The first thing that comes to one's mind when thinking of contrasting ideas is the contrast of light and dark. Throughout Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin paints a picture of stark contrast between light and dark in the story. He uses these motifs to show ideas in the story and how they interact with each other and with the plot and characters of the story.Add more here
Light and dark are most commonly known as good and evil or life and death. In this story, light and dark are used in this way at certain parts of the story to further the plot and place emphasis on things that take place in the story. During a flashback in the story, the narrator’s mom is talking to him about why he needs to look out for his brother, Sonny, and she tells him how his uncle died. She explains that he was a good man, always filled with happiness and goodness until the night he died, when he was hit by a car. “He says he never in his life seen anything as dark as that road after the lights of that car had gone away.”(Baldwin10) In this quote, light and dark are almost used as opposites. The car that the light was coming from was the cause of his death and once those lights disappeared, the real situation emerged and the night was filled with the darkness of death. He claimed the road was the darkest thing he’d ever seen once the light was gone, lending the idea that light can have dark qualities to it but once that light is gone, there is only suffocating darkness.
As the narrator continues through his flashback of his younger days and the memories of his mother, he recalls the one memory he remembers best of her. He talks about late sundays after dinner when all the church folks and relatives are sitting around in chairs in the living room with the light outside slowly fading and the night creeping in through the window. “And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he’s moved just a little closer to that darkness outside.”(Baldwin9) The narrator recalls all the children sitting with the adults and how “something deep and watchful in the child knows this is bound to end, is already ending. In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light”(Baldwin9) He notices this as he recalls the adults talking amongst themselves as they stroke the children’s heads mindlessly. The way he describes the scene makes it sound as if someone will physically turn on a light and that light will contrast the darkness outside but it is actually a metaphor for innocence and ignorance. As the adults speak of the cruel, dark realities of the world, the children are unaware of this but they soon start becoming aware and just before they get too close to realizing that dark reality, the adults will “turn on the light” and switch back to other things to keep the children from coming too close to the dark before it is their time to face it. The narrator claims that deep down, the watchful child knows this is his fate and every time that light is switched back on, he’s come one step closer to that darkness.
As the story goes on and the narrator continues down his path, he reaches the final scene of the story where he joins Sonny at a night-club to hear him play his music and meet some of Sonny’s friends. The narrator describes the whole scene in great detail and as Sonny joins his friends on stage to talk to them before the show, the narrator stays back and describes how the characters interact with each other while simultaneously interacting with light and dark. “The light from the bandstand spilled just a little short of them and watching them laughing and gesturing and moving about, I had the feeling that they, nevertheless, were being most careful not to step into that circle of light too suddenly; that if they moved into the light too suddenly without thinking, they would perish in flame. Then, while I watched, one of them, the small black man, moved into the light and crossed the bandstand and started fooling around with his drums.”(Baldwin23) This use of light in the story is used to aid in character development and how they interact with the light. The characters of the story are in a darkly lit bar and the way the narrator describes Sonny’s friends before this is that they’re odd and slightly sinister. As Sonny talks to them up on stage, they all seem to avoid the beam of light shining down near them, as if they are evil and the light would burn away that evil. Another thought is that the light may be so bright that it is evil and could burn the good qualities in their darkness.
Sonny’s Blues is a classic story that at first glance, may seem like a harmless story but after closer examination, ideas begin to appear that were not there before. This story is told to show the perspective of the African-American growing up and living in Harlem in the 40’s and 50’s. The contrast of light and dark is a major motif in this story. It is used in many different ways and situations throughout the story and is proved that light and dark or good and evil roles can be switched in some circumstances. The good of light may be found in the dark and same with the evil of darkness. In the end, all of these examples of light and dark come together to further the reader’s understanding of the story and leave lasting ideas. “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. There isn’t any other tale to tell, it’s the only light we’ve got in all this darkness.”(Baldwin24)
