英語の文章を解説します

概要: この文章は、兄弟の対話を通じて、若者の成長、希望、そして家族間の葛藤を描写しています。主人公は、弟のソニーが学校を辞めて軍隊に入ると言い出し、非常に不安になりながら説得を試みます。ソニーは音楽に熱中しており、それが彼の未来にどう影響するかを考えます。彼らの住む環境の厳しさから逃れたいソニーの気持ちが明らかになる一方で、兄はそれをどうにか受け入れようとします。

以下は、注意すべき内容や難しい意味の単語について解説を挿入した全文です。

"Do you have a better idea?"
He just walked up and down the kitchen for a minute. He was as tall as I was. He had started to shave. I suddenly had the feeling that I didn't know him at all.
He stopped at the kitchen table and picked up my cigarettes. Looking at me with a kind of mocking (あざけるような), amused defiance (面白がるような反抗心), he put one between his lips. "You mind?"
"You smoking already?"
He lit the cigarette and nodded, watching me through the smoke. "I just wanted to see if I'd have the courage (勇気) to smoke in front of you." He grinned (にやりと笑った) and blew a great cloud of smoke to the ceiling. "It was easy." He looked at my face. "Come on, now. I bet you was smoking at my age, tell the truth."
I didn't say anything but the truth was on my face, and he laughed.
But now there was something very strained (張り詰めた) in his laugh. "Sure. And I bet that ain't all you was doing."
He was frightening (怖がらせる) me a little. "Cut the crap," I said. "We already decided that you was going to go and live at Isabel's. Now what's got into you all of a sudden?"
"You decided it," he pointed out. "I didn't decide nothing." He stopped in front of me, leaning (もたれかかった) against the stove, arms loosely folded. "Look, brother. I don't want to stay in Harlem no more, I really don't." He was very earnest (真剣に). He looked at me, then over toward the kitchen window.
There was something in his eyes I'd never seen before, some thoughtfulness (思慮深さ), some worry (心配) all his own. He rubbed (こすった) the muscle (筋肉) of one arm. "It's: time I was getting out of here."
"Where do you want to go, Sonny?"
"I want to join the army (軍隊). Or the navy (海軍), I don't care. If I say I'm old enough, they'll believe me."
Then I got mad. It was because I was so scared (怖かった). "You must be crazy. You goddamn fool (ばかやろう), what the hell do you want to go and join the army for?"
"I just told you. To get out of Harlem."
"Sonny, you haven't even finished school. And if you really want to be a musician (音楽家), how do you expect to study if you're in the army?" He looked at me, trapped (追い詰められて), and in anguish (苦悶). "There's ways. I might be able to work out some kind of deal. Anyway, I'll have the G.I. Bill (退役軍人援助法) when I come out."
"If you come out." We stared at each other. "Sonny, please. Be reasonable (道理をわきまえている). I know the setup (状況) is far from perfect. But we got to do the best we can."
"I ain't learning nothing in school," he said. "Even when I go." He turned away from me and opened the window and threw his cigarette out into the narrow alley (路地). I watched his back. "At least, I ain't learning nothing you'd want me to learn." He slammed (叩きつけた) the window so hard I thought the glass would fly out, and turned back to me. "And I'm sick of the stink (悪臭) of these garbage cans!"
"Sonny," I said, "I know how you feel. But if you don't finish school now, you're going to be sorry later that you didn't." I grabbed him by the shoulders. "And you only got another year. It ain't so bad. And Ill come back and I swear I'll help you do whatever you want to do. Just try to put up with it till I come back. Will you please do that? For me?" He didn't answer and he wouldn't look at me.
"Sonny. You hear me?"
He pulled away. "I hear you. But you never hear anything I say." I didn't know what to say to that. He looked out of the window and then back at me. "OK," he said, and sighed (ため息をついた). "I'll try."
Then I said, trying to cheer him up (元気づける) a little, "They got a piano at Isabel's. You can practice on it."
And as a matter of fact, it did cheer him up for a minute. "That's right," he said to himself. "I forgot that." His face relaxed (和らいだ) a little. But the worry, the thoughtfulness, played on it still, the way shadows play on a face which is staring into the fire.
his music and how, as soon as he came in from school, or wherever he had been when he was supposed to be at school, he went straight to that piano and stayed there until suppertime (夕食時). And, after supper; he went back to that piano and stayed there until everybody went to bed. He was at the piano all day Saturday and all day Sunday. Then he bought a record player and started playing records. He'd play one record over and over again, all day long sometimes, and he'd improvise (即興で演奏する) along with it on the piano. Or he'd play one section of the record, one chord (和音), one change, one progression (進行), then he'd do it on the piano. Then back to the record. Then back to the piano.
Well, I really don't know how they stood it. Isabel finally confessed (告白した) that it wasn't like living with a person at all, it was like living with sound.
And the sound didn't make any sense to her, didn't make any sense to any of them — naturally. They began, in a way, to be afflicted (苦しめられた) by this presence (存在) that was living in their home. It was as though Sonny were some sort of god, or monster (怪物). He moved in an atmosphere (雰囲気) which wasn't like theirs at all. They fed him and he ate, he washed himself, he walked in and out of their door; he certainly wasn't nasty (嫌な) or unpleasant (不快) or rude (無礼), Sonny isn't any of those things; but it was as though he were all wrapped up in some reach home fire, some vision (ビジョン) all his own; and there wasn't any way to

この文では、ソニーの表情に現れる「不安」や「思慮深さ」が、火を見つめる顔に映る影のように消えない様子を描写しています。ここでは、ソニーの感情が表面上の一時的なものではなく、深く根付いていることを示唆しています。

以下、文中の重要単語を解説付きで再掲します。

But the worry (不安), the thoughtfulness (思慮深さ), played on it still, the way shadows (影) play on a face which is staring (見つめる) into the fire (火).

この文では、ソニーが自分自身の理想や夢中になっていることに完全に包まれている様子を表しています。「ホームファイア」という表現は彼の心の中で燃えている情熱やビジョンを象徴的に示しており、それが他者との接触を遮っているかのように描かれています。

以下、文中の重要単語を解説付きで再掲します。

but it was as though he were all wrapped up (包まれている) in some reach home fire (自らの情熱), some vision (ビジョン) all his own.