Rough Draft

Andrew Mack

March 7, 2011

Prof. Knapp

English 1b

The Flowers from Readers Response Theory

            The Flowers, written by Dagoberto Gilb,  is a heart rending novel of a Mexican-American boy named Sonny Bravo as he is thrown into a world of racial prejudice and extreme violence.  The novel begins with his mother, Sylvia, marrying a white man named Cloyde and they both move into the apartment complex that he owns, the name of the complex happens to be the namesake of the book, The Flowers.  Sonny then begins to learn more about the lives of the other tenants living around him.  Much of the book is of Sonny looking into the lives of these other people and, sort of judging the way that they live.  However, violence eventually erupts with racism beginning the focus point and Sonny get sucked into it.  There are many characters within this story and all of them have their own problems as well as certain qualities, whether good or bad.  The point of this paper is to further explore the characters and situations in the story.

            Sonny Bravo is the main character of the story.  I don’t think that Sonny is a character that people can just decide to love or hate.  I guess I am trying to say that there is too much to him to develop an opinion based on this book alone.  There are some instances where he is a good boy and you feel that you could really connect with him.  In the beginning of the story he was a very strange boy.  In fact the very beginning of the book started with how he broke into houses, not to steal anything necessarily, but just to see how these people live.  It was almost like he was jealous however was not willing to admit it to himself.  He would lay down on the couches, get drinks out of the refrigerator, even go through the women's underwear.  I had no idea what to think, honestly I did not like Sonny at all.  However, I began to think back and we all have moments like this, especially men.  I don’t mean that we all break into people's homes and go through all their stuff, don’t misunderstand.  I think Sonny was trying to find himself, as every young man does.  He was not able to grow up with a father and even his mother was quite neglectful.  I think he was trying to see how other families act to see if he was "normal". 

            As the story progresses, Sonny stops breaking into houses, and I believe that his behavior begins to slowly change, however we do not really see this until the very end of the book.             

            Other than Sonny there are many other individuals in this story, all of who have their own distinct personalities.  Whether or not some likes a certain character is completely up to the reader, of course.  Characters like Sylvia, Cloyde, Cindy, Pink are really characters that you will need to decide for yourself whether or not you like the character or not.  Then there are characters like Nica, and bud.  I cannot see anyone really hating Nica, she never really gets enough details to show any bad qualities.  Then there is Bud, who is a complete racist and is no way anyone would like this character, unless they themselves were a racist.

            I believe that Gilb wanted the readers to decide themselves whether or not the wanted to like or dislike a certain character, he let it up to them.  Instead of having a book where there are good guys and bad guys, Gilb decided to make characters that are not so one sided.  They have their own personalities and problems,  you may decide that you hate what one does however you feel sorry for their situation, such as Cindy.  She was forced to marry a man that she does not love, and is now a drug addict and having an affair with Sonny.  Her whole life is a mess and I can't help but feel sorry for her.