Reading Experiences

            The Novel The Flowers has a lot to offer people in terms of perspective.  We who live here in California at this point in time do not need to deal with many of the issues that Sonny and other Characters in The Flowers have to deal with.  We are lucky enough to live in an area and time where there is a lot more respect for other races of human beings then other times or places.  While we are not perfect by any means, we are at least moving in the right direction.

            This book give me a lot of insight on what is it like living in an area where you are discriminated against because of the color of your skin.  As for me, being a male Caucasian, I have experienced little to no discrimination towards myself, so I am not really able to connect to the experiences Sonny is having in the novel.  I have been lucky enough to live in an area where all races live together in peace for the most part, and there was very little discrimination at all in my life.  I have also been lucky enough to be raised by parents who are also very respectful and do not discriminate and was able to learn the correct way of treating other people and to not judge people based on the color of their skin.  So as for what I am experiencing in this book, it is quite a new experience for myself.

            Racism is something that I have never really had to think of all throughout my life.  I have always heard of people being racist and discriminating in history books and the news however I have never really seen it up close and personal.  The racism in The Flowers is a little less obvious then what you would see in movies or on the news.  The Racism usually stems from Cloyd and is usually he view of African Americans.  However I have noticed that he is also getting more and more violent towards Sonny and his mother Sylvia.  Well, I guess I should not say violent, yet, however he is beening more and more impatient with them and I get the feeling that it is eventually going to explode into something serious.

                

Reading Habits

Sitting down and reading is actually very hard for me.  Not because I am incapable of reading or anything, far from it, I always just feel that sitting down and reading is time spent I could be doing other things.  In all honesty, I do not really enjoy reading at all.  I feel that books take far too long getting from point to point.  I feel like most book out there are around 200 pages and I could summarize what they are about in little over a page.  Albeit, if a book is good enough and catches my interests I could read it in a couple of day.  For instance, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is the greatest book ever written, I have even read it multiple times, and no it is not like the movie. 

So yes, I do believe that reading could be a very enjoyable experience, and I think that this applies to everyone, you just need to find the right book, it is just that some people are a bit more picky about what they read, like me.

  For example, The Lord of the Ring.  I happened to watch the movies first( which was the first mistake I made, no doubt) and when I sat down to read the book I just could not get into it at all.  I felt like the book was too long with too many useless details and I couldn’t ever finish it.  I know I should probably give it another chance however nowadays a feel like I don’t have the time to sit around and read a book for hours on end when I could get the same information out of the movies in a fraction of the time.  I am sure all the Lord of the Ring buffs out there are probably sharpening their axes right about now, but that is how I really feel.

So you ask me to reflect on my own reading habits and how I am able to fit my reading in.  Well, I do not really read unless I am forced to, however whenever my grade requires me to read a certain book I always get it done.  I really need to force myself to just sit down and focus on the book.  Otherwise I end up sitting there thinking of all the other thing I could be doing besides reading a book.

To be honest, The Flowers is really no different.  It is a good book don’t get me wrong. It is entertaining and makes me chuckle here and there but he always talks about useless things and it really annoys me.  One example is when Sylvia and Cloyd were fight so Sonny found time to count his money.  He uses a whole page to explain were this money came from and it had absolutely nothing to do with the story.  These little thing annoy me and end up making me lose interest in the book.  If The Scarlet Letter really is as bad as everyone says it is I am really not looking forward to it at all; and that old english, AHHHHHHHHHHH.

My Father Always...

...is a perfectionist
...is a very hard worker
...always annoys the hell out of me
...is willing to play a game of basketball with me
...hogs my xbox believe it or not
...is there for me in the end

Character Description

The first time we get a real indication of Cloyd's character is during the time when Sonny and he first meet face to face.  He is hardworking; it never really goes into how he was able to get where he is in the days of the book however he worked his way up and now owns he own apartment building and seems to be quite wealthy compared to other people in the book.  He also has Sonny do his share of the work around the apartment. 

"I knew something like this was coming, though, because I already overheard him telling my mom one afternoon how I had to learn responsibility, how I had to earn my right to stay here." (63) 

Whenever a kid hears this from a parent they always think how ridiculous it is and that they are already responsible, only to find out later that their parents were right.  From this we can see that Cloyd  is at least trying to instill some good qualities into Sonny. 

It is too bad but the good qualities end with that and seeing as how this book is told from the perspective of a teenager who dislikes him, that is the obvious case. From Sonny's perspective(and likely anyone else who meets him)  Cloyd is racist, unappreciative, and condescending, among other distasteful character traits. 

Cloyd speaking of African Americans, "I owns this apartment building, you think I can't let who I want to live here?  That I can't figure out how to not let who I don’t want to live here?"(53).

From just this statement I believe it is pretty obvious that Cloyd is in fact a racist. He is not willing to allow any African Americans to take up residence in his apartment complex.  He goes on to imply that they are lazy, do not pay their bills, he also implies that the African American are making problems for people.          

He is incredibly rude and disrespectful.  At one point Sonny heard him talking on the phone; "I love to eat them tacos, and now I even got myself married to a pretty little Mexican gal."(51)  If that is not disrespectful then I do not know what is.  Of course this is not the only instance of Cloyd being disrespectful, they are scattered all throughout the first hundred pages.

He is also an incredible perfectionist, which in some cases could be considered to be a good quality however he gets angry at Sonny and Sylvia over very simple matters.  For instance, He get angry over the number of toilet paper squares they each use.  He seems to think that three sheets is more than enough. 

Cloyd, while not the absolute worst guy in the world, is a racist, does not care for anyone but himself and thinks he is superior to everyone as well, and is just a hard guy to get along with and like, and it seems as though that is why Sonny dislikes his to such a degree, and I could understand.

What I think will happen to Sonny

I believe that Sonny will continue to work around the apartment and get to know all the tenants.  He will take a look at their lives from a distance and tell us what he thinks about their lifestyles.  It is also obvious that he does not care much for Cloyd and I believe there may be a fight of some kind developing in the near future.  I cannot see any real conflict appearing in the book anytime soon. 

Maybe Sonny will go on to help the individuals, such as Cindy, Nica, his mother and anyone else he may meet, with their problems.  Such as how Cindy is not getting along with her husband, or the fact that Nica is not allowed to go to school.  Then there is his mother who Sonny believe does not really want to be with Cloyd, however she does not have any other choice.  I am sure that he will go on to meet every individual in the apartment complex and maybe even some elsewhere. 

I Think that Sonny will begin to connect more deeply with everyone at the apartments and befriend the majority of them.  He will learn what it means to care for other people, which he did not in the beginning of the book up till now.  As of right now, up to page fifty, Sonny silently judges everyone that he meets.  Even his only two friends, the twins.  I think that this is due to the fact that he is not happy with himself.  I think this is a psychological story of a boy who is beginning to find his way through life.  I believe that he will begin to find entertainment in being with other people and will be content with the person he truly is.


In the beginning he commits many crimes, such as stealing or breaking into houses. Not because he is necessarily in need  or  because he want to steal anything.  He does it because it was fun and he wanted to learn how other people live their lives and he compares their lives with his own.  As if he is not happy with his own life.  I think that as the book continues the amount of crimes that Sonny commits will begin to die down as he begins to come to terms with the person he is and the life he is living.  Then, by the end he will be living a fulfilled life with all the things he had ever wanted.

I am...

I am twenty years old living in Gilroy California.  I graduated from Monte Vista in Watsonville in 2009 and decided to take care of my general education at Gavilan because of costs.  I am hoping to major in either communications or criminal justice, i have not yet decided.