44 pages • 1 hour read
Jason ReynoldsSunny
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Breathing
Breathing represents Sunny’s struggles to communicate with his father, as well as his anxiety from the childhood trauma he endured. Sunny introduces breathing as a motif at the beginning of the text. At his track meet, Sunny explains that he often hears his father yelling at him from the stands, telling him to remember to breathe, which Sunny writes actually has the opposite effect on him: “then I immediately start thinking about what breathing sounds like. I can never really find it [...] And then I start thinking about what not breathing sounds like” (9). Darryl puts enormous pressure on Sunny to succeed in running, and this pressure manifests as Sunny’s anxiety and difficulty breathing.
Sunny and Darryl struggle to communicate effectively with one another, which is another way the breathing motif appears in the text. When Sunny confronts Darryl about his reasons for quitting running, Sunny explains the effect that Darryl’s words have on him: “My form was this, my stride was that, my breathing is off, breathe, Sunny. Breathe. That’s what you say? You say I have to breathe, but I can’t. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe” (91). Sunny tells his father that his criticisms and scrutiny, as well as the pressure Darryl puts on him makes him feel like he is choking.
Darryl also feels like he chokes on all the things that go unsaid between him and Sunny. Even as they begin to communicate more openly with one another, it will take time for Sunny and Darryl to heal. Sunny describes hearing his father’s laugh for the first time in years: “I definitely don’t think I’ve ever heard him laugh that loud, and for that long. It actually sounded kind of painful. Like a bad cough. Like hacking and hacking and hacking up something he’d been choking on for a long time” (134). Sunny is surprised to hear his father’s laugh. By describing it as sounding “painful,” Sunny illustrates how Darryl’s pain over losing his wife has choked him. Darryl’s laughter is a release, but it is a painful one, and will take time to fully heal.
Baraka
The 1993 film Baraka helps shape Sunny’s worldview and understanding of himself and his relationships. The word baraka is an Arabic word associated with Sufism meaning blessing, or breath, which relates to the motif of breathing and its importance in the text. Baraka is a documentary with no dialogue or linear narrative. Instead, it features footage of people, events, and places around the world. Aurelia describes the message of the film as: “Everything is moving. Everything. Even the things that are not are, because the world is moving. It’s spinning, so everything is changing constantly [...] And that somehow everything is still connected” (84). The film has a profound effect on Sunny, and this message, about the interconnectedness of everything, shapes the way Sunny understands his relationships with others.
Baraka helps Sunny cope with the fact that opposing ideas can both be true and that the darkness in life can coexist with the light. Sunny illustrates this when he goes to see his favorite hospital patient Mr. Rufus after he slips into a coma. At first Sunny is upset to learn that Mr. Rufus is in a coma, but Gramps tells Sunny that Mr. Rufus can still hear him. So, Sunny tells him about Baraka: “I told him Aurelia thinks it’s about everything. That we are all moving. Even when we are not moving. I told him that was the good news. That he’s still moving” (104). Mr. Rufus may not be conscious, but Sunny finds it worthwhile to communicate with him through words and dance.
One of the most important things that Sunny learns from the film is that everything is in constant flux, but people can stay connected despite these shifts. An example of this is when Gramps gives him the photo of his mother on the day of Sunny’s baby shower. Sunny often feels disconnected from his mother because she died soon after giving birth to him. As a result, Sunny has no memories of being with her. When he sees his mother’s pregnant belly in the photograph, Sunny again thinks of Baraka: “I stared at the photo. Her face. My face in hers. My body in hers. Baraka, all over again, the tears pushing against the backs of my eyes” (106). Again, Sunny feels the weight of his loss in this scene, and yet gains a new way of understanding his relationship to his mother. He may not have her physically with him, but he sees tangible evidence of their connection, and how they continue to be connected even though she is no longer living.
Puzzles
Puzzles are a symbol of Sunny’s family. At the beginning of the story, Sunny and Darryl struggle to connect. The way they bond with one another (without having to be too vulnerable) is by working on puzzles which reveal a photograph of Sunny’s deceased mother. By doing these puzzles together, Darryl shows that he cares for Sunny although he is not able to articulate it through words. Sunny writes in his diary: “[Darryl] used to always tell me that he wanted to make sure I knew her. At least, her face. Her smile. And I did. I do. I have to figure out how to make her—how to put it together—all the time” (53). The puzzles are a tangible way Darryl can ensure that Sunny feels connected to his mother even though she is no longer alive.
The word “puzzle” can be both a noun and a verb, and the word “puzzled” is an adjective. Each part of speech connects to the confusion that is present in Darryl and Sunny’s relationship. When Sunny tells Darryl he will no longer run the mile, Darryl “bent over, his puzzled face kissing my mother’s puzzled cheek, then swiped the puzzle box off the table. All the pieces, but none of the pieces” (92). Darryl struggles to understand why Sunny no longer wants to run, which is something Darryl pushed Sunny to do in his mother’s honor. He leans on the puzzle, the image of his late wife’s face, almost as if he wants to merge with her or seek her guidance. Darryl and Sunny are meant to fit together, like a puzzle, but they find doing so challenging.
The puzzle symbol appears once more at the emotional climax of the narrative. Sunny and Darryl share an embrace, and Darryl apologizes for pushing Sunny away emotionally for his entire life. They lie together on the bed and Sunny describes it in his diary: “We were two S’s. SS, lying side by side” (131). This quote illustrates Sunny and his father finally fitting together as they lie together on the bed. Sunny and Darryl repeat this image of embrace a few nights later. After finishing a section of a puzzle that shows the image of Sunny’s mother at her baby shower: “When we finally said good night, we did this weird hug thing like we had just grown arms” (146). Sunny and Darryl fit together now better than they ever have, but this scene illustrates they will continue to piece together the edges of their relationship.
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