Sonny's Piano

In the short story "Sonny's Blues," when Sonny first starts to play the piano, he seems to struggle with hit. The violinist, Creole, seems to hold Sonny back and keep a tight leash on Sonny. In a way, it seems like Creole is holding back Sonny for the first song. "I just watched Sonny's face. His face was troubled, he was working hard, but he wasn't with it." Then the next songs starts to kick in.
During the second song, the narrator begins to understand what the music does for Sonny. The only thing he knows prior to this is that most people don't really feel the music that they are playing. When he watches Sonny play, he can see the emotion and pain that he is feeling when he plays his songs. He says, "Sonny moved, deep within, exactly like someone in torment. I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do." He realizes that the piano is simply just a piano, and it's Sonny who creates the music. The piano is just a tool to let Sonny let out whatever he has bottled up inside and lets him express who he is and who he wants to be. He says, "Then they all came together again, and Sonny was part of the family again. I could tell this from his face. He seemed to have found, right there, beneath his fingers, a damn brand-new piano." When he plays the piano, he becomes part of a "family," which helps Sonny feel at home and and rest.