49 pages • 1 hour read
James BaldwinSonny's Blues
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1957A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Darkness
One of the major recurring symbols in “Sonny’s Blues” is darkness. The narrator uses darkness to obliquely describe the struggles that he and other Black people live through, especially those owing to being born into a life of racism and poverty. The use of darkness as a metaphor illustrates how racism takes a psychological toll on its victims. The first mention of darkness comes toward the beginning of the story, as the narrator looks at his students:
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, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone (18).
When the narrator refers to darkness, he principally means the first sense described in this passage—“the darkness of their lives” (18). Though the narrator does not explicitly state what this darkness is, he implies that the darkness stems from the continual suffering caused by systemic racism in the United States. “Sonny’s Blues” was written in the first years of the civil rights movement, when Jim Crow laws and other forms of institutional racism kept most Black people caught in a life of poverty and hardship with little opportunity to escape. For the narrator, this continual struggle manifests as a darkness that haunts all Black Americans. However, the passage also contrasts this darkness with another form of darkness—that of the movie theater. The darkness of movie theaters, and the films shown within them, allows Black people to temporarily ignore their plight and become lost in fantasy worlds. For the narrator, this darkness of dreams keeps Black people ensnared in the darkness of racism by making them “more alone” (18).
Trap
The trap is a metaphor the narrator uses to describe the housing projects where he and his brother grew up, which remain prevalent throughout Harlem. Though such housing projects are meant to offer affordable living for working-class people, the narrator notes that they quickly fall into states of neglect; he refers to them as “a parody of the good, clean, faceless life” (25). The housing projects exist less to better the lives of poor Black people than to keep them stuck in a cycle of poverty, separated from the rest of the city. As the narrator drives through Harlem with Sonny and reflects upon the neighborhood where they grew up, he uses the trap metaphor to describe how young boys growing up there become “encircled by disaster” (24). While some individuals can escape the trap, “those who got out always left something of themselves behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap” (24). For the narrator, there is seemingly no way of growing up in poor neighborhoods like Harlem without being permanently scarred by the experience. While most are unable to escape poverty, those who do escape still bear a psychological wound, which the narrator compares to the violence of an animal losing a limb.
Scotch
At the very end of “Sonny’s Blues,” the narrator orders a “Scotch and milk” for Sonny to drink while he plays the piano (48). This symbolizes how the two brothers’ relationship has changed throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is deeply estranged from his brother due to Sonny’s drug addiction and the narrator’s harsh judgment of Sonny’s career choice. After Sonny’s arrest, the two tentatively repair their relationship, yet tensions between them persist owing to the wounds of their many past arguments. However, Sonny invites the narrator to attend his performance at a nightclub. As the narrator listens to Sonny play, he is deeply moved and learns to respect Sonny both as a musician and a brother. In celebration of his brother, the narrator asks the waitress to bring him a drink, and the two brothers quickly make eye contact before Sonny continues playing. The cup seems to “glow” as the narrator watches, revealing the significance of his purchase.
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By James Baldwin
