“Sonny’s Blues,” a story about two black brothers that are struggling with themselves and the limitations put upon them by society, is a great example of this common theme. The story begins with the narrator, Sonny’s brother, telling us of how he read about his brother being arrested for drug use. Right in first paragraph the narrator depicts reading the newspaper article under the lights in a subway and stared at the article, at other people “and in my own face, trapped in the darkness which roared outside” (pg. 103). This is the first clue to Baldwin’s theme of oppression; Sonny’s brother is letting us know that he has not escaped Harlem and lifestyle that goes along with it. This “Light vs. Dark” example is common throughout the three Baldwin pieces. The story “Man Child” does not have any black characters in it, but Baldwin still manages to put in the “Light vs. Dark” example, when at the end of the story, when Jamie kills Eric, Baldwin states that the “terror and agony and darkness overtook

In “Man Child” Baldwin gives a situation for which there really is no salvation. Jamie does not really have any options; his story is about what happens when you are oppressed to the point where you can’t move anywhere. Jamie saw that his only escape was through the death of Eric, to end the chain of oppressors. Baldwin is suggesting that when no options for salvation are given, violence is the only answer people come up with, so that is what they do. This is also true in “Notes of a Native Son,” when all of the oppression Baldwin has felt through his years boils up and causes him to throw the mug at the waitress, when you give somebody no options they will revolt with violence. It is almost like Baldwin is giving a message to the white people, giving an explanation for their behavior, and warning that it will continue unless their ceiling is lifted.

Reading farther along into “Sonny’s Blues” you learn the Sonny’s brother is an algebra teacher, but in fact he found teaching in Harlem to be hopeless. He knows that he is teaching a bunch of kids who might just be going into the bathroom and shooting up with drugs, and that maybe that did more for them then algebra. This shows you that he did want to escape the darkness that was Harlem, and try and make a difference, but he now knows the hopelessness of the situation, and that in fact, there is no escape. In the next paragraph he describes the situation of growing up in Harlem as, “growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities” (pg. 104). That quote really hits Baldwin’s points in the three pieces right on the head. He wants to show us how the blacks were held down by society and how there really was no escape. “Man Child” is actually more of a metaphorical story, then a direct story of how blacks are hitting their heads on the ceiling of their possibilities. When reading it, as a white person, it makes more sense to you because it seems more real to you, because as whites we have never had to deal with black oppression. In the story Jamie is the oppressed one, and Eric’s father is the oppressor. You could translate that to Jamie being the black male, and Eric’s father being society, mainly white society. Jamie really has no

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