" The narrator notes, As the singing filled the air, the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within; the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them; and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces as though there were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last. (Baldwin 18) Later on in the story, the narrator sees that the music that Sonny plays has a similar cathartic effect on not only Sonny, but also those listening to him play, including the narrator
Hughes also uses terms that insinuate movement and create rhythm and flow within the poem. For example, "[droning] a drowsy syncopated tune/Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon" gives the poem a relaxed feel that does not appear to be too hurried or too loud (Hughes lines 1-2)
Like in "The Weary Blues," Sonny uses his music to tell others the hardships that he has had to endure without asking the listener to have pity for him, but to rather use the experience as a guide for their own lives. Sonny's "blues" force the narrator to accept that he must let Sonny live according to his own terms and that there is nothing that anyone can do to separate him from his life-sustaining music (Reilly 59)