Sonny's Blues Contrasts

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In his short story “Sonny’s Blues”, James Baldwin uses many contrasts such as light and dark and black and white to emphasize important aspects of the plot. Though there are many contrasts which are obvious, some the reader has to read between the lines to understand. One of the major not-so-obvious contrasts is music being the opposite of darkness. Characters throughout the story use music to brighten their lives metaphorically and deal with the suffering and boredom that surrounds them. Throughout the story different types of music from different mediums are represented. The first mention of music is a young boy whistling a “...very complicated” (Baldwin 123) yet “....very simple” (123) tune. From there the music morphs into the form of
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