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The Narrator’s Sons
Creole is the leader of the band Sonny plays with at the jazz club. He is older than Sonny and the narrator, and clearly an experienced musician—the narrator realizes quickly when they start playing that Creole is in control of everything that is happening onstage. Creole is shown to be a compassionate guide to Sonny as he navigates his first performance after his time in jail. Sonny struggles to play at first, and it is Creole’s firm guidance and trust that finally pushes Sonny into playing his best.
Creole Quotes in Sonny’s Blues
The Sonny’s Blues quotes below are all either spoken by Creole or refer to Creole. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Sonny’s Blues
Quotes
They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.
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Get the entire Sonny’s Blues LitChart as a printable PDF.
Creole Character Timeline in Sonny’s Blues
The timeline below shows where the character Creole appears in Sonny’s Blues. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Sonny’s Blues
...that night), and the narrator meets some of Sonny’s musician friends, including a man named Creole. The narrator realizes how beloved and admired Sonny is in this circle of musicians, and...
(full context)
Sonny, Creole, and another man begin to play onstage while the narrator watches from a table in...
(full context)
...to have to make an instrument come alive. As the band begins the second set, Creole leads them into a different mood and something changes in Sonny’s playing. The narrator realizes...
(full context)
