Darkness and Light in Sonny’s Blues, by James Baldwin

525 Words2 Pages

In “Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin”, the theme darkness and light appear throughout the story. The narrator's perspective of the Harlem is rough and shady due to his ability to accept new ideas and gestures. In the opeining introduction, the Narrator introduces darkness by comparing children to darkness by saying “All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness” (Baldwin, James). The Narrator is not only disgusted by the way the children acted but also by the music that contributes to darkness by not dealing with the real world. In Sonny's Blues, the narrator demonstrates being close-minded, strong, and accepting toward his family members. Through the Narrator close-minded self, the Narrator fails to show how contributing to jazz or music brings missery in the Harlem town. We see that the Narrator dislikes being a part of the Harlem ghetto, by refusing sonny’s friend offer to show how sonny viewed things when he did heroin. The Narrator said, “...

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