Sonny's Blues-Darkness

pg. 17
"I stared at it in the swinging lights of the subway car." The story starts off in an assumingly not well lit subway. Swinging lights means the lighting is not stable, and one would probably have to squint to read something. Because the story starts off with a dark, gloomy setting, one can also assume that the narrator's life at this point is not full and happy. There is already a darkenss in his life.

pg. 20
"But now I feel 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. I got to get outside." This quote if from Sonny's letter to his brother. By seeing the light outside, it means that Sonny is trapped inside in the darkness. The darkness is referring to his drug addiction and new life in rehab. This quote is somewhat uplifting because Sonny can see the positive of the situation. He sees where he should be and strives to be there.

pg. 24
"Daddy was like a crazy man that night and for many a night thereafter. He says he never in his life seen anything as dark as that road after the lights of that car had gone away." The narrator's mother is telling him about his father when his uncle was killed. The darkness of the road could mean that the father now felt so empty, alone, and desperate. The darkness could represent the realization of the true prejudice from the white race. The darkness could represent the ultimate sadness that his father felt that night.

pg. 29
"I was sitting in the living room in the dark by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My trouble made his real." This quote is right after Gracie's funeral. The darkness from the funeral seems to hover in the room. I picture an absolutely still, quiet, and dark room. The sadness made the narrator think of his brother, which makes the seriousness of Sonny's situation even more real.