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Light And Darkness In Sonny's Blues

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Sonny’s blues uses light and darkness symbolism to elucidate on the painfulness of reality and the vigor gotten through it. Darkness is the fact that life in Harlem is dreadful, clouded with drugs, crime and societal discrimination. The tenacious society coaxes youth towards a life of murkiness. Sonny gets addicted to heroin while trying to unchain his musical innovativeness. He used music as his edifice, in this book he tries to escape towards the light and a life with thought drugs. Light and darkness are juxtaposed with truth and reality, which makes up a symbol to delineate sonny and his brother’s struggles. Sonny blue’s begins with a metaphorical statement: "I stared at it in the swinging light of the subway car, and in the faces and bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside". This contradistinction shows the bleakness of the main characters hometown of Harlem. Here …show more content…

Darkness creates a dearth of chances. There is darkness in which the students are trapped in but are alien to the light and consequently have no future. The reminiscing done by the narrator on sonny and his childhood succors to expound more on light and darkness. He also reckons the importance of the silence and "the darkness growing against the windowpanes". He believes the darkness is generational and originates from the past in his family. He believes that light originates from knowledge on life. "The silence, the darkness coming, and the darkness in the faces frighten the child obscurely….And when the light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness." Realization of this light is disheartening. Subjection to life breaks a child’s integrity and can lead to guile and this darkness can entice the child to live in it. The narrator express that darkness can be overcome by the light because it enlightens us and gives us comprehension of

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“Sonny’s Blues” is not just about Sonny's decisions and struggles but also about how they affect the narrator. This story is as much about family and brotherhood and the relationship between these two men as it is about the character of

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As a matter of fact, the storyteller does not appreciate Sonny's motivations to play jazz music until the evening he socially joins Sonny to his stage show at a nightclub. Sitting in a dark corner at the nightclub, the storyteller listens to his brother play, considering the reminder of Sonny's friend, Creole, of what the Blues are about, "The tale, of the blues, how we live, and how we are delighted, how we suffer... and how we triumph... must be heard... it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." (Baldwin 139). For the narrator, he perceives that the Blues is the manifestation for Sonny's emotions, especially his suffering, because, as Creole would say, music is the only light in the

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In “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin wrote a different type coming of age story. At the end of the story the narrator finally develops a new understanding for his brother, and forgives him. The story’s narrator is a black algebra teacher, whose name is never revealed, who is living in Harlem, a New York City neighborhood. In the beginning of the story the narrator reads about his brother, Sonny, being busted with heroin in the newspaper.

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The description of light and darkness shows the two different path of the two brother and who they are. The narrator and the older brother of Sonny path is lit and he know what want to do life, and he wants the same for his brother. But Sonny’s path is different it’s dark and uncertain he does not know what he wants he only thinks he does. He even say it himself, "I don't think," he said, looking at me very gravely, "that I'll ever be a good drummer. But I think I can play a piano.

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James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a short story depicting the relationship of two brothers, Sonny and an unnamed narrator. The story takes place in the project of Harlem, New York in the early 1950s. The narrator is a high school math teacher. His younger brother Sonny is a troubled musician struggling with his addiction to drugs. Before their mother dies, she asks the narrator promise to her he’ll look after his younger brother when she is gone.

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From the very beginning of the tale, the sorrow is palpable through the unnamed narrator 's discovery of Sonny 's incarceration, and moreover through the atmosphere created by Mr. Baldwin. The most prominent message that can be deciphered and recognized in Sonny 's Blues is that the sadness and sorrow that one experiences in their life can bring about many obstacles but it can be countered and used for something greater by a search for understanding and acceptance. James Baldwin establishes this implication through the use of his characters; the narrator, Sonny, and the singer seen on the street. All these characters experience sorrow and sadness in their

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Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin was a short story about the struggles of living in a tough, rundown neighborhood and looking to drugs as a way out. Baldwin’s intent on writing this piece focuses on pain and suffering. The author stresses that not everybody is born in the best circumstances. Sonny was one of those people who grew up in a rickety town where people often did not make it out successful.

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There are many ways that symbolism is used to show things that are unique to each story that James Baldwin writes including “Sonny’s Blues”. The main symbolism surround music. One thing that it symbolizes is hope. Music gives Sonny hope that he can travel away from Harlem and those who doubt what he can do using blues music and his piano skills. This is not just used as symbolism in the story, but in what was really happening during this time.

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Even when light is shown on the streets of Harlem, the darkness consumes it. Baldwin describes the physical symbol of light as he tells of Sonny’s Uncle being murdered, he writes, “there was a moon that night, it was bright like day…the minute his brother stepped…into the road, in the moonlight” (Baldwin 101). Light is shown to be just as dangerous as darkness is in this story. If Sonny’s Uncle had not stepped out into the light and tried to escape the darkness, then he would not have been murdered. Darkness is shown to inhabit the light within Sonny’s place of refuge.

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Sonny’s Blues In James Baldwin’s short work of fiction, Sonny’s Blues uses symbolism to interweave the darkness and light throughout the story. The light symbolizes the positive aspect of living life in Harlem while the contrasting darkness represents the negative aspect of Harlem life. Baldwin uses darkness and light to symbolize different aspects of the story and to also represent the characters highs and lows throughout their lives.

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As Donald C. Murray has said in his article, “James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’: Complicated and Simple”, “Images of light and darkness are used by Baldwin… ( Murray 354)”. Also, Baldwin is able to tell a story that can make the reader visualize what is happening to this character Sonny, even though it is being narrated through the eyes and perspective of his older brother. He portrays the older brother as someone who can understand and recognizes the internal struggles of Sonny and be compassionate about them, even though the elder brother does not agree with all the life choices his brother has

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When the narrator accompanies Sonny to the nightclub to listen to him play his music; Sonny’s music portrays his wisdom as he plays about his brother’s frustrations with the trials and sufferings they both endured. Sonny’s artful playing of the blues opens the narrator’s heart to listen genuinely. If one listens to what lies on the inside that is the key to finding oneself. Joseph Flibbert states in the article “Sonny’s Blues” Overview, “In the music he hears, he sees his mother’s face, and that of his little girl … The powerful incantations of Sonny’s art reaches his soul, and for the first time, he listens to the dark voice within”.

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