What does Baldwin achieve by beginning "Sonny's Blues" as he does?

A good way to consider why authors begin their texts the
way they do is to compare and contrast the ending. Let us remember that this excellent
story opens with the discovery of the narrator concerning his brother's arrest for drug
possession and selling heroin. Key to note, however, is the way that this discovery
makes the narrator feel trapped and surrounded by
darkness:

I
read about it in the paper, in the subway, on my way to work. I read it, and I couldn't
believe it, and I read it again. Then perhaps I just stared at it, at the newsprint
spelling out his name, spelling out the story. I stared at it in the swinging lights of
the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped
in the darkness which roared
outside.

The story thus
begins with the discovery of the narrator's brother's arrest and the way that this piece
of information oppresses the narrator and makes him feel trapped. The rest of the story
tells us, in a non-chronological form, the gradual journey of the narrator and his
brother towards wholeness and unity once again. The reason why the story begins as it
does is to show the growth in understanding of the narrator and how he comes to
appreciate and learn from his brother and the music that is so important to him. Note
his attitude towards Sonny and jazz changes by the end of the
story:

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Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at
last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free
until we did. Yet, there was no battle in his face now, I heard what he had gone
through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in
earth.

The narrator has moved
from feeling "trapped" at the beginning of the story to being aware of the "freedom"
that lies around him and the way that jazz music allows its listeners to grasp that
freedom. The way the story begins thus adds a dramatic contrast to the progression and
development of the narrator.