addict. Initially tempted to kill the addict to maintain his tough reputation on the street, Sonny instead rethinks his life and enrolls in night school; math and English are tougher than dealing drugs. And Sonny's social skills are appalling. He has a brief fling with a married woman and is surprised when she becomes hostile when he dumps her in public. He is stuck in menial jobs in the garment district and a hamburger palace, and he is troubled by the fact that he has no marketable skills. But as he watches his friends disintegrate from drugs, he sees that "the Harlem scene" could lead to jail or death. He moves to Greenwich Village, coming to Harlem only on weekends, and begins to study jazz. When his kid brother Pimp becomes an addict, Sonny tries to help him, but is unsuccessful. The family essentially give up on him and more or less wait to hear about Pimp's death.
Sonny is in touch with a whole range of movements affecting African Americans through the 1950s and 1960s. Some of his friends join black sectarian religions such as
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