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Chapter 4
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
Ray arrives at the police station, where three officers read him his rights. One officer, Lieutenant Acker, then asks Ray to sign a piece of blank paper to affirm that they read him his rights. In that moment, Ray becomes afraid, wondering why they want him to sign a blank piece of paper—he refuses to sign it. The officers then ask Ray where he was on the nights of February 23, July 2, and July 25. Ray isn’t sure about the first two dates, but he tells them that on July 25, he had dinner with his mom and then drove out to his job on the night shift at Bruno’s warehouse, which he began at midnight and finished at 6:00 a.m.
Ray begins to understand the cruelty and manipulation of the criminal justice system here. If Ray didn’t know not to sign a blank piece of paper, the police could easily take advantage of his trust and use it to prove that he confessed to a crime. Notably, they do this even before they have interrogated Ray about his whereabouts—suggesting that they care very little about Ray’s innocence and have already decided that he is guilty.
Themes
Ray spends that night in a holding cell, and the next day Lieutenant Acker rides with him to the county jail in Birmingham. Ray asks the policeman why he’s under arrest. When Acker tells him he’s being charged with first-degree robbery and murder, Ray says that they have the wrong person. Acker says he doesn’t care if Ray did or didn’t do it—if he didn’t do it, one of his “brothers” did and he’ll take the rap for it.
Here the bias against Ray becomes more and more blatant. Noting that one of Ray’s “brothers” did the crime—implying a Black man, or possibly a gang member—is not only racist but also illustrates how little Acker cares about bringing the right person to justice.
Themes
Acker goes on, explaining that Ray will be convicted because he’s Black, because a white man is going to say that Ray shot him, and because there will be a white judge, a white district attorney, and an all-white jury. Ray goes ice cold—his mom always told him not to fear the police because they were there to help, but now Ray isn’t so sure. Still, he hopes that this will all get sorted out and that the court wouldn’t convict an innocent man.
Lieutenant Acker is literally walking Ray through all of the ways in which the criminal justice system is biased against him as a Black man. He highlights the fact that the people who will be involved in his court case will all be white as evidence that they won’t take him at his word, and that they can manipulate the evidence presented at his trial to convict him no matter what.
Themes
The police process Ray in the Birmingham jail. They charge him with two murders, explaining that the gun they found at his house matched the bullets and that someone else saw him commit the crime, so he should confess—none of which makes sense to Ray. The police give Ray a prison uniform, mattress, razor, mug, toothbrush, and toilet paper, and he sets his stuff down in his cell. In the common area, one of the other inmates welcomes Ray to C block, where the capital murder prisoners stay.
Ray’s confusion is well-founded, as he knows that there’s no way the bullets at the crime scene can match his mother’s gun, nor was he at any of the crime scenes. The state is making false claims and even fabricating evidence in order to get a conviction.
Themes
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