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.