Sonny & the money

            “I decided! I went into the kitchen and grabbed a dish towel and came back and I opened the drawer like an oven and I took the envelope” (158). From previous reading Sonny had found an envelope full of money in a drawer in Cloyds office. It was obvious that Sonny was going to end up stealing Cloyds money because it was always in the back of his mind, and although he did not steal it right away he was always tempted and always went back to it. There’s a pattern that Sonny falls into and every time he gets into an argument or gets frustrated he feels as though he should steal something, usually money, to release his anger. He also stole money whenever he noticed that he was running low on cash just because he didn’t want to ask Sylvia for it directly. “I wanted to steal something from him. Put nails under his tires” (196). In this part of the reading Sonny gets into several arguments with Bud and is so fed up with the way he talks to him that he finally decides to take the allured money. And although he was aware of the consequences he did it anyway.

            In the beginning, I thought that Sonny would spend the money in random worthless things because he always used his money to buy food or go bowling. Since he always did it I figured that Cloyd’s money wouldn’t be any different. In the last scene both Nica and Sonny babysat Bud and Mary’s cat and after reading how Sonny thought of Nica I completely changed my prediction. Sonny is probably going to save the money he stole from Cloyd and use it to go to France since he had been trying to learn the language and what started off as a joke to him could turn into something he really wants to do later on, or even use it to get him and Nica away from The Flowers. “I wanted to say I’d take her to Spain. And couldn’t we go to France together? I really thought I meant it too. I had the money, you know?” (205). Nica isn’t happy living in The Flowers and she doesn’t do much she already mentioned that she wanted to go to Spain ever since she heard Mr. Josep talk about how he used to live there. Maybe he’ll go even further than that and saves the money so he could win Nica over and take her to see the place she truly dreams of visiting.

            If I was in Sonny’s position, I don’t think I would steal Cloyd’s money to begin with because I would feel some remorse afterwards. I may have been tempted to see that amount of money and I too would be pissed off at Cloyd and Bud for exaggerating everything but not to the point of stealing the money. The most I would have done would be to mess up or destroy some of their belongings that way I get them to spend that money trying to fix whatever I messed up.

significance of car salesman

            The car salesman, or Pink, has been a very significant person to Sonny. Since Sylvia gives Cloyd most of her attention, Sonny tries to look for that attention but in someone else. Sonny likes hanging out with Pink because he is the one who shows affection and personal interest in him. “This one’s yours, you want it, little brother” (118). Pink started referring to Sonny as “little brother” and takes him out when he’s not selling any cars and later even offers to give Sonny one of his cars. Pink shows understanding about the fact that Sonny doesn’t like Cloyd and that he probably never will, something that Sylvia hasn’t. “And in my experience, and by numbers, you aren’t cozy with your stepdaddy. Am I right?” (119). Sonny doesn’t have many friends so he looks as though he feels so comfortable around Pink because he truly understands him and his frustration to be around Cloyd.

Sonny has always had bad habits so he doesn’t seem to mind Pinks. Since the beginning, Pink would get Sonny to speak out and do what he wanted to do rather than what others told him to do. For example, there was a previous scene where Sonny was asked to cut the weeds but Pink convinces him to go cruising around with him instead of finishing up because he said Sonny didn’t look like he wanted to be doing that anyway. Pink has also been responsible for letting Sonny drink a couple of beers. “…all I need is you to listen for me is all. Be some wide-open ears. I’m speaking of your stepdad…” (139). In this part of the reading, Pink offers to give Sonny a Bel Air, but he doesn’t show much interested in Sonny’s money instead he wants him to listen to what Cloyd has to say about him. He then assures Sonny that what he wants in return for the car “…ain’t no big deal, ain’t nothing, not really nothing, probably nothing” (139) so that Sonny could know that it’s not  big deal.

            Pink doesn’t seem to be sincere about his care for Sonny, I think it’s all an act; an act to win Sonny over so that Pink can get a bigger benefit or even a profit out of it later on. I predict that Pink will be a bad influence for Sonny and he’s probably going to teach Sonny even more bad habits that will cause him to rebel out. I also think that because of Sonny’s new bad life style, a racial war along with other problems will arise. We already know that Cloyd is a racist who hates blacks so I believe that he along with all of his other racist friends, will be the main starters of violence that will occur at The Flowers. The car salesman already asked Sonny to do one of the many jobs he’s probably going to ask him to do, and I’m sure that as the book goes on the innocent jobs will develop to become more and more dangerous. And finally, by the end of the book, Sonny is going to realize the things that are good in his life and he will eventually change his life around to be a better person for both his sake and his mothers.

Blog Entry #2

There is a scene in The Flowers where Sonny is told to paint the apartment sign and he doesn’t seem to mind doing it because he says that he would much rather do that than continue to cut the weeds. Cloyd tells him to be extra careful so that he wouldn’t splatter black paint on the rest of the painting. Sonny is aware of the fact he has to do things cautiously but the sign itself seemed to confuse him. He was accepting of the sign itself and he tried to follow instructions without showing much care but he was bothered about the los part. He then asked the twins and got them to explain to him about the difference between Los and Las. “Los Flores: It’s that I really wasn’t sure one way or the other, because I wasn’t any expert on the Spanish language… there are words that seem like they should take a la and don’t… (75).

I can relate back to this quote because I remember I used to feel the same way about certain Spanish words. I remember I had a Spanish class back in High School but there were times where to me, the wrong pronoun was the word that seemed to be the right one. Unlike Sonny, I am more familiar with speaking Spanish, but I am used to speaking Spanglish so trying to focus just on Spanish and using the right pronouns confused me too sometimes.

The author’s intention towards this scene can be to show that there are less and less younger people speaking Spanish. Like Sonny and Sylvia, she appears to have been brought up in a Mexican culture and she speaks a lot of Spanish throughout the book but Sonny in the other hand, struggles to speak much Spanish, especially when he wants to translate words so that Nica could understand him. The author could be trying to point out the fact that there are more families like Sylvia and Sonny. This scene follows up on my thought that Sylvia never really did much to teach Sonny about their Mexican culture or to try to interact with him at all. I mean she has told him that she loves him but there isn’t a lot of communication between them.

I am..

     I am Ana Cerda and I am eighteen years old and the second youngest of my siblings. This is my second semester as a freshmen at Gavilan College and although I had hoped to transfer to a UC right after High School I have enjoyed my new college life. I used to live in Los Angeles but have lived here in Gilroy for about eight years now.Most of my relatives live in LA so we try to go down and visit them often.
     I want to study to become a Pediatric Nurse because I have always adored being around little kids; for some reason I have always found it both easy and delightful to be around them. I have basically grown up with the idea of being a nurse because I've always felt a great sense of compassionate for others.