Brotherly love is one of the main themes in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”. I find it interesting that James Baldwin writes about brotherly love considering the harsh realities that come with growing up African American in Harlem. Baldwin in, “Sonny’s Blues,” discusses the importance of endurance and love when he writes about his brother’s struggles, “the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light”. Baldwin’s observation about his brother’s drug addiction is tragic. The lack of relationship that Baldwin has with his brother and his inability to help Sonny who is systematically oppressed demonstrates Baldwin’s caring nature. Baldwin further emphasizes his caring and enduring nature when he proclaims, “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.” Baldwin expresses the importance of brotherly love and that through writing or music even the poorest of brothers can triumph through any amount of suffering.
Baldwin uses symbolism and sentimentalism through the use of lightness and darkness to convey to the reader the lack of opportunities in Harlem. Darkness is more present through Baldwin’s story mostly because poverty, drugs, and a poor education system cause significant problems in Harlem. Baldwin does express the salvation through his symbolism of light yet it is mostly overshadowed through his use of darkness. For instance, Baldwin writes, “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.” This use of darkness symbolizes the inequality in America that is represented through underprivileged African Americans in Harlem.