Dec 22, 2009

Juneteenth | Themes

Darkness and Light
Darkness and light play an important role in Ellison’s Juneteenth. The words both represent race, Caucasian and African American, and are personified in the white preacher, Bliss, and his grownup alter ego, racist senator Sunraider. The term bliss means complete happiness or paradise. It is heavenly, full of light and devoid of evil and immorality. On the other hand, the term Sunraider carries the implied meaning of an individual that raids the sun, i.e., removes all aspect of light. Sunraider is the personification of darkness, just as...