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Flashbacks In Sonny's Blues

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Flashbacks are important in “Sonny’s Blues”, because they provide context for the events of the story. Flashbacks of the past help readers to understand the present. The author uses significant flashbacks to highlight the theme of the story, which is the obligation of the narrator’s love towards his brother, Sonny. In an important flashback, the narrator recalls the fight between Sonny and their father because they were so much alike in personality. The narrator also remembers his mother requesting him to watch out for his brother on the last day he saw her while on leave from the army. She related the story to him of how his father’s life was devastated when he watched his own brother get run down by a car occupied by white men who never attempted

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