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.
Themes
Rediscovering Life After Loss
Throughout the text, Darryl and Sunny confront their losses and learn how to grieve while continuing to live. They both struggle to cope with the loss of Sunny’s mother, Regina. For Darryl, her death means that he lost his life partner, with whom he had meticulously planned a future. For Sunny, he lost his mother before he ever had a chance to know her.
Darryl’s way of coping with this loss is to push Sunny away emotionally and pressure him to be a successful runner. He says “She didn’t get to do this. To run her race, Sunny” (90). Darryl puts pressure on Sunny to exert control over a situation Darryl feels he has lost control over. Darryl strives to make Sunny a living representation of his mother’s memory. Unfortunately, this pressure creates a wedge between Darryl and Sunny as Sunny realizes that he no longer wants to run.
It takes much of the narrative for Darryl to process the fact that Sunny is his own person with unique desires and dreams, and that Darryl’s actions have pushed Sunny away. Darryl admits to Sunny that “he didn’t feel like he could truly be a dad without my mother. And that it just didn’t feel right [...] she would never be able to hear me call her Mom, so he just felt like it was unfair for him to be called Dad” (144). Darryl lives in limbo after his wife’s death until Sunny breaks open a pillow in Darryl’s room and finds years’ worth of his blue ribbons. This discovery breaks open Darryl and opens him up to living again. He apologizes to Sunny
for what happened to your mother
for making you run
for running
for shutting down (130-31).
Darryl admits that he shut down after Regina’s death, and in doing so negatively affected his son and their life together. This scene finally convinces Darryl to stop living in limbo and to embrace life after loss.
Darryl shows that he is trying by being more present and acknowledging Sunny’s birthday. The morning of Sunny’s 13th birthday, he wakes up to Darryl making a huge breakfast. Darryl wishes him a happy birthday, which surprises Sunny: “Darryl normally just takes this day off. Like, off of everything. He usually just sits in his chair and be stone” (149). By acknowledging Sunny’s birthday for the first time in Sunny’s life, Darryl shows immense strength and growth. It also shows his acknowledgment that his actions have harmed Sunny and prevented their family from fully living.
A part of loss is mourning or wondering about what could have been, which Sunny illustrates in a diary entry addressed to his mother: “Thinking about her dancing, and who she was and who I am and who we could’ve been together. Wondering how things would’ve been different if she was here” (119). Sunny mourns the life he could have had if his mother were still alive. Sunny’s journey of self-discovery in the text is an illustration of how he wants to choose to live despite his mother’s death. He chooses to quit running and to develop his interest in dance to remain connected to her. By forging his own path, Sunny learns to heal his guilt associated with his mother’s death and to find a way to feel connected to her.
Darryl and Sunny process their grief and pain differently, but they learn throughout the text that by leaning on each other they can create a life they are happy with even though an integral piece is missing. The puzzles they work on together are a symbol of this belief. As they build the puzzle together: “we didn’t talk too much, just worked together” (146). They can never put their family back together, but they can work together to build a family with what they have. Loss causes immeasurable pain and finding a way to live after loss does not minimize the impact of that loss, but the novel shows that loss can coexist with life.
Letting Go of Expectations to Discover Who You Are
Sunny struggles with his identity and feeling of self because of the guilt he carries with him and the pressure his father puts on him. A lesson Sunny learns throughout the text is the importance of letting go of preconceptions to discover who you are. Through exploring new interests and letting go of false narratives he has constructed about himself; Sunny is able to unlock his potential and heal his relationship with himself.
The death of his mother and Darryl’s expectations affect Sunny’s sense of self. Sunny feels like a murderer because his mother died soon after giving birth to him. He writes in his diary: “Do you know what it feels like to feel like a murderer? I do. Do you know what it’s like for something to be wrong with you? To be born incorrect” (118). These lines express the depth of Sunny’s guilt and supply insight into how Sunny feels about himself. He views himself as if there is something inherently wrong with him. Darryl’s expectations of Sunny do not help his self-esteem. When Sunny is running, Darryl often critiques Sunny from the sidelines, yelling things like “What’s wrong with you?” (9), which only increases Sunny’s poor self-image.
An important turning point for Sunny occurs when he decides to let go of Darryl’s expectations and pursue a different path. Although it is a risk for Sunny to quit running, it enables him to become a more authentic version of himself, which enhances his self-esteem. He explains his decision to Darryl by advocating for his true desires: “I know my mother would be proud. I know I’m doing it for her, but what about me? [...] But when do I get to run my race?” (90). In this quote Sunny articulates that he understands why Darryl wants him to run, but that Sunny should not try and fit into a particular mold that does not suit him. Sunny states that he wants to pursue his own path, which he reveals to Darryl: “I don’t like running, I like dancing. [...] you never asked me if I liked it, never even asked me. [...] You say I have to breathe, but I can’t. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe” (91). Here, Sunny expresses frustration with the weight of Darryl’s expectations, which press down on Sunny and restrict his ability to grow into the person he wants to be.
Although there are some uncomfortable moments between Sunny and Darryl, Sunny’s decision to quit running improves their relationship as well as Sunny’s self-perception. As Sunny and Darryl confront their shared grief, Darryl understands Sunny’s need to pursue his own interests. He apologizes to Sunny, and the evening before Sunny’s first track meet as a discus thrower he states: “when I step into that circle, and I do that weird spin, and I let that discus go, don’t think about him, or the team, or even my mother. He told me to let it go for me” (145). Doing things for himself or because he wants to do them has never been part of Sunny’s motivation until now, and to have Darryl’s support enables Sunny to truly let go and embrace himself.
The last scene illustrates Sunny’s healing as he winds up for his final discus throw. After two fouls, this is Sunny’s last chance. As he winds up, he thinks about the support that the people in his life have shown him. He looks at the green star Aurelia drew on his arm as a reminder of his mother, and he thinks to himself: “I am not a murderer. I am not a hurricane. Nothing is wrong with me” (159). By embracing the new challenge of throwing discus, confronting the loss of his mother, becoming closer with Darryl, and advocating for his own needs, Sunny gains confidence and self-esteem. The novel ends without revealing the outcome of Sunny’s final throw, but Sunny has succeeded in reframing the harmful narratives he has internalized about himself and made positive change no matter where the discus lands.
Choosing Not to Run
Choosing not to run is another important theme in Sunny. At the beginning of the text, Sunny chooses not to run anymore as a way to reclaim his own identity. This theme manifests metaphorically as well, through Darryl choosing not to run away from his son anymore and confronting his feelings. By choosing not to run, Sunny and Darryl choose each other and their relationship.
Sunny’s choice not to run at first pushes him further away from Darryl, primarily because Darryl struggles to discuss his emotions with his son. For all of Sunny’s life, his father Darryl struggles to process his grief. Sunny often describes Darryl as emotionally closed and unwilling to discuss his feelings, even when he has something to say. For example, after Sunny stops running mid-race, on the ride home Darryl is speechless: “My father’s face had the look. A look I was used to but hated. Like a stone becoming more of a stone” (14). Sunny expresses familiarity with this specific look on his father’s face and expresses hatred for it because the look shows his father’s unwillingness to openly address how he is feeling.
Darryl often tries, unsuccessfully, to shield Sunny from his feelings. Sunny states that it is normal to hear Darryl cry: “I’m not freaked out from hearing him cry. Crying is crying like laughing is laughing like sense do not ever have to be made because it just is. [...] Anyway, what I’m trying to say is hearing my father cry is normal” (80). Sunny’s response to hearing his father crying shows that expressing emotions is normal to Sunny and suggests that Sunny would be a safe person for Darryl to show these emotions to.
Sunny’s decision not to run anymore ultimately allows for Darryl to stop running away from Sunny. Sunny expresses his frustration to Darryl in an emotional scene: “I don’t like running, I like dancing. Running is boring [...] and you never asked me if I liked it, never even asked me” (91). Sunny explains that he understands Darryl’s reasoning for pushing him to run—to stay connected to his deceased mother—but that Darryl’s insistence on Sunny running indicates a lack of Darryl’s understanding of Sunny as a person. Sunny tells Darryl that he “never even asked” Sunny what he might want to do instead. Darryl projected his own wants and needs onto Sunny. This quote also illustrates Sunny reclaiming his identity and asserting his desire to pursue his own interests.
At the time of this conversation, Darryl apologizes but shuts down quickly and is unwilling to discuss things further. At first it seems that Darryl will retreat into his usual stony silence, but instead he shows that Sunny’s words have reached him and changed his mind. When Darryl finds Sunny in his bedroom hugging the pillow stuffed full of blue ribbons, Darryl finally breaks down and hugs his son. Sunny recalls the moment in his diary:
He said he was sorry again, but this time for everything
for what happened to your mother
for making you run
for running
for shutting down [...]
he said it over and over again, his arms wrapped around me (130-31).
This moment illustrates that Darryl understands where he is at fault in his relationship with Sunny. He states explicitly that he is sorry “for running,” which in this context means running away emotionally from Sunny or processing his own feelings of grief.
Darryl illustrates that he has internalized the importance of not running away from Sunny when he acknowledges his birthday. Sunny writes in his diary that “Darryl normally just takes this day off [...] He usually just sits in his chair and be stone” (149). This day is difficult for both Sunny and Darryl because it is also the day Sunny’s mother died, but Darryl shows his new conviction to not run away from Sunny by acknowledging it.
Ultimately, Darryl and Sunny choose each other. Darryl cements this idea when Sunny expresses anxiety about his upcoming track meet. This is the first meet Sunny will not be running but instead throwing the discus. Sunny tells Darryl that he worries about letting “everybody down” (145), including the memory of his mother. Darryl tells Sunny that when he gets ready to throw the discus tomorrow that he should not “think about him, or the team, or even my mother. He told me to let it go for me” (145). This quote is an important indicator of Darryl’s shifting feelings and his desire to encourage Sunny to be himself and claim his own identity and interests. Darryl tells Sunny to choose himself, and it is only through their willingness to stop running that Sunny can do this.
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