"Sonny"s Blues," by James Baldwin, is a story about the relationship between two brothers. The central idea of this story is how peoples" own experiences of personal hardships make them better able to empathize with the troubles of others. Language is the dominant element employed by Baldwin, in which he uses imagery in the story. The imagery of light and dark is prevalent throughout this story and plays an important role in creating a visual mental picture, which gives way to underlying messages for the reader to decipher.

             The story begins with the brother, who is riding the subway and reading about the arrest of his brother Sonny. The brother "stared at it (newspaper article) in the swinging lights of the subway car," representing that this could be either good or bad for Sonny and himself; he could not decide. Though, while still on the train, the brother felt, "trapped in the darkness which roared outside," which leads the reader to believe that the situation is more gloomy than pleasant. .

             The brother then thought back to a time in Sonny"s youth and recalled how Sonny looked as a child. The brother remembered Sonny"s boyish appearance as, "his face had been bright and open, there was a lot of copper in it." The image of light in Sonny"s face suggests that he was a blissful and affable child. The "copper" light adds to Sonny"s disposition with a warm and caring nature. .

             While in prison Sonny responds to a written correspondence from his brother. In his letter Sonny describes what it is like for him to be in prison as, "I feel like a man who"s been trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outside." This metaphor statement of imagery shows how dismal Sonny viewed his situation and the struggle he knew it would take for him to get back on the right track, back into the light.