Darkness and Light free essay sample

1 September 2009 Darkness, â€Å"Sonny’s Blues†, and Light â€Å"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 foreshadowing image as later in the story it becomes apparent that the narrator is in as much if not more darkness than Sonny. (43) The second reference is only of darkness. The narrator speaks of the kids he is teaching as having two different types of darkness. One darkness is their lives and it is closing in on them. The other darkness was the movies. He states that the movies blind them to the darkness of their lives or at least the fact of its closing. This image given by the narrator begins to reveal the pessimistic attitude of the narrator towards life. (44) The next reference again only refers to the dark. The narrator is talking to a friend of Sonny’s. The friend is explaining how he never gave Sonny any drugs, but he did feel guilty because he explained to Sonny in school how it felt to get high. As this is told to the narrator he refers to menace filling everything around him including the dark. The narrator speaks about the menace being the reality of the people around him. He still could not see his own darkness that was around him. (45) Sonny writes a letter to his brother in which he compares his situation as being in a hole and trying to climb out. He states how he had just seen the sun and needed to get outside. This is where the story shows that Sonny recognized the dark that enveloped him and wanted to find a way to escape from it. (46) Light is again referred to without darkness. When the narrator is reunited with Sonny he sees his baby brother inside this person before him â€Å"like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light. † (47) The narrator shows his brother as being surrounded by darkness. The narrator recognizes that his brother wants to get out of the darkness. On the way to the narrator’s home Sonny wants to take a trip through the areas where they had grown up. The narrator talks about how things there have changed but have stayed the same. He talks about how the boys come out of their homes and into the street to try to get into the light just like he did when he was young. The fact that the children’s homes were filled with darkness could be a hint of abuse in the house but more likely in the time and area that many of the houses would not have power. Either way the narrator is still continuing to see the world through eyes filled with despair. 48) The narrator recalls his childhood on Sundays when everyone would be gathered together and spending the day together. As it became night the darkness grew against the windowpanes. The faces of the adults would grow dark. A silence would come over. The darkness coming and the darkness in the faces of the adults would scare the children. The darkness coming could scare the childre n due to the dangers that lurked in the nighttime. The darkness in the faces of the adults was the fear of death. This darkness would scare the children for they would fear that death would soon take the adults away. The narrator wanted his parents to always be there and at the time of the story he had lost both parents. (49-50) The lights are turned on in the room. When the light turns on the child is filled with darkness as he is closer to being in the darkness outside. Every time the light comes on the day is ending and the week. With each end of the week the child is closer to the death of his parents and the child is closer to his own death. (50) The next reference comes when the narrator is told by his mother about his uncle being run over by a car full of white men at night. His father had been there and witnessed the event. His father had stated that there had been nothing as dark as the road after the lights of the car had left. When the father of the brothers lost his own brother it affected his outlook on life. It left him with a life of full of despair. (51) The day of his daughter’s funeral he sat in the living room in the dark. He thought of Sonny and wrote him a letter. The narrator was grieving the death of his daughter. The narrator did not see the despair of his situation. The narrator in this time of grief was reminded of his brother who he believed was in total darkness. 56) Sonny and the narrator are talking. Sonny is explaining what he has been. Sonny is relating that his fear and what he is trying to get away from is drugs. He mentions that when he came back to Harlem it was still the same. At the end it is mentioned that the sun is gone and darkness would soon fall. Sonny says that the sun would come back. He repeated it and tells the narrator he wanted him to know that. This is related to when people triumph over their fears and the thing they defeated may return to take back over. This does not mean they cannot triumph over it again. (60) Sonny wants to take his brother somewhere. They go down a dark street to a nightclub. Inside the lights are dim. This is symbolic as Sonny is the one taking his brother through the darkness. On their arrival the narrator begins to see light. The narrator is sat a table by himself in the corner, in the dark. He could see Sonny and the band by the lights of the bandstand. He gets the feeling that they do not want to step into the light too quickly in fear they may burst into flames. Many times rushing away from problems can cause people to return to the problem as quickly as they left it. A slow approach can make the separation more permanent. Sonny is working his way towards what brings him out of his despair. He helps himself come out through his music. While the narrator can now see the light he still remains alone in the darkness. (61) After listening to Sonny play the narrator realizes that even though suffering and the triumph over suffering is not new but people are always looking for new ways to tell it. Sonny was risking everything to find new ways to tell it. There is no â€Å"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 hope. In the last paragraph there is s till imagery of the narrator sitting in the dark and Sonny is in the light. While Sonny had recognized his position and therefore was able to get a head start and he had brought his brother on his journey. This is when the narrator begins to realize that Sonny has found a way out and it is he that is still in the darkness. The narrator now was able to see the light and therefore begin his quest to move into it. In the beginning of the story the narrator feels that even though there is darkness around he feels that he is living in the light. He believes that Sonny and most other people are the ones entrapped in darkness. The darkness at different times represents different things but each also represents despair. As the story progresses readers can see that the narrator is surrounded by darkness. His outlook is negative. He does not recognize the darkness around him so he makes no attempts to get out of it. Sonny is in darkness but is doing everything he can to try to get out of the darkness and into the light. The light that appears shows that there is always hope. No matter how bad things are there is always hope of them changing. If there is no hope then there is no need to continue. The whole purpose for trying anything is that there is some hope of success.