Light transforms, destroys and elevates experiences and thoughts throughout "Sonny's Blues", by James Baldwin. Sonny and his brother, the narrator, grew up in the “dark” atmosphere of Harlem, its housing projects and its dilapidated, drug-ridden streets. The process of growing up, losing one's parents, and living in both light and darkness has shaped both the narrator and Sonny. Baldwin uses light and its counterpart, darkness, to present the challenges and hopes of the protagonists' adulthood and childhood. If there's one line that sums up the point Baldwin is conveying through these images, it's: "All this hate and misery and love." It’s surprising that it doesn’t blow up the avenue” (p. 639). Through Sonny and his brother, we can see that light and darkness can come together, like hate and love. Light and darkness reflect fundamental human experience; these are primitive aspects of the world that have always been in contrast, but in this story Baldwin brings them together. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The narrator's childhood in Harlem was an experience that influenced him to become a teacher and gave Sonny a desire to get as far away from his hometown as possible; this can be seen through the use of light and dark. In the first passage, everything around the boys growing up is dark. Their lives lead only into darkness. The films are a literal darkness that helps them escape their lives for a few hours, but ultimately only makes the literal darkness of life in Harlem even deeper. These same views on life in Harlem were echoed in the Narrator's childhood: "And when the light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness...he moves a little closer to the darkness exterior... what the old people talked about. » (page 623). Through this passage and this quote we see that the general opinion is that light - like the films mentioned in the first passage - only illusions the child, distancing him from the harsh reality that will be his life, that the “old people” have already lived. In response to this, the narrator attempts to mentally distance himself from his surroundings by becoming a math teacher, getting married, and even cutting off his brother for a few years. He believes that if he ignores his inner self, he can escape the darkness; but instead it brings more darkness. Sonny frightens the narrator because he oscillates between "bright and open" (p. 613) and "all the light in his face...went out" (p. 614). Sonny is connected to his lights and his darkness through drugs, then through music; these are two parts of Sonny's life that the narrator cannot understand or accept for the majority of the story. The narrator's vision of light and darkness culminates in the second passage, and after this point. This is a revelation for the narrator and for Sonny. The narrator fears for Sonny, for his "perishable inflammation", that his inner fire will take over and extinguish him, like what almost happened with his heroin addictions. He comes to understand that light and darkness exist together in the real world, with different disadvantages and advantages, just as they both exist within Sonny. The narrator begins by being downright petrified by the light, and when Sonny and his fellow musicians step into the light, it's as if a barrier breaks in his mind that allows the narrator to finally understand. He finally saw Sonny happy and saw him smile. He.