passage, both Ms. Nye and her brother and Sonny and his brother accept that they are different from one another and that no one is perfect. The older siblings both realize that the seniority (FAST) that they once possessed (FAST) over their younger siblings is gone, but a whole new relationship and understanding can begin.

It’s sad when you believe that you’ve lost an emotional bond with someone and they just won’t communicate. Fortunately, Sonny and his brother started speaking to each other again. We don’t know if Ms. Nye and her brother ever spoke again, but I know she hoped they would, even if it was on their death beds.