Sometimes you have to have that feeling.”(Baldwin 58). First, this aids in demonstrating the conflict of the time the culture Americans built around discrimination and sidelining the inner African- American city culture. Sonny was under the influence of heroin so as to feel in control of the immediate occurrences because he was not in control whatsoever. His ability to get out of the deprived inner-city life came to an end at the time due to American culture. When people are not entitled to control their perceived destiny, they have to engage in something that gives them that feeling of control whether induced through narcotics or …show more content…
Sonny demonstrates this very vividly displaying the role of drugs as the catalyst of this feeling. Accordingly, when he was mostly out of the world, he felt that he was in it and that he had to play or did not have to either. Sonny was performing music and using heroin to escape his oppressive life caused by the society. His brother escaped the oppression by joining the army and acquired an education to teach in his local neighborhood of