Marie-Élisabeth Deschamps
Instructor: Liana Bellon
Literary Genres
April 29th 2011
An Analysis of Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues"
Throughout "Sonny's Blues", Baldwin plays with the use of light and darkness,
using color symbolism that either suggests standard of unconventional connotations. In
standard color symbolism, light is associated with the positive elements related to the
narrator's and Sonny's life, while darkness is used to emphasize more negative facets such
as feelings of suffering and alienation. Baldwin, though, reverses this color symbolism by
giving light negative qualities, and darkness positive qualities. By using and reversing
traditional color symbolism, Baldwin calls attention to psychological areas of tension in
the brothers' lives. More importantly, the reverse of traditional color symbolism
highlights the implicit racism in traditional symbolism and fosters Baldwin’s rejection of
absolutism. Furthermore, the use of light and darkness sets stage for the narrator's
epiphany.
A first hint of Sonny’s psychological state in the story is given by the title. The
word "Sonny", despite referring to the character, refers to the sun and the idea of
brightness. The term "Blues", on the other hand, regardless of the type of jazz that Sonny
plays, suggests the idea of darkness (class notes). The pairing of the words into the title
"Sonny’s Blues" can therefore be interpreted as a reference to Sonny’s dark side, due to a
feeling of alienation towards his family and Harlem in general. In fact, at a young age,
Sonny decides that he wants to live by his passion for music, "which [is] life or death to
him" (26), and become a jazz musician. This decision is hardly approved by his brother,
who doubts that he can "make a living at it" (23). The narrator’s initial objection to his
brother’s ambitions thus leads Sonny to feel isolated, a psychological state that will later
prompt his addiction to drugs and journey in prison. Moreover, the title, implying both
light and darkness, anticipates contrasts in the story: algebra versus music, order versus
chaos, and logic versus irrationality. These contrasts, precisely called dichotomies,
emphasize the disagreement between the two brothers and support an even more
prominent contrast, opposing the narrator and Sonny (class notes). However, despite how
different the two characters appear, we can find a similarity between them in the fact that
each one’s life possesses a dark facet. While this originated as a feeling of alienation and
ended into such thing as drug addiction for Sonny, it comes, for the narrator, from a
feeling of failure toward brotherly love and obligation. Remembering the promise that he
made to his mother before her death, the promise of "let[ting] nothing happen to Sonny"
(21), he is confronted to the disconnection between him and Sonny, firstly seen in the taxi
cab. Noticing that he and his brother stare in opposite directions, he realizes that "[i]t’s
always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches." (17).
Here, Baldwin uses the word "member" as a metaphorical reference for the innocence and
the links to Harlem that the narrator feels he has lost. This sense of loss, metaphorically
described as phantom pain, extends the dark facet of the narrator’s life and prompts his
desire to reconnect, or, to use the same expression, re" member", with his family roots
(class notes).
We can clearly see, in the beginning of the story, how disconnected the two
brothers have become. In fact, when the narrator sees an article on his brother in the
paper, he feels as though "[Sonny] bec[o]mes real to [him] again" (10). Despite
emphasizing a psychological impression of the loss of his family roots and of the failure
towards his brotherly obligations, his lecture in the paper brings out in him a feeling of
nostalgia towards old memories. He remembers Sonny at a younger age, when "his face
[was] bright and open (11). Moreover, the feelings of loss and failure being so intense,
the narrator wants to deny the fact that "[he has] ever see[n] [his] brother go down,
come to nothing, all [the] light in his face gone out" (11). We can see here that Baldwin
fallows traditional color symbolism and gives light positive connotations, associating it to
positive concepts such as innocence, goodness, potential and hope (class notes). On the
other hand, darkness represents the negative elements of Sonny’s life, for instance, his
drug addiction. Moreover, while both light and darkness are associated to the brother’s
past, darkness is perceived as something to leave behind and light as something to reach.
Writing back to his brother, Sonny says "[he] feel[s] like a man who’s been trying to
climb out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside"
(15). By extending his use of traditional color symbolism, Baldwin clearly suggests that
one color is inferior to the other; in this case, light, symbolizing the "white man" (21), is
associated to more righteousness than darkness, symbolizing the "dark people" (17).
Towards the middle of the story though, Baldwin reverses this traditional color
symbolism. In the story-telling scene, the narrator remembers a moment when, at a
younger age, "[his] living room [was] full of church folks and relatives" (18), and that
"every face darken[ed], like the sky outside" (19). In such circumstances, the narrator also
recalls the presence of a child "hop[ing] that there [would] never come a time when the
old folks [would]n’t be sitting around the living room, talking about where they’ve come
from, and what they’ve seen, and what’s happening to them and their kinfolk" (19). Here,
Baldwin seems to give darkness the positive quality of recognition. In fact, Baldwin
suggests that while in the dark, people are more likely to acknowledge their sufferance.
Moreover, this story-telling scene later implies light in the anticipation that "someone
will [eventually] get up and turn on the light" (19). This gesture implies negative
consequences such as a sudden break in the conversation, and, consequently, the "fill[ing]
[of the child’s soul] with darkness" (19). In this passage, even though the term "darkness"
has a negative connotation, an even more negative quality, the one of repression, is
suggested by the presence light in the living room. Such reverse of traditional color
symbolism can be interpreted as a critique of the implicit racism in traditional symbolism.
In a way, by reversing the color symbolism in the story, Baldwin fights against this
racism.
In the performance scene, when the narrator watches Sonny’s band perform in a
"jampacked bar" (33), Baldwin uses both the traditional and the unconventional color
symbolisms. At first, looking at the musicians getting ready to play, the narrator notices
them "being most careful not to step into the circle of light too suddenly" (34), aware of
the fact "that if they move into the light too suddenly, without thinking, they will
perish in flame" (34). Light here, as in the story-telling scene, is again perceived as an
element likely to restrain the expression of personal suffering (class notes). Later in the
scene, the narrator, listening to the band perform "Am I Blue" (36), realizes that their
music has the potential to communicate "the tale of how people sometimes suffer" (36).
This tale, he realizes, "must always be heard" (36) since "it’s the only light people
have got in all their worlds’ darkness" (36). Similarly, the narrator, watching his
brother, feels as though "Sonny’s fingers fill the air with life, his life, and that this
life contains so many others" (36). Thus, the narrator realizes that music has the
possibility to communicate realities of life that are sometimes repressed; realities that can
be common to many lives. Grasping this new idea, the narrator acknowledges that music
can bring a sense of community (class notes), a sense that affects him personally while
watching Sonny, and which reconnects him to the family roots he felt that he had lost. In
fact, he "sees his mother’s face again, and feels, for the first time, how the stones of
the road she has walked on must have bruised her feet" (37). By making the narrator
recall such old memories, Baldwin implies that music is a catalyst for the narrator’s own
attachments, a critical fact that sets stage for his epiphany: the realization that music can
be positive, by providing Sonny a healthy drug and by gathering a sense of community.
The use of light and darkness in the story thus helps bring about the narrator’s new
perception towards music. As for the switch in color symbolism, the narrator’s opinion on
the benefits of music changes from a negative perspective to a positive perspective.
Furthermore, the use of light and darkness helps elucidate psychological areas of tensions
in the bothers’ lives such as feelings of alienation and of failure towards family
connections. Last but not least, Baldwin’s reverse of traditional color symbolism
promotes the rejection of absolutism and expresses disapproval towards the implicit
racism in traditional symbolism.
Work Cited
Baldwin, James. "Sonny’s Blues" The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Ed. R. V.
Cassill. New York: Norton, 1990. 10-37.