Optimism, Faith, and Choice Theme Analysis

Most of Anthony Ray Hinton’s life on death row is out of his control: what he eats, when he sleeps, and the timeline for his court appeals are all determined by other people. But he repeatedly emphasizes that one thing is within his control: his outlook. For his first three years in prison, Ray feels helpless and desolate because he was wrongly convicted—as a result, he doesn’t engage with anyone, loses faith in God, and even contemplates suicide. Over time, however, he recognizes that maintaining optimism and faith is a choice he can make, even if it is sometimes hard to do so. While he acknowledges the obstacles in his path and at times gives into grief and despair, he nevertheless argues that in order to survive and to succeed, one must maintain hope and persevere.

When a judge sentences Ray to death row, he becomes pessimistic and even considers taking his own life, illustrating how a lack of hope and agency can literally be life-threatening. For the first three years in prison, Ray remains completely silent; he isolates himself out of anger and distress at the thought of being sent to the electric chair as an innocent man. He writes that the experience is “like being wrapped in a straightjacket all day every day. You can’t make a choice about how to live.” Ray doesn’t yet appreciate that he does have a choice about how to live, so instead, he feels completely helpless and even physically incapacitated. Ray also loses his faith: though he was a devout Christian prior to his arrest, he throws his Bible underneath his bed when he arrives in prison, where it remains untouched for three years. When his mom later visits and says that God will fix what has happened, Ray thinks, “God didn’t live in this place. If there was a God and he thought it was okay to send me to hell while I was still alive, well, then, he wasn’t my God.” The prison has left him without faith, so he doesn’t share his mother’s optimism that things might work out. Immersed in this despair, Ray considers committing suicide, as many inmates do on death row. In a way, killing himself is one of the only choices he could make: he thinks, “I wasn’t going to survive here. I felt like eventually I would hollow out so completely, I would just disappear into a kind of nothingness. […] I had no other choice.” Without optimism, Ray almost doesn’t survive death row.

Three years into Ray’s time in prison, however, he recognizes that he can choose to be optimistic about his situation; only by maintaining that hope is he able to regain his drive to live. Ray finally breaks his silence in prison when he connects with another inmate who learns his mother died. In being able to make the man laugh amid his grief, Ray recognizes that death row can’t take away his humor and that he can choose to be more positive. Ray thinks, “I wasn’t ready to die. I wasn’t going to make it that easy on them. I was going to find another way to do my time. Whatever time I had left. Everything, I realized, is a choice.” Understanding that his outlook is a conscious choice, Ray reclaims both agency and hope. When Ray and other inmates read James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain as a part of their book club, Ray identifies with the main character, John’s, despair. Baldwin writes that in John’s world, “the sun refused to shine” because of the oppression he faces from white people in the South in the early 1900s. But Ray counters John’s perspective, explaining, “I know the sun will never refuse to shine. We may not see it, but I know it’s there. I’m not going to have hate in my heart.” With this statement, Ray shows that he has overcome his own hatred and despair by recognizing that “the sun will never refuse to shine”—that is, that there will always be things to hope for and anticipate.

Religion is another aspect of Ray’s optimistic outlook, and regaining his faith in God buoys him through his years in prison. When Ray believes that the prison guards are coming to execute him one day, he thinks, “Why had I left God? Why had I turned my back on his comfort? I needed him now.” In a difficult moment, Ray recognizes the importance of faith in his life to give him consolation and hope. Moreover, when Ray reaches out to the man on the row who just lost his mother, Ray tells him, “‘God may sit high, but he looks low. He’s looking down here in the pit. He’s sitting high, but he’s looking low. You’ve got to believe it.’” Ray then thinks, “I had to believe it too.’” Having faith that God is with him in the prison helps Ray believe that his life is not a lost cause. Ray’s faith and hope are tested most intensely when his mother passes away in September 2002, 16 years into Ray’s prison time. He once again contemplates killing himself, but he hears his mother’s voice in his head saying, “You are the light. Don’t you listen to that fool devil telling you to give up. I didn’t raise no child of mine to give up when things get tough. Your life isn’t your life to take. It belongs to God.” With his mother’s voice reminding him of both his faith and his capacity to persevere, Ray chooses to keep fighting for his life instead of taking it.

When Ray finally gets out of prison for his wrongful conviction after nearly 30 years, the first thing he says to reporters is, “the sun does shine,” hearkening back to Baldwin’s words in Go Tell It on the Mountain. Ray knows that the other inmates will be watching and listening to his words, and he is sending a signal to them that they should retain hope and persevere as he has. This is likely why he titled his memoir The Sun Does Shine as well—this simple phrase captures the idea that, without that hope, Ray would never have been vindicated and walked as a free man.