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Light and Dark in Sonny's Blues

 

            In James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues", two brothers struggle to make sense of one another's life threw the others eye's. Sonny, being a recovering drug addict, struggles with situations and day to day cravings that his brother will never completely understand. His brother struggles with opening his heart for forgiveness and accepting Sonny's situation by trying to help. Either way both brothers are striving to be accepted by one another. In this short story Baldwin refers to the ups and downs in the brother's relationship through the image of light and darkness. Light, not always being stereotypical good, is being aware of the darkness and being able to conquer it even during the most difficult times. Darkness refers to the everyday struggles one must overcome to find their way to the light. Baldwin uses these images of light and darkness to walk you through the difficult times the brother's endured to reach the point they are at in their relationship towards the end of the story. Both brothers face hard times growing up in the streets of Harlem witch would be the darkness in their life, but getting out of the streets and making something with both of their lives is the light that Baldwin is trying to convey. Baldwin's motif of darkness and light is about enduring the painful nature of reality and the knowledge gained from seeing it. In the beginning of the story, Baldwin refers to light and darkness as the stereotypical, light is good while dark is bad. After continuing, Baldwin transitions to using light and darkness more carefully when describing the brother's relationship. "I didn't want to believe that I'd ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out,"(552) says the narrator. In this example, light is describing the childish innocence Sonny presumes as all children do when young, but with a couple wrong decisions, light quickly turns dark and empty.


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