Play of Light and Darkness in James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’
Sonny’s Blues is populated with images of light and darkness that is presented through Sonny and his brother’s journey. The brothers grew up in the horrid and dark ambience of the drug plagued streets of Harlem. From their tragic childhood life to the struggling life where opportunities are bare minimum, the author uses light and darkness to express the challenges and hopes the brothers come across as they grow up. The narrator uses these images to create a particular atmosphere and understand Sonny’s journey as he goes from a recovering addict to an artist.
From the get-go, the text opens up with a contrast of light and darkness. Sonny’s brother is travelling in a subway car staring at “swinging lights while being trapped in the darkness which roared outside”. The swinging lights corresponds to a dim lights representing events of hope throughout the story. In contrast, darkness represents the tunnel he’s going through and paints a picture of Harlem; a place with economic and cultural barriers in which him and Sonny are trapped in. He describes Sonny as “When he was about as old as the boys in my classes his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it; and he’d had wonderfully direct brown eyes, and great gentleness and privacy … 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, in the condition I’d already seen so many others” (1). The light is shown by Sonny as a child who was youthful and innocent that hadn’t been exposed to the cruel world of Harlem. Inevitably, Sonny becomes a drug addict and that light is just gone. The narrator implies that sooner or later, the light departs from your soul. The readers learn that the narrator’s childhood experience has shaped him to become a math teacher and he actively tries to block out all the darkness that surrounds Harlem but doesn’t realize that he is just letting more darkness in. This event was no different. The detachment of these brothers also represents darkness taking over the love and bond a brotherly relationship can have. Soon after, during the day, the narrator looks down from a window in school into the courtyard and witnesses, “A teacher passed through them every now and again, quickly, as though she couldn’t wait to get out of that courtyard” (3). The light here represents the bright day and the children playing but there’s darkness beneath that light. The teacher wants to get out of that courtyard since she knows there is no future for these boys. Despite her being a teacher, she can’t help these boys succeed as the opportunities are very limited just like with Sonny. He describes their situation as someone whose “head bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities”. Sonny along with all the other children in Harlem realize that even though they’re going to school to learn, the only path that they can walk echoes darkness and struggle.
Later in the text, the narrator recalls his childhood and the time he spent with his family on evenings. He describes, ‘And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness…moved a little closer to the darkness outside…what the old folks have been talking about’ (11). The room is lit, and the light just like in the movies, is a cloak that covers the hardships, violence, drugs, struggle the kids in the room will have to encounter as they grow up. It’s going to consume them as soon as they step outside the house into the world. That’s the harsh reality the “old folks” talk about. The child, when he walks out may just want to live in that darkness as it is much easier to survive than fight to stay under a spot of light. The symbol of light and darkness develops as his mother tells him the story about his uncle being killed. “This particular Saturday night, him and your father was coming home from some place, and they were both a little drunk and there was a moon that night, it was bright like day … He says he never in his life has seen anything as dark as that road after the lights of that car had gone away” (10). On a bright moon lit night, the light was consumed by the darkness as his uncle was tragically murdered over something that was supposed to be a funny joke. This shows how invaluable, the life of an average African American was, that the people that ran him over brushed it off like nothing major happened.
Sonny’s brother has been against jazz and Sonny’s love for music until the very end. He thinks jazz is beneath him and he should get proper education and a job that he can make a living out of. He partially blames Sonny’s heroin addiction because of the time he spends at these jazz clubs. He comes to realize that light and darkness go hand in hand in this world, with each of them having their downsides and benefits. Everyone has a light and darkness, just like they exist within Sonny. After hearing Sonny play, he realizes the importance of music and how much jazz means to Sonny. The blockade inside his head is finally broken and he’s come to understand that for Sonny to survive in this cruel world, he needs jazz to pour out his emotions. He sees Sonny happy and smiling. Sonny is able to channel his darkness and turn it into something emotional and beautiful. The keys on the piano; black and white, are also placed next to each other signifying that light and darkness coexist. In the light of this understanding, he orders a drink for his brother Sonny and asks it to be placed on top of Sonny’s piano. Sonny takes a sip from it and nods at the narrator. Sonny had felt the ask for forgiveness by his brother. The narrator then noticed, “For me, then, as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother’s head like the very cup of trembling’ (25).
“The cup of trembling” is a biblical symbolism that expresses the message that God has relieved the brothers of their suffering and provides them an opportunity of redemption. They both have accepted each other for who they are and are on a path of salvation, but we don’t know what the future holds. The cup glowing above his head in a dark room shows showcases that even though the darkness might be everlasting, he can still “glow”. The narrator stresses that, “For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. here isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness” (23). Even though the darkness is much greater than the light, the narrator’s reconnection with Sonny provides a new light of hope and helps them fight the everlasting struggle around them.
