Summary Of Harlem Streets By James Baldwin

James Baldwin describes the Harlem streets as a “darkness” that affects the people around it, this causes the narrator to be portrayed as conflicted and trapped in his surroundings. In the mid-1900s the Harlem streets were a time of poverty and crime, while the Narrator was not a part of the crime, the reader can see that he is still greatly affected by it from the world around him. The Narrator is conflicted with his surroundings after he learns that Sonny has become addicted to Heroin. He has always known the streets of Harlem to be dark, but the reader sees him learn the truth of the streets for the first time. Baldwin writes, “And I’d known this avenue all my life, but it seemed to me again, as it had seemed on the day I’d first heard about