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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sun Does Shine, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Discrimination and the Criminal Justice System
Optimism, Faith, and Choice
The Death Penalty
Suffering, Community, and Support
The Power of Stories
Summary
Analysis
On August 28, 1987, the guards execute Wayne Ritter. Ray hears the generator kicking on and the popping of electricity, and throughout the night he smells burned flesh. Ray wonders if he could be killed even though he is still on appeal, or if the state could kill him immediately if Perhacs failed. Imagining what being electrocuted feels like, the fear crushes Ray. Over the next few months, he starts to think about the death penalty, wondering if it is right to murder someone for murdering someone.
Here, Ray establishes the cruelty of the death penalty—how it can drive people mad with fear. In addition, Ray questions the morality of the death penalty for the first time, making the argument that murder should not be met with more murder.
Themes
The guards who carry out the executions—the “Death Squad,” as the inmates call them—practice for a few months before each execution. The next to be executed is a young guy named Michael Lindsey, who cries every day in the month leading up to his execution and begs anyone near him to save him or help him. He cries as he watches the guards practice their ritual for killing him, marching in front of his cell, with one officer leading another to the death chamber, which is about 30 feet from Ray’s cell.
Part of Ray’s aim in The Sun Does Shine is to humanize the people on death row. He talks about Lindsay’s crying and begging as a way to show that he is still a human being with as much of a right to life as anyone else. He contrasts this with the cruelty and impersonality of the “Death Squad.”
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Michael Lindsey is 28 years old and has been on death row for eight years—he was convicted of murdering a woman and stealing her Christmas presents. A jury recommended life in prison, but his judge overruled the recommendation and sentenced him to death. In May 1989, the Death Squad takes him to the chamber. He had no visitors in the days before his death. When the other inmates know that he’s being strapped into the chair, they scream and bang on their bars, yelling “Murderers!” at the guards. They want Michael to know that he’s not alone, that his life and death both mean something. After the generator powers on and off, Ray sits down on his bed and weeps.
Ray again shows how the criminal justice system can be easily manipulated: even though a jury wanted to sentence Lindsey to life in prison, a judge determined that he had the right to sentence him to the death penalty over their recommendation. This ties into Ray’s earlier point that judges are often reelected based on how many people they send to death row, using these men’s lives for political capital. Additionally, Ray emphasizes that even people who are guilty of murder on death row are worthy of life.
Themes
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A few weeks after Lindsey’s execution, another inmate named Dunkins gets his execution date in July 1989. Dunkins is also 28 and likely mentally disabled. Then another guy, Richardson, gets his execution date for August. Death row grows tense, particularly as the weather heats up in the summer.
Ray demonstrates another aspect of the criminal justice system’s injustice: that it can put people to death even though they are mentally disabled and likely weren’t fully aware of their actions.
Themes
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One hot day, Ray gets a letter from Perhacs, who explains that their appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court was denied. Perhacs writes that he can handle the case to the U.S. Supreme Court for a fee of $15,000. Ray is stunned; he doesn’t know what to do. He calls Perhacs’s office, and the secretary explains that Perhacs thought Ray could ask his mom to mortgage her house. Hearing this, Ray fires Perhacs.
Again, Ray exposes the cruelty of the criminal justice system. Ray has no way of paying $15,000, which likely means that he will be put to death as an innocent man simply because he can’t afford the legal fees to appeal his conviction with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Themes
When Ray’s mom and Lester come at the end of the week, Ray pulls Lester aside to tell him what happened with Perhacs. Worried that he may soon be executed, Ray asks Lester to relay a message to Ray’s mom when they give him an execution date: Ray loves her, he isn’t scared, and God makes no mistakes. He asks Lester to promise him to look after her. Lester says that he’s not going to let Ray die, and that he’ll find someone else to help.
Even though Ray has lost all hope, particularly given the fact that he felt completely unsupported by his lawyer, he still tries to provide some comfort for his mother. This illustrates how Ray’s community support can go both ways—he wants to support his friends and family through this hardship just as much as they support him.
Themes
The guards execute Dunkins on July 14; Ray once again bangs against the bars. The first time they turn on the generator, they hook up the cables wrong, so they have to electrocute him a second time. The next month, they execute Herbert Richardson, a Vietnam veteran. Ray finds out later that a young attorney named Bryan Stevenson sat with Herb all day and stayed with him through the end.
The fact that Dunkins had to be electrocuted twice reinforces the death penalty’s cruelty as a punishment. In addition, Ray again hints at how Bryan will become a crucial beacon of support for Ray by showing how much comfort he provides for other inmates on death row.
Themes
One day, the guards open Ray’s cell, startling him awake. Ray wonders if he’s going to be electrocuted at that moment. Panicking, Ray thinks that he doesn’t want to have his head shaved, or a bag placed over his head. In that moment, he wonders why he turned his back on God, when he needed him so much. Ray stands up, determined to fight—until they tell him that he has a legal visit.
This is one of Ray’s darker moments, as he believes he is about to die. But it is notable that in this difficult moment, he recognizes the importance of faith in his life as a means of giving him comfort and hope.
Themes
Ray walks to the visiting area very confused. A young white woman smiles at him and shakes his hand. She introduces herself as Santha Sonenberg, explaining that she’s a lawyer from D.C. and that she’s going to file a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. When Ray tries to protest that he doesn’t have money, she says that she doesn’t need any money. She explains that the Supreme Court will likely reject the petition and then she’ll file a different Rule 32 petition in the Jefferson County circuit court.
Santha’s initial statements contrast with everything that Perhacs has told Ray, illustrating his bias and manipulation of Ray’s situation. Because Ray didn’t have money to pay Perhacs, Perhacs didn’t put up an adequate defense. But because Santha works for a company that is trying to alleviate discrimination and the economic inequality in the justice system (as readers will later learn), she puts up a much stronger defense for Ray.
Themes
Ray tells Santha that he’s innocent, and she replies that she believes him. She tells him that they’re going to investigate everything they can. She asks him if he’s doing okay, and he asks in return if they can execute him while she’s appealing. When Santha says no, Ray is relieved. Santha asks permission to represent him, and he eagerly agrees, smiling at her and asking her to call him Ray. He then asks who sent her, and she replies that it was Bryan Stevenson.
Santha (who is a part of Bryan Stevenson’s team of lawyers) also provides Ray with much-needed empathy and support. In affirming that she believes Ray, asking him what he needs, and informing him that he can’t be executed in the near future, Santha lifts a huge emotional burden off of Ray.
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