The short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin tells the story of two brothers who regain closeness and understanding of each other after years of being uninvolved in each other's lives. Through these two characters the author highlights the two different lifestyles of the African American culture and how each of these lifestyles impacts their personage. The central idea of the story is that although there is hardship in life, there is comfort in family, art, and religion. Baldwin uses several literary devices in "Sonny's Blues" to assert his theme such as the use of recurring imagery, motifs and simile.
             Baldwin used repetition of the image of a trap. The word trap throughout "Sonny's Blues" can be seen as a motif in that it represents the city of Harlem and the type of lifestyle that many of the people live. In the subway, the narrator describes how the people seem to be "trapped in the darkness which roared outside."(par. 1) Although there is literal darkness outside of the subway, the narrator seems to be referring to the problems that exist in the world outside of the confinement of the subway. When Sonny writes a letter to his brother, he says that he feels "like a man who's been trying to climb up out of some deep, real deep, funky hole."(par. 50) The hole he speaks of is a figurative image of his life and the choices he has made. The hole can also be considered a trap he is trying to escape from. The narrator describes the neighborhood where he and his brother Sonny grew up. The narrator states, "Some escaped the trap, most didn't." He adds, "Those who got out always left something of themselves behind, as some animals amputate a leg and leave it in the trap."(par. 73) This figurative image explains how most people get caught in the trap of the Harlem lifestyle, but even those who get out still leave pa...