1st Draft

Rough Draft: The Flowers

                        The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb is set some time in the seventies, where there was a lot of racism going on. The main character Sonny, is a young innocent teenager just trying to live day by day at this new home called Los Flores. He is brought here by his mom’s new boyfriend. Although Sonny believes that this man, Cloyd, will not be staying very long in life he tries to find a way to keep himself entertained. Previously, he lived with his mother in a not so safe neighborhood. He stayed most of the time there alone. He only had his dog, Goofy, to keep him company. Towards the end of the novel, the readers find out that Sonny live in South Central Los Angeles, where riots started to break out. Sonny has always had to experience such tough situation, which is mainly because of his environment. Throughout the novel, Sonny has to face the impacts the setting has thrown at him, which has also shaped him to become the man he ends up being at the end of the novel.

            At the beginning of the novel, Sonny reveals to the audience that he has a hobby. His hobby is to steal money. He goes into people houses when no one is home and likes to imagine a different world, a world where he is happy and imagines himself living in those nice homes, rather than where he and his mother lives. “If I felt like it, if I had the mood, I sprawled out on their couches or lay down on their beds. Go, How would I be if I lived here? I’d let that come into me, I’d let my mind go to the show it liked. Maybe you could say I go off to my own world. To me it wasn’t mine, nothing like mine, because it would go to black” (Gilb 2). Sonny describes how he likes to gaze off into his own world and tries to forget his own. He likes to imagine a world different from his when he is in different homes. He doesn’t like to picture his reality because the only brings him dark emotions, which is why he thinks of the color black. He wants a family and a happy home, but he doesn’t have that at his home.

He goes on to say that his mother in never really with him most of the time. He feels alone and has no one to be with except Goofy. His mother is always working and going out. He sees his mom be with a new guy frequently and doesn’t know what the love of a father is. All he wants from his mother is love and attention, but Silvia, Sonny’s mom, doesn’t have time for him. One of Silvia’s ex boyfriends goes to Sonny’s house looking for Silvia, but Sonny tells him that she is not there. This man knocks down the door and is furious because he thinks that Sonny is lying to him. He later stabs Sonny when they get into an altercation, but Sonny doesn’t bother to tell his mom that he came by and more importantly that he was stabbed. Sonny is used to these living conditions, that he goes on about his life like nothing ever happened. His neighborhood has forced him to grow up and toughen up because he has to know how to survive.

His mother comes home later with a new boyfriend by the name of Cloyd. Sonny isn’t sold on this new guy his mom brings home, but he lets it slide because he believes that this is just another guy that his mom will get over. So, Sonny and his mom have to move with him because Cloyd is the owner of some apartments called Los Flores. Sonny is exposed to new things here at Los Flores that a teenager should not be exposed to. Cloyd puts Sonny to work for him and do some chores around Los Flores, this leads Sonny to explore the story and those people behind the story that that apartment has to offer. He first comes in contact with a young married girl by the name of Cindy. He lies to her and tells her that he is much older than he truly is. Sonny is left with curiosity as to what she married young, but what he didn’t know is that she was going to be a gateway to new first for Sonny.

Sonny later sees Nica, an innocent girl that is stuck at home taking care of her siblings. Sonny is really fascinated by her and really likes her. She wants to get know her and know more about her. He later comes in contact with a black man by the nickname of Pink. Pink takes Sonny under his wing and makes Sonny feel likes he is important. He calls Sonny little brother. “‘You wanna drive this?’ Pink asked. I drank beer before, got drunk on it, but not malt liquor- I liked drinking and being in the car with the windows down” (Gilb 64). Pink was influencing Sonny to break the rules and misbehave. Sonny is not even old enough to have his permit, much less drive and drink. Sonny enjoys spending time with Pink though because Sonny doesn’t think what he is doing is bad and is lets him forget his reality back home with Cloyd and Silvia. Pink later uses Sonny to get to work for him and tell him what Cloyd and Cloyd’s friend, Bud, think of him. Pink suspects that Cloyd doesn’t like him living at Los Flores because he is black, so he gets Sonny to go undercover for him.

Los Flores also introduces Sonny to Cindy. Cindy and Sonny’s relationship is full of lust. Cindy is lonely at the apartment because her husband is never home. She takes and interest in Sonny and seduces Sonny. Sonny loses his innocence to her. “‘Go on, touch me.” I reached my hand under the bikini top until it moved up and I was feeling her. She felt really good, big, soft. It was good. It was really good” (Gilb 72). Sonny goes on to have sexual intercourse with her almost every time she sees her. Cindy also influences Sonny to try new types of drugs with her. He has experimented with cigarettes before, but Cindy pushes him to try even more drugs and mixes drugs together too. He does it under peer pressure so that Cindy doesn’t see that he’s afraid to try it and discover he is actually younger than what he told her.

Los Flores also introduces Sonny to racism. Cloyd and Bud don’t like black people and aren’t so thrilled with Pink living at Los Flores. They don’t like Mexicans very much either, but they tolerate them because Cloyd is with Silvia. Bud is Cloyd’s sidekicks and also gets into an altercation with Sonny when Bud is looking for Cloyd. At this point Sonny has changed and has become very aggressive and doesn’t let himself get pushed around by Bud. “‘Hey!’ I screamed. “Don’t yell at my mom, fuckass!’… ‘I can get that that asshole, I swear I can. With a bat if I have to. Make him fucked up.’ I was looking at that shotgun’” (Gilb 221-222). Sonny was more reserved and laid back at the beginning of the novel and now he gets more easily irritated and fires back. He doesn’t let himself get pushed around and is more aggressive and even carries a rock towards at the end of the novel to defend himself.

Idea Paper

For my paper, I think I want to focus on Sonny’s upbringing. A lot of that, I believe has to do with the environment Sonny has been exposed too. At the beginning of the book, we’re introduced to a very strong scene. Sonny gets stabbed by one of his mom’s “boyfriends” and that doesn’t seem to faze him. He acts as if that something that happens on a regular basis. Also, Silvia, Sonny’s mom, doesn’t seem to pay very much attention to poor Sonny. All he wants from her is attention and love, but she’s too busy going out and working. Since Sonny had to practically raise himself, I think that has forced him to grow up and mature much faster than a regular teenager has to. I think that will forever leave Sonny with some emotional scarring.

Everything changes once Sonny and his mom move to Los Flores. Sonny believes that Cloyd is another “boyfriend” that is just a past time for his mom, but Sonny is wrong. From the very beginning, Sonny doesn’t get a good vibe from Cloyd. He sees right through Cloyds game. He’s just trying to impress Silvia and wants to make her believe that she actually cares for Sonny.  Sonny decides to go along with Cloyds game, and want s to make the best out of this time by exploring what and who Los Flores has to offer. This is a completely different environment than what Sonny was used to. One would think that Sonny would witness less crime and be less exposed to more dangerous things, but here Sonny is exposed to more than what he bargained.

At Los Flores, Sonny is exposed to drugs, alcohol, sex, and racism. Sonny was innocent before coming to Los Flores, but he loose his innocence and has to grow up and be a man. Sonny doesn’t get to experience a childhood. He mentions that he doesn’t have any friends except for his dog. But even then, his only friend is taken away by Cloyd. Sonny meets to pals at school, Mike and Joe. Sonny didn’t want to befriend them at the beginning because he assumed he would not be staying long, but they are two characters that help him go through this emotional roller coaster.

The people he encounters at Los Flores are the reason Sonny starts changing. Since he didn’t have much to there, he explored what story each neighbor had to tell. Nica and Cindy are two main characters that help develop Sonny’s change. Nica would be the angel over Sonny’s should and Cindy would be the devil. I believe that all this has shaped Sonny to what he becomes at the end of the novel.

Sonny is a teenager having to face all these things and through it all, he finds something that he can call his own. He steals throughout the novel; I believe that this is his defensive mechanism. He likes to feel the rush and likes to picture a better world when he steals.  So I think this is what I want to talk about in my paper. How Sonny’s environment has shaped him to who he is and influences his actions.

Nica's Critique

I think Dagoberto Gilb is trying to portray Nica as a “typical Mexcian women” because Nica stays home, takes care of the kids, and has to do the chores around the house. Nica’s parents are very strict with her and don’t let her have fun. Sonny tries to get her out of the house so she can enjoy herself, but because of the way she was raised, she doesn’t want to defy her parents. Nica is the “good girl” of the novel. Sonny likes her because Nica isn’t like the rest of the girls. She respects herself and doesn’t come off as “easy” like other female characters in the novel. She is innocent and just likes having good clean fun with Sonny. Nica enjoys hanging out with Sonny because he’s able to make her laugh and makes her forget about her reality. He brings her pizza and she feels comfortable enough to express how she is feeling to Sonny. Nica invites him to come babysit with her, but doesn’t want anyone to know. I think she feels guilty for having him over, but she just enjoys the time with him too much that she doesn’t worry as much.

Money!

This week, Sonny finally builds up the courage to takes Cloyd’s stash of money from his drawer.  Sonny was hesitant to take the money the beginning when he found it, but I think that his relationship with Cloyd keeps getting worse so he wants to get back at him in whatever way he can. I think Sonny will use some of the money for like food, but the rest I’m not quite so sure what he’ll do with it. Maybe he’ll use the money help one of his neighbors in need or, he’ll use it for the car Pink wants to give him. Yeah, since both Pink and Sonny despise Cloyd, they’ll use each other to get back at him. Sonny will give Pink the money as a payment for the car. Sonny will probably tell him that he stole it from Cloyd because Pink would be curious as to where Sonny got so much money from. Pink will enjoy taking the money because he knows that he’s taking it away from Cloyd. 

If I was in Sonny position, I probably would take the money too. When I get mad, I’m very impulsive, so I think I would have taken Cloyd’s money too just to make him pay. At the beginning of the novel, Cloyd tries to get along with Sonny, but that was all an act to impress Silvia and make her think that he cares about Sonny. But now as we read more and more, Cloyd shows us his true colors. He uses Sonny as his servant by making him do chores around Los Flores, and later treat him like crap because he is drunk most of the time. Later, I would probably be paranoid and put the money back because I would be afraid of being caught, but even though Sonny regrets taking the money, I don’t think he’ll return it.

Reflection On Reading Habits

I think I need to improve some of my reading habits. I do some of the things that Ms. Knapp described in class like look at the front and back cover. I read the title, the summary in the back of books; I look at the title and read other text that the front or back cover might have.  I don’t highlight or underline the book though, usually because the books are not mine, so I don’t bother to do that. In high school, I was taught to use sticky notes in order to mark if something was important in the book, so I think I will do that for the next book we are going to read in class.

I don’t love reading, nor dislike it. I only read when I have to for a class, other than that I won’t read. I like to read autobiographies of celebrities or books that are turned into movies.  Some of the book that I’ve read for previous classes turned out to be quite interesting, some not so much. The few that are interesting I get into and I enjoy reading them. I can’t wait to see what happens next. If I really like the book I visualize what’s the author is talking about in the novel.

When I go back to reading, I usually read the previous page in order to refresh my memory so I can remember where I left off. If I don’t do that, then I won’t understand what I was reading.  I usually read when I have free time, or in the night. If I read at night, I usually just get sleepy and fall asleep. Lately, I’ve been reading in the morning, I think I like reading in the morning because I’m free from distractions because during the day I’ll try to read, but I’ll get distracted easily. Whether is with the television or my phone, I always seem to get distracted throughout the day.

I enjoy this book. The Flowers is quite an interesting book. It’s not just interesting, but I like how the author incorporates Spanglish in the novel, which makes it more enjoyable to read. I’m glad I know Spanish because I get what the characters are saying because they share some funny conversations.  Overall, the book is an easy read and it makes you want to read on to see what happens to Sonny. He is quite the character and I can’t wait to see what happens to him in the end. 

A Scence

“Me, 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. I kept telling her to have them, they were hers, but she wouldn’t, so I went ahead and overate one more bite out of one and then dropped in the box.” (Gilb 99) This very situation didn’t happen to me, but something similar. My friend invited me to her birthday party. It was just a small gathering with other friends and her family. It was quite awkward because she invited aunts and uncles that I’ve never met before. If it wasn’t awkward enough just eating around friends, it’s even more awkward eating around strangers. Her party was at Gilroy’s Home Town Buffet. You know when people go to a buffet, it’s not just to have one plate of food. She paid for everyone’s meal and was telling everyone to eat because she spent a lot of money for people not to eat. I wasn’t comfortable eating like a savage so I just got one plate and that was it. Later one of our friends brought a plate of gelatin squares, and she offered us some, and I got like three squares because it was really good. I remember that I took forever to finish that one plate I got, I don’t remember very well what it was that I got to eat, but I wanted to show some manners, and not go back for seconds. To this day, we still talk about that day. Looking back at it, it was funny because we we’re quite nervous and none of us ate like we normally eat when we go to the buffet. I think we all act differently when we want to impress someone or when we’re just not “that comfortable” with people.

The author wrote this scene to show the readers that Sonny genuinely likes Nica. Throughout the novel, Sonny talks about how he thinks she’s so beautiful and when the author writes this scene, we see that Sonny has butterflies when she’s with her. He bought the pizza because he wanted Nica to accompany him. I think it also shows that Nica feels something for him too. This is the second time that she lets him come inside her apartment. I don’t think you would let a stranger come into your apartment and have dinner with him. She made lemonade for Sonny with “real lemons and sugar” as he says in the novel, rather than the instant lemonade we get at Costco. I think this is foreshadowing that something will happen with Sonny and Nica and maybe they’ll end up together like Sonny wants.

My situation was similar to Sonny in that fact that we both wanted to make a good impression, but his situation was more intimate and more of a “date” because he wanted to show Nica a good time. He wanted to please her and show her that he cares about her. He didn’t pressure her to go outside, instead he brought the pizza to her and enjoyed a simple dinner. In the end, he offered her to bring her pizza when she starts babysitting. So they will have more intimate scenes in the novel. My situation was just at an awkward dinner party.

Prediction about Sonny

Sonny is quite the character. I like how the author uses Spanglish in his novel to make him more relatable. I think Sonny will get to know the people in his apartment more. Sonny mentions that Nica calls his attention and he is memorized by her. "I was seeing her but I was also seeing someone somewhere else. It was like when I shut my eyes and it was that dreamlight and colors that  flew off the darkness, and so this was not doing what I was doing even as I was doing it" (pg. 46). Sonny was intrigued by Nica, so I believe that he is going to try to win her over. There's going to be an obstacle that will confuse Sonny though, that obstacle is Cindy. Cindy is a few years older than him and she is married. Cindy states that she hates her husband. She's always alone in the apartment, so I think she's going to want to have fun with Sonny. "She was smiling a lot. The towel wrapped around her was short and her thighs, which I could see a lot of, were still drippy wet too, but I was to uncomfortable to look long" (pg. 40). Cindy is going to be temptation for Sonny and I think he will have mixed feelings for both. Besides his love triangle, I think Sonny will have some sort of confrontation with his stepdad. He notices that Cloyd is racist because he doesn't like black people. Besides him being racist, he is resented that he didn't let goofy stay with him. I think they're going to butt heads, but for now Sonny is playing his game. He thinks that Cloyd is just trying to impress his mom by being nice to Sonny. As for Sonny and his mom, I think that their relationship is going to suffer because they are living with Cloyd, but at the end he is going to realize how much he loves his mother. Sonny resents his mom more because he didn't stand up to Cloyd and fight for the right for Goofy to stay. Ultimately, something is going to happen to Sonny that will lead him to make an important decision that will change his life and he'll try to save what's good in his world like the back cover of the book suggests.

I Am...

Fernando. I've lived in Gilroy all my life. I can't wait for the next semester to start because I will be somewhere else on a new adventure. I don't know what college I'll be attending yet, but I know what I want to major in. I want to major in psychology so that I can be a career counselor. By the end of this semester I hope to receive my A.A. in Multiple Subjects. I enjoy hanging out with friends and listening to music. When I have free time, I like to write poetry. Poetry is a good way to let out all your emotion and express yourself. I haven't written in a while because I've been busy with school and work. I have a brother and live with both parents. I'm a shy person, but once I get to know you, I won't shut up. Feel free to come talk to me...I enjoy meeting new people.  Well, that's it for now. See you around.