1st Draft Essay

Nereyda Camacho

Mrs. Knapp

English 1B

3 March 2011

Reader Response: Sonny’s Character

In the Novel, The Flowers, Sonny is a teenager that faces important events around his neighborhood in South Central, Los Angeles. Sonny was raised with his mother Sylvia and his sister. Ever since he was living with Sylvia and his sister; he was used to be very independent and do whatever he wanted. The environment in which he was living was not exactly the common one for a family. It seemed like if they were not rules in his home at all because each sibling would take their own way. However, when Sylvia got married with Cloyd, the white man who he hates; is when things were actually going the other way around. I think that Sonny’s change from child to man is definitely an important topic in this novel. There are positive/negative characters that contribute to shape his personality as a good/ bad teenager.

The fact that he was moving to a strange house made his behavior worst because he had to listen to his stepdad. “How could my mom be living with a hickabilly named Cloyd Longpre while I slept in some room with a checkered red camper bedspread” (135). This quote shows how Sonny is irritated and doesn’t like the idea of living with this man who is now somehow separating him from his mom.  The only reason why Sonny is working for Cloyd is because he wants to see his mother happy although he knows she’s not. Furthermore, Sonny gets very angry when he realizes that Goofy can’t live with him. This is because when he used to live in his previous; the only company he had was his dog which really helped him to not feel that lonely for not having his mother with him whenever he needed her. “She can’t live with us, m’ijo, I’m sorry. I know it’s hard. I’m sorry” (20).  This quote is very interesting because it shows how important Goofy is for him especially when he didn’t feel he had someone that loved him; for example, his mother Silvia and also because both of them would spend most of their time together watching T.V. and eating

Nica and Cindy also contribute to the new personality of Sonny. “I was too hungry, but I controlled myself. I wanted to seem you know, like, polite. I didn’t eat as fast as I wanted to. I even pretended I didn’t want to eat the last three pieces…so I went ahead and overate one more bite out of one and dropped it in the box” (99). It has happen to everyone at least once in our life. When we’re in front of someone that we like, we get embarrassed by eating in front of them. This is because we’re not use to eating with this person and we feel uncomfortable. Some people don’t really care and they act the same way with everyone, but for others we wish we could run out of the place so the person won’t stare at us. I think the author’s intention was to show the way people act when they like someone, and also to know that Sonny really likes Nica because if not he wouldn’t be acting so polite. Also because I think the author wanted to share with the reader what’s going on in Sonny’s mind when he sees Nica and realize that he cares for her. On the other hand, Sonny treats Cindy differently because of the seductive ways she acts with him. With the help of Cindy, Sonny becomes sexually active and in a way learns that there are no morals between a marriage couple such as respect and loyalty, although he knows that he’s not supposed to be in her apartment. Nica forms part of the innocence of Sonny and shows him that at an early age she has a huge responsibility; to take care of her little brother angel. Although he likes her, he knows how to control himself when he’s with Nica and treats her and Cindy differently.

The car salesman is very significant in this novel, because he influence Sonny to drink. This person is shaping the bad side of Sonny or contributing with it. Unfortunately Silvia, Sonny’s mom, has not been next to her son to talk about their inside problems; what they think of each other’s life, about Cloyd, and the reason why Silvia would go out so much. There are so many emotions/feelings that Silvia and Sonny have kept inside which makes them find another person to fill the empty parts of them. For instance, Silvia seems to care more about her husband than Sonny by having the food ready and doing others things for him which makes Sonny think that his mother doesn’t care about him. On the other hand, the car salesmen, seems to be very friendly and comprehensive with Sonny because he invites Sonny to drink, and even gives him some car keys when Sonny doesn’t even know how to drive. “I just need you to be working with me, little brother…I think me and you, we be like partners” (138). This quote shows how the car salesman pretends to care about Sonny by calling him little brother. Furthermore this quote represents the union between them to hurt Cloyd in a certain way. Although Sonny is unsure about the proposal the salesman made to him, and the crazy adventures he had with him; he still decides to join this man. This goes back to the idea of not having the love and trust from your love ones. Sonny likes to be around the car salesman; around the bad influence. I think that the man’s union with Sonny is going to bring him a lot of problems, especially with his mother and of course with Cloyd.

As the story progresses I noticed that Cloyd had some racism problems against the African Americans. He doesn’t want any black people to be living in his apartments. In the neighborhood where Sonny lives is pretty much full of Latinos. Sonny makes a huge and important decision in breaking the idea of racism. While eating at the bar, Sonny saw two African Americans who were ready to order but since Mrs. Zuniga only spoke a little bit of English; Sonny had to serve as a translator. I believe that this is a positive action because Sonny is showing that those guys are also human beings who have feelings and feel bad because they’re been rejected/excluded by society.  Sonny is also setting a good example for others breaking the ice of racism. I strongly believe that Sonny makes wrong and right decisions that help him shape his character