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
The U.S. Supreme Court denies Ray’s petition on November 13, 1989. Four days later, the Death Squad executes Arthur Julius, who was convicted of raping and murdering his cousin. Ray knows that not everyone on death row is innocent, but he also knows that not everyone is guilty. Even though Ray knows that he can’t be executed yet, he is still anxious and rarely talks to anyone.
Ray’s acknowledgement that not everyone on death row is guilty calls the death penalty’s justice into question. It asks readers to interrogate whether the death penalty is worth it, knowing that innocent men like Ray can be killed for crimes they didn’t commit.
Themes
One night, after midnight, a man starts crying in a cell very close to Ray. Ray tries to tune it out, thinking again about McGregor and Perhacs. He wishes that the state tried harder to find the guy who called Perhacs and said that he was the real killer. The man also called Ray’s mom, but no one did a thing about trying to track him down.
In this moment, Ray demonstrates how he is choosing to focus on despair and anger rather than hope. He is also actively cutting himself off from a man in need because he is so wrapped up in his own misery.
Themes
Ray snaps out of his thoughts when he hears the crying man say that he can’t take it anymore. Again Ray tries to convince himself that it’s not his problem, that it’s every man for himself. He distracts himself by thinking about his mom—he called her earlier that day and she told him that Lester is getting married. Ray is hurt that Lester didn’t say so himself, but Ray realizes that Lester feels guilty about moving on with his life when Ray is stuck on death row.
As Ray watches his friend move on with his life, he starts to understand the true cost of a biased criminal justice system. While Lester can get married and build a life for himself, the state of Alabama has taken all opportunity away from Ray. He doesn’t get the same chance, despite the fact that he hasn’t done anything wrong.
Themes
Ray explains that no one understands what freedom means until they don’t have it—it’s like being “wrapped in a straightjacket all day every day.” He wishes that he could make any choice about how to live, yearning to get married, have a son, and play baseball with him.
Ray’s metaphor that being on death row is like being wrapped in a straitjacket emphasizes how being on death row is both physically and mentally suffocating. He also emphasizes how little choice he has and suggests that this lack of agency contributes to his lack of hope about getting his life back.
Themes
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The man continues to cry, and suddenly Ray fills with emotion and sympathy for the man. Ray sits there and listens until the man stops crying, but when the silence rings out, Ray worries that the man might kill himself. Ray realizes that he has made a choice the last three years to dwell on despair, hatred, and anger rather than hope, faith, and compassion.
In recognizing that it is a choice to dwell on negative emotions, Ray regains a sense of agency. He can actively choose to be more positive and reach out to others, particularly because he knows that instilling hope in others can help them survive death row just as it helps him.
Themes
Ray calls out to the man, asking if he’s okay. The man responds that the guards told him his mother passed away. Ray’s heart breaks, and he says that he’s sorry for the man’s loss. Suddenly, other men start to express their sympathies as well. Ray realizes in that moment that he has a choice to reach out to all of these men. Pulling out his Bible from under his bed, Ray tells the man that God and the man’s mother are both looking down on him. Ray asks the man to tell him about his mom, and he listens for two hours.
Ray reaches a crucial turning point here. In pulling out the Bible that he’d once tossed under the bed in an angry rejection of God, Ray is able to regain his faith and take on a more hopeful outlook. In addition, Ray is actively trying to ease this man’s suffering, illustrating the importance of community and empathy in difficult times.
Themes
As Ray and the man talk, Ray remembers that he was born with a gift from God: the ability to lessen the suffering of another human being. Ray tells the man that at least he has his mom in heaven to argue his case before God. The man laughs—one of the first times Ray has heard laughter on the row. Ray realizes in that moment that he isn’t ready to die, and he doesn’t want to spend his time waiting to die. He wants to reach out and connect with others, make a family on death row, and choose to be more positive.
Reaching out to this man and providing some levity in the situation not only eases the man’s suffering, but it also mitigates some of Ray’s hardships as well. In describing those on death row as a family, Ray suggests that they can provide him with the same comfort and hope that someone like his mom can provide, particularly because they can empathize with his situation in a way that no one else can.
Themes
