Sonny's Blues By James Baldwin: Literary Analysis
1 September 2009
Darkness, “Sonny’s Blues”, and Light
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is about two brothers, Sonny and the unnamed narrator. The story chronicles a part of their lives. It begins with Sonny’s drug arrest. The tale then travels back to Sonny’s teenage years and ends up with Sonny living with his brother after his arrest. The story uses imagery throughout the tale. One of the most used is that of the contrast of light and darkness. This becomes the theme of the story. Even though Sonny has struggled with a drug problem and arrest readers may wonder who is in more darkness.
In the opening paragraph of the story the narrator is reading the newspaper while riding the subway on his way to teach school. While reading he learns that his brother has been arrested for drugs. He comments about reading the story in the paper and also seeing it in the lights of the subway car, the other people in the subway car, and his own face that he refers to being trapped in the darkness. The narrator is able to see his face in the window of the car due to traveling through the dark tunnels and the lights inside the car cause the window to become a see-through mirror. This makes his reflection appear to be outside the car following along in the darkness. This is actually a …show more content…
Sonny was risking everything to find new ways to tell it. There is no “other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.” (63) The narrator begins to see that he himself has been living in darkness. Being blinded to the darkness he had not realized. He lived in the darkness of his father’s and his mother’s death. He lived in the agony of his daughter’s death and the pain shared with his wife. The narrator begins to see his darkness but at the same time there is
Darkness, “Sonny’s Blues”, and Light
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is about two brothers, Sonny and the unnamed narrator. The story chronicles a part of their lives. It begins with Sonny’s drug arrest. The tale then travels back to Sonny’s teenage years and ends up with Sonny living with his brother after his arrest. The story uses imagery throughout the tale. One of the most used is that of the contrast of light and darkness. This becomes the theme of the story. Even though Sonny has struggled with a drug problem and arrest readers may wonder who is in more darkness.
In the opening paragraph of the story the narrator is reading the newspaper while riding the subway on his way to teach school. While reading he learns that his brother has been arrested for drugs. He comments about reading the story in the paper and also seeing it in the lights of the subway car, the other people in the subway car, and his own face that he refers to being trapped in the darkness. The narrator is able to see his face in the window of the car due to traveling through the dark tunnels and the lights inside the car cause the window to become a see-through mirror. This makes his reflection appear to be outside the car following along in the darkness. This is actually a …show more content…
Sonny was risking everything to find new ways to tell it. There is no “other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.” (63) The narrator begins to see that he himself has been living in darkness. Being blinded to the darkness he had not realized. He lived in the darkness of his father’s and his mother’s death. He lived in the agony of his daughter’s death and the pain shared with his wife. The narrator begins to see his darkness but at the same time there is