Short Story Sonny Blues Essay Example for Free

Short Story cuss discolour EssayIt kept melting, sending trickles of ice piss every up and down my veins, barely if it never got less. (Baldwin 600) This is non the only sentence that the ice presents itself. It reappears when the fibber meets one of Sonnys friends who is too a drug addict, and again subsequently when Sonny is everywhere for dinner with the tellers family. The ice that appears whenever the vote counter notes an uncomfortable or painful situation represents how the narrator is incapable of dealing with his own emotions well. The ice in addition allows the reader to empathize with how the narrator feels about how his crony is leading his life.a nonher(prenominal) symbol Baldwin uses throughout Sonnys Blues is light and darkness. Throughout the tale there is a contrast of light and darkness. For example, in the first paragraph of the trading floor, Sonnys Blues Baldwin writes, I stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the shells and bodies of the people, and in my own face, detain in the darkness which roared outside. (Baldwin 599) This contrasts the lightness and the darkness. It demonstrates the contrast between his own suffering and the world around him and the suffering of the world.another(prenominal) example of lightness and darkness Baldwin uses in the unforesightful story is when the narrators mother is recalling the story of the narrators father and his brother she says there was a corn liquor that night, it was bright like day. (Baldwin 607) This is when the narrators father and his brother are having a good time and walking home. This brightness of the moon is utilize to represent the light, which represents all the hope and good things in life. The narrators mother later recalls, he says he never in his life seen anything as dark as that road subsequently the lights of that car had gone away. (Baldwin 608) Referring to after the narrators fathers brother had been hit and killed. The discolour of the mens skin excessively represents the contrast between light and darkness. The men that killed the narrators fathers brother were all white and the other two men were dark skinned. This is also an example of the contrasting of light and dark. This shows how the difference of something in the same situation can both stick out two different results. Meaning that both the light men and the dark men were drunk. They were each also having fun. The situations were both similar, but the end results of each situation were very different.One of the dark men befogged their life to the light men. The darkness is used to represent the tormenting and dark moments in the characters lives. The darkness however is forever and a day stabilized with lightness. Just like the dark road was stabilized with the lightness of the car lights. This light is used to signify safety and comfort, while the darkness represents the turmoil also looking to destroy that safety and comfort. A nother way Baldwin symbolizes the overall theme of suffering is through the characters facial expressions and interactions.Baldwin writes And I watched her face as she laughingly responded to something someone said to her, still keeping time to the harmony. When she smiled one saw the picayune girl, one sensed the doomed, still struggling women beneath the knock about face of the semi-whore. (Baldwin 602) This shows that plane under her knock about face there was still a glimpse of when she was young. The narrator can see her as a young innocent little girl. This shows the reader that there is hope all the same in suffering. Baldwin is also attempt to get his point across that even though one may suffer, the suffering will not change the past and whom you are or have become.Another example of how Baldwin incorporates the facial expressions of his characters to help evoke the overall theme of suffering is when the narrator is on the subway in the first few sentences of the s hort story. He writes, I stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car, and in the faces of the bodies of the people, and in my own face, trapped in the darkness. (Baldwin 600) This illustrates that not only does the narrator feel and see suffering inside himself and his own face, but he also sees it inside the faces of others and the surroundings around him.This also proves that the overall effect of suffering is evident to one who is suffering themselves, like that of the narrators. Baldwin also promotes the theme of Sonnys Blues by exploitation the presence of music. The entire short story is loaded with occasions of music. The overall title of the story even contains music. Sonnys Blues, promotes the tone and theme of suffering throughout the entire story. It provides the reader with randomness that there will be suffering in the story. Giving them an idea of what is to come before even being read. Another example of music is Sonnys growing love for playing the piano .The narrator states Sonny was so serious about his music and how, as soon as he came in from school, he went straight to that piano and stayed there until suppertime. , He was at the piano all day Saturday and all day Sunday. (Baldwin 612) This tells the reader of Sonnys love for music. It illustrates how the music is Sonnys safety and allows him to not suffer. When Baldwin benefits it clear to the reader that Isabel and her mother grow tired of the music, it wasnt like living with a somebody at all, it was like living with sound. And the sound didnt make any sense to her, didnt make any sense to any of them naturally. (Baldwin 612) This proves that music can both heal suffering but also create it. The music for Sonny was a safety. To Sonny the music made him feel at relaxation method and helped to subside his suffering. It wasnt until after Sonny stopped playing the piano and his records that he began to truly feel the power of his suffering. Although the music was a medicine to Sonnys suffering, it was the cause of suffering for Isabel and her mother. This suffering caused Isabels mother to snap and yell at Sonny. This caused Sonny to stop playing the piano and thus the neat suffering began.Another example of suffering and music is when the narrator witnesses the meeting on the corner. He watches the battered people play their music and notices their suffering. He says, As the singing filled the air the watching, listening faces underwent a change, the eyes focusing on something within the music seemed to soothe a poison out of them and time seemed, nearly, to fall away from the sullen, belligerent, battered faces, as though they were fleeing back to their first condition, while dreaming of their last. (Baldwin 615) showing again how music can be a safety and a rescuer to not only Sonny but others as well.By the narrator stating this it shows that it is noticeable of the change in expression music brings as it lessens the sufferings of those who play . Sonnys fingers filled the air with life, his life. (Baldwin 620) Near the end of Baldwins story Sonny plays his music once again. To most, the music Sonny plays is merely for entertainment. But to some it is a story, Sonnys story. As Sonny plays, the narrator notices the things his brother has been through and felt. While Sonny plays the narrator notices both his brothers suffering as well as his own.