In James Baldwin's short story, "Sonny's Blues", there is a constant contrast between light and darkness. Baldwin uses this theme to highlight the struggles that the narrator and his younger brother, Sonny, both face. Light represents all the positive aspects of life. Meanwhile, the darkness represents the constant struggle that threatens the characters in the story. Light and darkness are present in both characters. The narrator lives his life in the “light”. He is a teacher, a bourgeois, a man who has a wife and a family. For the narrator, the darkness lies in his constant thoughts about his brother and his feelings of guilt or blame for being the reason Sonny turned to a life of drugs. The darkness represents Sonny in a certain way. He is a recovering drug addict who has just completed his prison sentence. When he got out of prison, his brother was there to meet him. He finds his re-emergence in the world through his love for music. For Sonny, music is his guiding light. Early on, the narrator introduces the imagery of light and darkness that will become the dominant theme of the story. In the first scene, the narrator contemplates Sonny's fate in the dark subway. The “swinging lights of the subway car” allow him to read of Sonny’s arrest, while “the darkness roared outside” (91). Although this is seemingly a very illustrative description, it soon becomes apparent that the story's use of the premises of light and darkness is the most significant in the story because the relationship between the two concepts reflect the lives of the two brothers. Just an elementary school algebra teacher, the narrator describes many of the students he teaches as being "filled with rage." He then says that these boys only know two "darkn...... middle of paper...... as long as one is able to endure the suffering that everyone must endure without destroying oneself, you are as good as the next man up.Sonny's Blues tells the story of the struggle with life and acceptance that many people face today. The narrator has assimilated into society as much as possible, but understands. still his limitations as a black man On the contrary, Sonny has never tried to conform and travels a difficult path trying to find an outlet for the deep pain and suffering that his permanent outcast status imposes on him. .Sonny channels his suffering into music and he and his brother are finally able to connect through something they never thought existed: the light born from Sonny's dark world Works CitedBaldwin, James “Sonny's Blues. "The Anthology of Jazz Fiction Ed. Sascha Feinstein and David Rife: Indiana UP., 2009. 17-48.