Week Six: Rough Draft

Peter MazurProfessor Stacey Knapp
English 1B

4 March 2011

Sonny’s Random Resentments

            If Sonny’s father would suddenly appear in the novel The Flowers, what would he be like? Would you consider him a normal, loving father with a normal life or would you take him as a ferocious man? Where did Sonny get his anger from? Does his anger have anything to do with his parents? There are numerous passages in the novel where Sonny does things that some of us would never think of doing. Why did he steal thousand dollars from Cloyd’s office? What went across his mind to hate Cloyd, fondle with Cindy, and mug an old man? Sonny can only answer those questions; however psychologists can estimate how and what he went through that caused Sonny to act in such manner.

            According to Susan Crockenberg and Adela Langrock from the Journal of Family Psychology, Sonny like many children similar difficulties could have problems that dated from the age of five to six. This is the age where children start to learn and mimic parental behavior, whether it is good or bad. In most cases those children obtain aggression through parental behaviors. Based on Susan and Adela’s studies, “Fathers’ marital aggression interacted with anger to predict externalizing and interacted with fear to predict internalizing behavior in boys” (163). This could be a direct proof why Sonny acts with fear and anger. There are numerous cases where sonny acts based on his fears. In the first few pages of The Flowers, readers can already discover the fear in one of Sonny’s memories. “I ran to the kitchen. I had to open a bunch of drawers because I didn’t know which drawer either. I found that big knife… As soon as I grip it in my hand, I don’t feel as scared… He comes in, I cut the dude” (7). Sonny requires some kind of support and in this case, it is not his parents but a big, wood handle knife. Once he got ahold of the massive knife, he felt much safer than before. There were many other ways that Sonny could have responded to the man banging on the door such as call the police and sneak out from the back, but Sonny decided to get ahold of a knife and fight with the man. Based on Sonny’s actions, psychologists can conclude that his father was exceptionally violent towards Sylvia or Sonny. Also we can conclude that the violence in this family was a probable reason why Sylvia and Sonny left.

             There were many incidents that Sonny went through not understanding why he acted the way he did. Those actions could be linked to his father’s actions in the past. Since Sonny learned his Parents’ actions and behavior when he was five to six years old, he had no choice but to process, remember, and adopt for the time being. The Journal of Family Psychology article can easily conclude that “we expect children to use gender to select behaviors to use in their own social relationships. Girls' behavior should be more similar to that of their mothers, whereas boys' behavior should be more congruent with that of their fathers” (165). The actions that Sonny has made such as grabbing the knife from fear, Learning French to “piss off” Cloyd, or even fondle with Cindy could all have a link between him and his father. But of course all of his actions are not his father’s fault. The reason why Sonny made some prejudiced decisions in his past is because those similar decisions that his father made were effective towards Sonny and his mother. In The Flowers one of Sonny’s actions included an attempted murder. “He was going for the shift again and the engine was getting louder and so I threw the rock hard, right at his head. He was rolling up the driver’s windows as I threw the rock and it smacked at the glass but it took off inside too and I didn’t see how bad it got him…” (244). At first to Sonny those actions seemed appropriate since similar actions made by his father were effective. Afterwards he realized what he has done, when it was too late. This lethal action that Sonny made shows how dangerous his father could have been, and how helpless and permissive his mother Sylvia has been in the past.

            Many Sonny’s actions involve him feeling bad what he has done. Sonny feeling bad shows a good example that he is changing and recovering from his father’s abusive actions. In The Flowers Sonny illustrates impending thoughts and responds immediately unlike his father. “I better get outta here, I said, getting up fast. You’re gonna get me killed. I was a lot more scared than when I, like, took something” (125). Instead of resuming in his erotic activities with Cindy and waiting till her husband gets home, he decided to think of what could happen to him and leave Cindy’s apartment. This indicates the very different thinking that Sonny had when he was attacked by an unknown man. Instead of risking his life like he has done on page 7, he decided to leave. The last half of the novel shows Sonny becoming aggressive towards the actions that were given; however when he a destructive choice, he realized that he actually has made a mistake. “He was on the sidewalk and he was down and I should have walked off. But I didn’t… I could see his wallet bulging from the back pocket of his pants. I reached down and took it and I walked away… I was feeling sick… It was his own fault, but I felt sorry and dirty” (148). Even though Sonny stole an old man’s wallet and even though he thought that it was an old man’s fault that he robbed him, he still felt sorry what he actually done. This shows that even though he made a mistake, unlike his father he actually started caring that he hurt someone.

            According to a psychologists view Sonny is another victim of parental abuse, and in this case as a child he obtained his father’s violent traits and lived with them until he realized that he wasn’t choosing the right path up to the very moment Nica left to Mexico. Instead of running away with Nica, much like his father could have done, he actually stayed and supported his mother.  Sonny has a  chance of living a normal aggression free life if he finally starts to notice his mistakes early enough to avoid them.

Works Cited

Gilb, Dagoberto. The Flowers. New York: Grove Press, 2008. Print.

Crockenberg, Susan and Langrock Adela. “The Role of Specific Emotions in Children’s Responses to Interparental Conflict: A Test of the Model.” Journal of Family Psychology Vol. 15 (2001): 163-182. Print.

Week Five: Idea Paper

There is so much to choose, and all of the topics that are floating in my head all sound good! But one of the topics that keep on coming back is about Sonny’s resentment towards many of the known and unknown characters in the novel. There has to be more than just Cloyd to drive a once quiet boy that becomes a violent teenager. Also I think that this would be interesting to find out from a Psychologist point of view why teenagers like Sonny become violent in such short period of time. This kind of proof can be found in many professional books and websites. Based on his behavior we can also find out what could happen to Sonny after Nica leaves to Mexico. It would be interesting to find out if he would stay with Cloyd and Sylvia and have a love triangle with Cindy or maybe move out, finish school and become a successful entrepreneur.

Week Four: Racism and Experiences?

            In the novel The Flowers looks like the only people that have problems with blacks is the “all American” public. People that have a good collection of guns, like to hunt and hang animals, expect their wives to stay home and cook dinner for their husbands seem to have a huge problem adjusting to the new era where blacks finally get their rights. It does not matter what year this novel was set in; the 60’s, 90’s, or even now, racism was and is a great factor in United States. For some unknown reason Cloyd hates blacks and is willing to take his hate to extreme levels. He says “Were in some dangerous times… Any of them come in, we’re protected. You understand?” (227). in this passage he pointed out towards a couple of dual barrel shotguns near each door of the apartment. In the whole house he seems to be worried most while Sonny and Sylvia budged only to the thought of the rage outside.

Sonny reminds me of myself when I used to live in Poland. Always wondering and watching African Americans but never made a racist remark about them. In Poland, four years ago I was taking a trolley with a bunch of friends to a concert to see Snoop Dogg perform. The trolley stopped at a station for a couple minutes and I noticed across the tracks a black teenager wearing black jeans,  eather jacket and dreadlocks on his head. When I looked around him a group of white people were standing around him and was looking at him like he was standing nude. No body made any remarks,
including my friends. I do not think that this was an act of racism mainly because in this country there are less than one percent of blacks. It is the curiosity that drove the people to stare, just like Sonny. When I arrived in United States I was discriminated for being white. When I was twelve I have heard of stories where a clan called Ku Klux Klan hates every race, especially blacks. I feel just like Sonny… questioning why do groups like KKK kill people of different race and religion even though this group itself is made of different cultures.

Week Three: Car Salesman

          Pink the car salesman is one of my favorite characters in this book. In whatever situation he is in, he always seems calm, relaxed and “cool.”  He didn’t seem to be angry or violent towards Sonny; however just like any other car salesman Pink does manipulate him. Here is a conversation that Sonny had with Pink. “I wanna give this baby to you… We make a deal… It ain’t much. It ain’t nothing” (136-137). He is a really good car salesman. Last year I was researching for a new car. I found a nice car, a brand new VW GTI. A car salesman that wasn’t pale white and did not have pink scar came out and offered a test drive. After the ride he tried to do everything to make the sale. Just like Pink he said that the car is mine even though I don’t have money to pay for it he could still make a deal. I didn’t fall for that trick but Sonny definitely did. From the time he says yes, Sonny technically owes the man a lifelong favor until Pink calls it off. Pink has a small favor “Little brother, he said, is for you to talk to me when I need you to… Be some wide-open ears. I’m speaking of  your stepdad” (139). Who knows what is Pink planning to do about Cloyd.
           My guess is that Pink will use Sonny to do other favors and not just spy at his stepfather. Just like a real car salesman. You get the car for free for the first year, and the next thing you find out is that you are paying more than the price was listed for. I’m expecting Pink to use Sonny in some evil way such as to steal Cloyd’s secret stash to pay “for the car” or maybe kill or sabotage Cloyd or his property in some sinister way. In my opinion he seems unruffled, inconspicuous, and very restrained.
This is why I like him. It’s very hard to tell what he is planning to do next.

Week Two: Character Description

            In the fifty pages of the novel The Flowers, Sylvia seems more like a slave or an animal in a zoo. She seems to be stuck at home for most of her time even when she is done with the tasks the Cloyd gave her. Her tasks are very different from the ones she used to have in her life before she met Cloyd. Also some tasks that Sylvia had to do before such as going to work and hang out with friends disappeared.  Many of the tasks she never done or had very little experience with, such as cooking. Bud said “Here I thought you only married her for the looks” (54). Knowing little, Cloyd and Bud think that Sylvia actually makes Mexican food, maybe because she actually is Mexican, and in their eyes all Mexicans can make Mexican food; however the truth is that she actually makes terrible food. What Bud and Cloyd don’t know is that Sylvia buys pre-made food to satisfy Cloyd’s needs.

When she has no tasks, she seems to be wandering around the house thinking what to do. Every time I would read a passage about her floating around or an awkward moment such as “The silence became a fog. There’s nothing ever good on, she said finally” (74). The only time I could think of having to talk about television is when someone is extremely bored. If I would find myself flipping through channels trying to find something to watch is usually because there is nothing better to do. Most likely Sylvia experienced the same problem as I mentioned. There were a good few passages that she would mention that she’s bored. Sonny mentioned “The phone was next to the beer bottle, the cord across the rug of the living room. She’d had one put in so she could have her own phone and number and then she got the long cord so she could move with it” (72). She surrounded herself with tasks that could keep her occupied while being trapped in the house. She had to be sitting and watching the television for a very long time. In fact when Sonny walked into the house, his mom seemed to be sleeping with the television on.