Eng102-55 - Sonny's Blues: Escape Through Writing

Elizabeth Dean

Professor Free

ENG102-55

30 October 2015

Escape Through Writing

        An author’s work often portrays his or her life and is a reflection of his or her deepest feelings. A reader can sense the emotion in this writing, especially when the work is a result of the author’s past. The most intriguing aspect about a literary work rooted in an author’s past is how well readers identify with it because of the raw truth which is communicated. In James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues,” he creates a connection to his own life through symbols utilized in the story.

        Throughout this story, the symbol most predominately employed is the use of light and darkness. In “Sonny’s Blues,” as in many pieces of literature, light and darkness are used to represent something good contrasted with something bad. The first time the narrator refers to Sonny, he is a young boy. He describes him as having a face that is “bright and open” (Baldwin 123). However, the Sonny Baldwin describes later is “an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light,” suggesting that something has drawn him away from his younger self that was full of brightness and happiness (Baldwin 127). This cheerfulness that young Sonny exuded flowed from a characteristic that all children have, which is purity. Innocence is a gift everyone receives at birth. Yet, at some point everyone encounters evil, which is represented by the darkness, but in this story, Sonny encounters a level of darkness which permanently scars him.

        The narrator recognizes that the adversities he dealt with as an adolescent still continue to be stumbling blocks for other young boys. “These boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities” (Baldwin 123). He does not initially describe what is prohibiting these children from pursuing their dreams. Nonetheless, it is clear they do not have a wide range of  potential options in their future. The narrator continues by introducing the concept of the darkness. “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 has blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now vindictively dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone.” The narrator, again, does not specify what “darkness of their lives” is, but the second darkness is the boys’ lack of understanding that humanity does not always look out for each other. They cannot rely on others, because in reality the only person they can truly trust is themselves. This perspective causes the reader to question why the narrator has such a pessimistic view of life.

        At one point in the story, Sonny, who had lost his innocence, has been released from prison. On the drive home, the narrator describes the oppressive atmosphere which surrounded him. “Yet, as the cab moved uptown through streets which seemed, with a rush, to darken with dark people, and  as I covertly studied Sonny’s face, it came to me that what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind” (Baldwin 129). Obviously, Harlem, where the narrator lives, is not safe and is corrupt. Harlem is the obstacle that keeps children’s possibilities minimized and is the first darkness that the narrator described only vaguely early in the story. The narrator views the housing projects as “rocks in the middle of a boiling sea” (Baldwin 128), a picture of massive, unwelcoming buildings surrounded by affliction and hardship. Both Sonny and the narrator endured this atmosphere during their growing up years. An environment such as this positions a child for failure.

        James Baldwin experienced the pain and barbarity that Sonny and the narrator encountered because he also grew up in Harlem. The purpose of housing projects is to provide affordable homes to people in New York City; however, the residents often find themselves fighting to shelter their children from the immense amounts of violence and drug abuse that leads to addiction (Williams and Kornblum 484). Even if these people leave Harlem, their lives are forever affected by what they have been exposed to, which is why Baldwin’s works tends to be influenced by Harlem (Boyd 224). Although Baldwin entered this world with just as much innocence, purity, and “light” as anyone else, he had the misfortune of  residing in Harlem, which enveloped him in darkness; he was poverty-stricken and lugubrious (Rampersad 74). Perhaps Baldwin established family as one of the major themes in “Sonny’s Blues” because he realized how important it is to have the strong support of family members in such a barren and unloving environment. Baldwin did not have a father to provide for him until his mother remarried in 1927 to a minister, who only made life more miserable (Rampersad 74). Baldwin’s terrible childhood impelled him to leave Harlem; however, as he observed in his story, “Sonny’s Blues,” he had to leave part of himself behind. Baldwin chose to leave behind his religion and left Harlem to find a job in New Jersey (Rampersad 74).