that theatmosphere begins to "change and tighten."  Out of the darkness, there is an evocation of something of "another order."  As Sonny finally becomes part of the "family" of musicians and they relate in the song "Am I Blue" how they have suffered and how they have been delighted, the brother from his dark corner becomes aware that this communication is "the only light we've got in all this darkness."

For the brother, there is a birth of truth from the darkness of misunderstanding into the light of communion with others.  When Sonny makes the blues his--"Now these are Sonny's blues"--the brothers says,

Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.....And he was giving it back, as everything must be given back, so that passing through death, it can live forever.

Man cannot carry his burden alone; he must find an outlet. He must come out of the darkness of misunderstanding and be in communion with those he loves in order to give meaning to his life. This is Sonny's catharsis as he finds an outlet for his suffering by coming out of the darkness into "the circle of light."

"Sonny's Blues" begins with the narrator's foreboding feelings regarding his brother's fate.  Darkness imagery abounds as the speaker tries to empathize with his brother, symbolic of his other, darker self.

On the subway, the narrator feels "trapped in the darkness that roared outside" (1694).  This triggers dark memories in him, and he flashes back to his childhood, when the silence and darkness used to settle in on Sundays. He says:

"The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about.  It's what they've come from.  It's what they endure.  The child knows that they won't talk any more because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him" (Norton Introduction to Literature 55).

Later, the narrator teaches algebra to a class of little Sonnys. He sees them as full of potential, like his brother, but he knows they too will be threatened by the drugs and violence of the urban ghetto.  He describes them thusly:

"They were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone (Norton Introduction to Literature 48).

Symbols other than the music are also found in the story. Sonny's self-destructive tendencies, shown by his drug use, represent the entire generation of young black men during this time who were aimlessly wandering through life filled with rage.

Another symbol is found when Sonny and his brother rediscover their love for one another. This symbolizes the need we have as human beings to reconnect with others in order to establish unity and a sense of community. It is difficult to find that unity in Harlem since it is the battleground between good and evil.

Water, in the form of sweat and ice, also becomes a symbol. Sonny gets addicted to heroin because he's unable to express the rage and pain he feels inside. He feels cold inside. At the end of his performance, Sonny is soaking wet with sweat because he's been able to finally express his pain.

Sonny's brother, the narrator, describes how he feels when he finds out Sonny has been arrested for the possession and sale of heroin.

"I was scared, scared for Sonny. He became real to me again. A great block of ice got settled in my belly and kept melting there slowly all day long, while I taught my classes algebra. It was a special kind of ice. It kept melting, sending trickles of ice water all up and down my veins, but it never got less. Sometimes it hardened and seemed to expand until I felt my guts were going to come spilling out or that I was going to choke or scream."

The ice is nature's attempts to numb the terrible shock and pain of learning about Sonny's arrest, and the fear the narrator feels for his brother's future. All of his fears for Sonny are locked inside of him as ice. His "warmth" on the outside is seen in the form of sweat. When the narrator feels it, he freezes it into ice so he won't be overwhelmed by his feelings.

Some of these symbols are found in enotes, but some of them I had in my notes from several years ago. Since I'm unsure of where these came from, I'm unable to document a source for them.

“In "Sonny's Blues," Baldwin uses the image from the book of Isaiah of the "cup of trembling" to symbolize the suffering and trouble that Sonny has experienced in his life. At the end of the story, while Sonny is playing the piano, Sonny's brother watches a barmaid bring a glass of Scotch and milk to the piano, which "glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling." As Sonny plays, the cup reminds his brother of all of the suffering that both he and Sonny have endured. His brother finally understands that it is through music that Sonny is able to turn his suffering into something worthwhile.”

Jazz is symbolic of Sonny's need for freedom and to express feelings that he otherwise might have trouble voicing.

Jazz is also symbolic of the relationship of the two brothers, the older of whom, (the unnamed narrator of Sonny's story), does not understand the "language" of jazz which Sonny wants to use to communicate. As the narrator's own understanding of jazz grows, so too does his relationship with Sonny.

Most significantly, the images of darkness and light contain the symbolic meaning of the environment in which Sonny and the narrator have grown up.  For instance, in one flashback, the narrator recalls how the parents sat in the evening as the darness grows, as "every face looks darkening" and the "child moves a little closer to the darkness outside."  In another instance of flashback, the narrator recalls how the young boys live in two darknesses:

The darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness...

That other darkness is what Sonny lives in and feels--the darkness of drugs, and the "storm" that lies within him which he can only get out by playing the blues, and playing to those who truly listen.  The narrator finally understands Sonny as he sits in the dark corner of the nightclub:

For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard.  There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.

In the denouement the narrator perceives the drink of Scotch and milk on top of Sonny's piano as glowing with light and shaking like the chalice of suffering that Sonny has experienced.  Finally, then, the narrator understands his darker side, who is Sonny.

There are so many images of darkness and lightness in "Sonny's Blues." I think there are such images on every page in the story, and I will provide a few.  As to the effect of the characters' dark skin on the white world, there are not many explicit references to this in the story because, for the most part, the setting gives us African-American characters who are interacting in an African-American setting, Harlem.

In the very first paragraph of the story, while the narrator is going home on the subway, he refers to the "swinging lights" of the car and the faces of everyone "trapped in the darkness that roared outside" (20.)

In the third paragraph, the narrator refers to Sonny's face as "bright, and open, there was a lot of copper in it...(20.)

Moving along to a later section of the story, the scene the narrator describes in which he last saw his mother alive, he says, "the night is creeping up outside...," and speaks of "darkness growing against the windowpanes... (28).  He refers to "the darkness coming and the darkness in the faces...(28.)  Then the description shifts.  He says,

"In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light....And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside (28-29).

In this passage, Baldwin is alluding to the darkness of the African-American world of that time and place, when the darkness of being African-American was certainly a consequence of the effect of the color of dark skin on the white world.

Another example of the effect of the color of the African-American on the white world, is the scene in which the narrator's mother describes how the narrator's uncle was run down and killed by a group of drunken white men, who surely would never have done this to a white man.

If you go through the story slowly, you will see references to lightness and darkness that may or may not be obvious to you because the words "light" or "dark" are not being used.  For example, Baldwin uses the word "indigo" (44), which is very deep, dark shade of blue.  Also notice what a nice touch this is, in keeping with the title of the story, which is about two kinds of "blues," music and sadness.

In this story, the author is seeking to portray "the two sides of the African-American experience".  The characterization of Sonny represents the black man who has never tried to assimilate into the mainstream of American society and who thus remains a permanent outsider.  His character is presented as a contrast with that of the narrator, who has devoted his efforts to assimilate as much as possible.  Despite their opposite approaches to life, both characters suffer deeply as members of an oppressed race.  The narrator, despite his attempts to fit in, must constantly face the obstacles of "institutional racism and the limits placed upon his opportunity", while Sonny remains alienated and apart in both a physical and psychological sense. 

In the first part of the story, Sonny, as the outsider, is viewed stereotypically, as a heroin-addicted jazz musician.  As the story progresses, however, the reader begins to see beyond this one-dimensional view of the character.  Sonny is a sensitive man who suffers deeply as a member of an unaccepted and downtrodden minority.  He channels his suffering into his music, expecially "bebop jazz and the blues, forms developed by African-American musicians", and through his sound finds a means of taking control of his life and expressing his deepest feelings.

The darkness in the story is both literal and figurative. 

The story is set in New York City.  The narrator lives in an area of the projects, which is oppressive and run down. 

The narrator's and Sonny's uncle was killed by white people who ran him over and there is a great hatred for them in his family. The narrator's and Sonny's mother lives in Harlem and races many hardships.  Sonny is in prison for a drug conviction and an addiction to heroin.  This factual information contributes to the dark, depressing nature of the story.  The narrator laments Sonny's plight, being in prison for his drug addiction and wonders if his brother will ever straighten himself out.  He and Sonny are disconnected emotionally and the narrator struggles to understand why Sonny did what he did.  

Despite the darkness of the story, there is a hopeful epiphany at the end of the story because the narrator is able to finally understand one of the driving forces behind Sonny and his potential recovery from drug addiction...Sonny's music.  The narrator realizes that Sonny's music is a driving force, a positive for him in a world of negative, and that the music is a peaceful escape for Sonny.

You might like to consider the way in which the narrator explicitly refers to darkness as being the dominant mode of his brother's way of living towards the beginning of the story after he reads about his brother's arrest in the paper. Consider the following description that we are given of the younger generation and the way that they are living lives "filled with rage":

All they really knew were two darknesses, the darkness of their lives, which was now closing in on them, and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to other darkness, and in which they now, vinditctively, dreamed, at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone.

The narrator thus himself defines Sonny as living a life of darkness, but he himself realises how this darkness is something that he himself has experienced and continues to experience because of, for example, the death of his child. It is therefore incredibly symbolic that at the end of the story, Sonny is shown to be playing his music, which gives relief from this darkness, in an "indigo light," showing the opposition between the two states of darkness and light.

The images of light and dark begin in the first paragraph of “Sonny’s Blues,” with the swinging lights of the subway car contrasting with the darkness outside. The narrator’s own face appears “trapped in the darkness,” a significant image, even though anyone who looked at the window would see his or her face in the same position.

For the narrator’s students, “the darkness of their lives” is coupled with “the darkness of the movies.” The latter darkness presents a direct contrast between the Black students sitting passively in the dark and the predominantly white actors, brilliantly lit, on the screen. This contrast at the beginning of the story is balanced at the end by the fact that it is Sonny and his fellow black performers of the Blues who share the spotlight in the dimly lit club.

The musicians as well as the drug addicts of Harlem come out at night, and it is always clear that these people, the vast majority of whom are black, are out of place in the daylight. This is first remarked in the appearance of Sonny’s old friend:

The bright sun deadened his damp dark brown skin and it made his eyes look yellow and showed up the dirt in his kinked hair.

Although the first image in the subway contrasts the light inside with the darkness outside, as the story progresses it becomes clear that the dichotomy between light and dark is not so simple. Neither interior nor exterior spaces are consistently dark or light. Instead, the Black people in the story are driven to the dark spaces at the margins, never taking center stage under the spotlight until Sonny’s blues performance at the end.