Comparison Of Regret In Sonny's Blue And I Stand Here Ironing

Regret is a part of life. There is at least one thing that people regret in their past lifetime and look back and wish they could have done it more differently. Regret can come from not pursing their dreams and not being there for their loved ones. Regret can cause pain all types of ways. In “Sonny’s Blue” by James Baldwin and “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tillie Olsen, each of the authors demonstrates about regret and how much pain it causes them. Both of the authors write about disappointing their families, when they should have been there for them.

In “Sonny’s Blues” the story starts with the narrator who is Sonny’s brother. Sonny’s brother first knew about Sonny’s arrest by reading the newspaper. While reading it, he was angry and in pain because he was thinking about how Sonny got himself into a bad place. After running into Sonny’s old friend, the narrator is talking to him and the friend is explaining how it was his fault that Sonny is in jail and he is the reason why Sonny started selling and using heroin. After talking to Sonny’s old friend, the narrator is mad and upset that Sonny would do that. Sonny’s brother looks back and thinks that Sonny is a troublemaker, but never to that extent.

Feeling the regret and pain, the narrator does not know what to do with Sonny. Not only is he dealing with Sonny’s arrest, his daughter

unfortunately died. Sonny’s brother works as a high school teacher and reading about what Sonny did makes him think about his students. He looks around at the kids and thinks if they could end up like Sonny. The narrator sits in his classroom and hears the kids yelling and playing outside, he says “Perhaps I was listening to them because I was thinking about my brother and in them I heard my brother. And myself”(123).
At this point Sonny brother’s is regretful after the fact the Sonny is locked up and knowing that if he was there for him this would never have happened. Sonny’s old friend went to talk to Sonny’s brother and it felt like that the narrator was getting angrier and every time he replied back to Sonny’s friend with an angry tone. The narrator mentions, "Look. I haven't seen Sonny for over a year, I'm not sure I'm going to do anything. Anyway, what the hell can I do?"(124)
The narrator talks about what he’s not able to do for his brother when he has to worry about his own problems and Sonny got himself into this mess on his own.

Sonny’s brother feels guilty after talking to Sonny’s friend and after his daughter died he decides to write Sonny a letter, he says, “I didn't write Sonny or send him anything for a long time. When I finally did, it was just after my little girl died, and he wrote me back a letter which made me feel like a bastard”(126). From there on he would write and send things to Sonny. The narrator thinks about Sonny being his baby brother and how can someone get themselves in

trouble.
When Sonny was out of Jail, he wanted to focus on his music and Sonny’s brother was thinking that his music is a bad influence on Sonny. Sonny dropped out of college so he can concentrate on his passion for music. The narrator seems afraid that he is going to lose Sonny again.
Looking back, the narrator had a talk about Sonny with their mother before she passed away. He explains to the older brother that he needs to look after his brother, the mother clarifies,
She stood up from the window and came over to me. ”You got to hold on to your brother," she said, "and don't let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening to him and no matter how evil you gets with him. You going to be evil with him many a time. But don't you forget what I told you, you hear (82)?

After talking to his mother, he left and got married. At his this point he forgot his promise to his mother to be there for Sonny. It seems that music was the only thing that could of help Sonny. The narrator did not like the idea that Sonny did not have a real job. During their mother’s funeral, the narrator was talking to Sonny and asking him what is he going to do with his life and he says I want to become a Jazz musician or go to the army. Sonny’s brother argues with him and tells him to wake up. That’s never going to happen. He realizes now that all he has been doing is pushing him back.
This tells how different both of the characters are and the reason the narrator cannot understand him. Sonny deals with his problems differently than his brother. Sonny’s brother keeps his feelings locked in. Towards the end of the story the narrator, begins to regret his close-mindedness towards his brother’s dreams which leads to a stronger relationship between them and reconciliation.
Similarly, in “I Stand Here Ironing” by Tille Olsen the same theme of regret is shown. The story begins when the mother is thinking about her daughter Emily while she’s ironing. She looks back and was thinking about how she was not there for Emily throughout her childhood. She describes Emily to be a beautiful baby she explained “She was a beautiful baby. She blew shining bubbles of sound. She loved motion, loved light, loved color and music and textures.” (69)
The mother was only nineteen years old when she had Emily. She was depressed when Emily’s father left them mother had to find a job to take care of her daughter. The mother found a night job but she had to leave her daughter with her father’s family. After she got another job she got her daughter to come back to her, but all the mother saw in her daughter was Emily father in her.
When she finally came, I hardly knew her walking quick and nervous like
her father, looking like her father, thin, and dressed in shoddy red that yellowed her skin and glared at the pockmarks. All the baby loveliness gone (70)

When the mother said that she felt like I felt the mother was feeling resentment towards Emily. At age two Emily was put in date care and she would do anything to stay home. All she wanted to was home with her mother.
When Emily was sent away due to the red measles, her mother realizes that she wants her daughter back. Emily was only seven year olds when it happened. The mother had Susan and the clinic told the mother that it would be best for Emily to leave the house and get sent away to a treatment center. After the treatment center, the mother explains, “I used to hold love her after she came back, but her body would stay stiff, and after while she’d push away”(73). The mother would let Emily stay home from school, so she can spend more time with Emily. Emily turns nine-teen years old and the mother mentions that she could not be any more proud of her daughter and what she becomes. The mother feels like she got her daughter back.
Between these stories, it seems that Sonny and Emily have a connection. They each are let down by their love ones. Despite of them having to go through difficult time, they got to a place where they wanted to be. The authors have a similar theme which is regret. When explaining what they could’ve done differently, each of the characters knows what they did was wrong and they realize they cannot go back and change everything, but they have to look in the present and future. With regret you cannot go back time but you can try to fix it now when you have the chance.