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Chapter 14
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
Only six guys can join Ray in the book club, but every inmate is now allowed to have two books besides the Bible in his cell. Ray describes it as a whole new world opening up. The first book club meeting consists of Jesse Morrison, Victor Kennedy, Larry Heath, Brian Baldwin, Ed Horsely, Henry, and Ray—five Black guys and two white guys. They use the law library but they all have to sit at different tables, tossing the book to each other to read passages.
Ray’s assessment of the book club as opening up a whole new world reinforces the power of stories, because it provides all the inmates (not just the seven people in the book club) the opportunity to engage with something other than their despair, anger, or boredom in the prison.
Themes
The book club’s first book is James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain, and some of the other inmates who aren’t in the club ask their families to send them a copy as well. Soon, everybody is talking about the book in their cells. They are transported to Harlem instead of death row, just as Ray could travel the world and have tea with the Queen of England.
At the first official book club meeting, the guys are uneasy at the change in their routine. They look at Ray for guidance, and he asks them what they liked about the book and what made an impression on them. Henry says he likes the idea that a person’s soul can be reborn, no matter what they’ve done.
In their first book club meeting, Ray discovers that the stories also enable the men to talk about important philosophical and social issues. Henry’s point is very similar to points that Ray makes throughout the book: that every person is capable of change and redemption, and therefore worthy of life.
Themes
Two of the guys in the book club, Baldwin and Horsely, are on death row for a crime they were accused of committing together. Horsely told officers that he did it alone, but this didn’t matter. Baldwin was shocked with a cattle prod until he confessed to the crime. Again, Ray thinks that some of the men on death row are guilty, but some are not. In Holman, it doesn’t really matter. They are just guys talking about a book.
This is yet another dimension of injustice in the criminal justice system. Rather than seeking out evidence to prove whether Baldwin was involved, the authorities tortured him into a confession, and that confession was used to sentence him to death. This is another argument against the death penalty—Ray illustrates that he isn’t the only innocent man on death row, illustrating that executing innocent men is more than just a one-time mistake.
Themes
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Baldwin points to a passage in which the main character, John, is cleaning his house. John describes this as a lifelong task, like the man “whose curse it was to push a boulder up a steep hill, only to have the giant who guarded the hill roll the boulder down again.” Baldwin says all the inmates are pushing a boulder as well, until the giant either crushes them to death with the boulder or someone gives them a hand. Ray knows just what he means, relating to Baldwin’s feelings of helplessness and futility.
The passage Baldwin cites is from Part 1 of Go Tell It on the Mountain, and it alludes to the myth of Sisyphus, who was punished for deceitfulness by being forced to perpetually roll a boulder up a mountain. The myth relates back to Ray and the other inmates’ feelings of hopelessness, as they often feel like fighting their sentences and continuing to survive on death row is both a monotonous and futile process.
Themes
Horsely says that he likes how the characters’ backstories shed light on their problems. He says it’s like the inmates: everybody has a story that led them to their mistakes. Agreeing, Ray sees how the books are making everyone think and open their minds, as well as transport them away from death row for a while.
Horsely’s point adds to Ray’s argument that no one should be reduced to the worst thing that they have ever done, and that even people who have made mistakes or done horrific things are still worthy of life. And Ray again reinforces the importance of books for the men, not only in taking their mind off of their executions but also to help them talk about important issues.
Themes
Ray points to a passage that Henry says he also liked and copied down on a piece of paper. In it, John’s father says that all white people are wicked because they imprison Black men, beat them, and kill them for things they have not done. John can try to change the world until “the sun refused to shine,” but white people will never let him enter their world. Ray knows that Henry picked this passage because Henry was taught the exact opposite: that all Black people are wicked.
Go Tell It on the Mountain has many thematic ties to The Sun Does Shine. Written in 1953 and set in the early 1900s Harlem, Baldwin highlights the discrimination that many Black people faced in their everyday lives, just as Ray does. Baldwin even highlights the problems in the criminal justice system—the passage ties into Ray’s argument that white men are still killing Black men for crimes that they have not committed.
Themes
Ray disagrees with the passage: he says that the world belongs to everyone, and he knows the sun will never refuse to shine. As Ray sees the guard returning to tell them that their hour is up, Ray says that one day, when he gets out of Holman, he’s going to tell the world about how there are men on death row who mattered—maybe he’ll even write a book about it. A few months later, on March 20, 1992, Larry becomes the first member of the book club to die. At the next meeting, they leave his chair empty.
Ray uses the metaphor of the sun to illustrate that he has not given up hope: he vows to regain sunlight in his life and walk free. Additionally, he acknowledges the impact of stories and recognizes the power in his own. This statement is only made more impactful because the reader knows that Ray was able to escape and tell his story in The Sun Does Shine.
Themes
