5. Imagery

Following a story’s prevailing imagery can help us to understand an author’s focus or concerns. A story can have a pattern of recurring imagery as well as sentences which describe in figurative or imagistic language certain concepts, ideas or scenes such that the reader can gain a full understanding of the author’s intent. This section of the lecture looks at one recurring pattern of images and then asks you to consider how other images Baldwin uses help him create meaning.

Darkness and light, a recurring pattern of images:

In Sonny’s Blues, Baldwin relies on the opposition between images of darkness and light. We first see this imagery in the opening scene, where the narrator is contemplating Sonny’s fate in the dark subway. The “swinging lights of the subway car” allow him to read about Sonny’s arrest, while the “darkness roared outside”. This image sets up a major plot development in the story, which is the narrator’s growth as he realizes his duty to Sonny. The coming of a realization or the dawning of knowledge and understanding is often described as a “light going on.” Depression and fear are often described as “darkness” or “night.” The narrator has to find a way to absorb and live with this new understanding of Sonny as an addict and as a blues musician. Similarly, in the final scene of the story, the narrator notices Sonny and the other jazz musicians standing behind the light of the bandstand. “I had the feeling that they… were being most careful not to step into that circle of light too suddenly: if they moved into the light too suddenly and without thinking, they would perish in flame.” Perhaps this description suggests that the musicians like Sonny must be careful with how they approach the truths of their lives; full awareness of their suffering can be painful and dangerous.

We might also consider images of darkness and light in terms of race and the historical context of the story. The narrator refers to his own students and the “darkness of their lives” this imagery in the opening scene, where the narrator is contemplating Sonny’s fate in the dark subway. The “swinging lights of the subway car” allow him to read about Sonny’s arrest, while the “darkness roared outside”. This image sets up a major plot development in the story, which is the narrator’s growth as he realizes his duty to Sonny. The coming of a realization or the dawning of knowledge and understanding is often described as a “light going on.” Depression and fear are often described as “darkness” or “night.” The narrator has to find a way to absorb and live with this new understanding of Sonny as an addict and as a blues musician. Similarly, in the final scene of the story, the narrator notices Sonny and the other jazz musicians standing behind the light of the bandstand. “I had the feeling that they… were being most careful not to step into that circle of light too suddenly: if they moved into the light too suddenly and without thinking, they would perish in flame.” Perhaps this description suggests that the musicians like Sonny must be careful with how they approach the truths of their lives; full awareness of their suffering can be painful and dangerous.

We might also consider images of darkness and light in terms of race and the historical context of the story. The narrator refers to his own students and the “darkness of their lives”.