Difficulty Paper- Scarlett letter 2

The Scarlet Letter was definitely the hardest book I’ve read in a while. The problem was just that the language was difficult to understand and it seemed like there were a lot of sentences that didn’t seem like they really needed to be there, which just made the story longer. Another problem was that there were parts of the story where it was really boring and that definitely made it harder to read. When we first started to read this book, I started to read the introduction, The Custom House, and that was where I knew this what kind of story this was going to be. Once I got into the first scene though, I thought it was interesting. I could understand what was going on in the first scene. I guess my problem is that I need there to be action and also dialogue. I understand stories a lot more when the characters are actually talking, probably just because there is a lot more action. 

Difficulty Paper & Annotated Bibliography- the glass menagerie

Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions, 1999. Print.

The Glass Menagerie was definitely a lot easier to read than The Scarlet Letter. To my surprise, I thought this play was kind of interesting. I usually don’t like to read plays, but this one was different. The characters were all very interesting people. We could all tell that Tom didn’t want to be living at home anymore. I sometimes feel like I want to move out too, but I would never do it in a way where I would abandon my family, like Tom did...I did enjoy reading and watching this play. This play was a lot more interesting than The Scarlet Letter too. We should have read more things like this in the class this semester

annotated bibliography-literary criticism

Ryskamp, Charles. “The New England Sources of The Scarlett Letter”. Duke University Press. 1959. 291-303.

In this literary criticism, Ryskamp talks about the years in which The Scarlet Letter takes place. I found this helpful for my research paper because I can tell what age Pearl was in each chapter. He says the first four chapters took place in 1642, chapters seven and eight were in 1645, and the rest of the story took place in 1649. This means that Pearl was an infant, and then the story jumps to when she was three, and then once more to when she was seven. He also gives a lot of background information on Puritans, which I also found helpful in my research paper. 

annotated bibliography-the scarlet letter

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Scarlett Letter and Other Writings”.  Norton Critical Edition. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company Inc, 2005. Print.

The Scarlett Letter was a story about a woman, Hester who committed adultery and now must wear the letter “A” on her sleeve. Usually, the punishment would be death, but since Hester had a child, they let her live. Pearl was a result of Hester’s adultery and therefore an evil child. The whole story after that is about trying to find out who committed the sin with Hester. We find out that it’s one of the most respected men of their town, Arthur Dimmesdale, whose name happens to start with the letter “A”. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, seeks revenge on Arthur and Hester after he finds out. The story ends after Dimmesdale reveals the secret to the town and then dies after being sick throughout the story.   

scarlet letter-research paper

                                                                                       

Reader Response To Pearl

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist Hester Prynne has a child named Pearl. While Hester’s husband was away, she slept with another man. Pearl was the result of Hester committing adultery, so when Pearl was born society saw Pearl as an evil child. Puritans were very strict when it came to marriage, “ Puritans consider sex to be pure and a means to strengthen the unity and bond between a man and a wife” (Bhatti). Since Hester was already married the Puritan society saw her actions as bad so Pearl was the image of something bad and a sign if Satan. Everyone in the town saw Pearl as a demon child and therefore evil. Pearl also had some characteristics that made her seem like she was a demon child, even to Hester, “ Her mother, while Pearl was yet an infant, grew acquainted with a certain peculiar look, that warned her when it would be labor thrown away to insist, persuade, or plead. It was a look so intelligent,yet inexplicable, so perverse, sometimes so malicious, but generally accompanied by a wild flow of spirits, that Hester could not help questioning, at such moments, whether Pearl was a human child” (63). Even Pearl’s own mother thought that there was something different about her, that she wasn’t a regular child, even at a young age. I, however, don’t think that Pearl was an evil child, but a good child with a mind that was that thought differently than others. Pearl also had a lot of positive influence on Hester’s life. 

                                                                           

The Puritans believed that when the marriage bond was broken by something like cheating on your spouse, then the punishment should be death. This is how the townspeople felt  Hester should be convicted. They had a lot of hate for towards her, “ At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead...But she-the naughty baggage,-little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown!” (39). The townspeople know that Hester isn’t going to get as much punishment as she should. The reason for this is because of Pearl. Knowing that Hester has a child they don’t give her the death sentence. In a way, Pearl saved her mother’s life just by being born. 

According to the narrator, Pearl had times where she would get really mad, “ These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, even for her mother” (65). There was a time when she got mad at kids that were around her, “ If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch’s anathemas in some unknown tongue” (64). Pearl doesn’t like the to play with the other kids, instead she gets mad when they’re around and throws rocks at them. In my experience, kids fight with kids. One of my younger cousins always fights with my other cousin because he pushed him down a slide about a year ago. Kids will fight and argue if they have a reason to do so and Pearl did. Pearl had a reason to fight the other kids, “ The truth was, that the little Puritans, being of the most intolerant brood that ever lived, had got a vague idea of something outlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in the mother and child; and therefore scorned them in their hearts...Pearl felt the sentiment, and requited it with the 

    

bitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom” (64). Pearl knew that everyone in the town looked down on her because the scarlet letter. Pearl’s temper tantrums are cause by the hatred towards her and her mother, which is like her getting pushed down the slide, it’s something that aggravated them and is the reason for anger. 

Pearl was just trying to defend herself and her mom. Hester realizes that she has reasons for getting mad at the other kids, “ These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort, for her mother; because at least an intelligible earnestness in the mood, instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted her in the child’s manifestations” (64). Hester knows and realizes that Pearl has reasons for her anger. She knows that Pearl knows that people don’t like them and Pearl is just defending them.

The Reverend Mr. Wilson also thought that Pearl was evil. When Hester and Pearl went to the Governor’s mansion, Pearl was acting weird and Wilson said, “ The little baggage hath witchcraft in her I profess, she needs no old woman’s broomstick to fly withal!” (78).  Pearl was changing moods spontaneously and she made herself look strange. This doesn’t show that she is evil, it just shows that she has a short intention span like every other kid.

There was a time when Dimmesdale and Chillingworth were looking out the window and they saw Pearl dancing on someone’s grave. Chillingworth said, “ I saw her, the other day, bespatter the Governor himself with water, at the cattle trough in Spring Lane.What, in Heaven’s name is she? Is the imp altogether evil? Hath she affections? Hath she any discoverable principles of being?” (89). Dimmesdale then said, “ Whether capable of good, I know not” (89). When Pearl heard them, she looked up at them and smiled and threw one of the things she had 

    

picked up. I think she threw at him because he was now saying negative stuff about her after being nice to her at the mansion.

Right after Pearl threw the prickly burr, she told her mom that they should leave, “ Come away, mother! Come away, or yonder old Black Man will catch you! He hath got hold of the minister already. Come away mother, or he will catch you! But he cannot catch Pearl!” (90).  This statement by Pearl shows how intelligent she is. She calls Roger Chillingworth the old Black Man, which we later find out is a demon. We know Chillingworth is an ugly man and has a lot of bad features. We also know that he wants revenge. Pearl recognizes all of this and she knows that there is something evil about him. While Chillingworth thinks that there’s something evil about her, she thinks there’s something evil about him because she called him the Black Man.

Pearl is an intelligent little girl. She knows things that are a surprise, like that Chillingworth isn’t a good guy. She isn’t evil either. She just thinks differently than all of the other kids her age. She also acts spontaneously just like a regular kid. She saved her mother’s life just by being born. Kids are kids and they act and speak what they want, but it doesn’t make them evil, even if they do some bad things.

Difficulty Paper- Scarlett letter

The Scarlett Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, so far, has talked about a woman, Hester Prynne, who has been convicted adultery. This is the actual story, however the introduction of the story was confusing to me. If I understood some of it right, I think it says that Hawthorne, or whoever is the narrator, finds a book or some pages and then he begins to read them. I think at first they describe the world, that the person who wrote them, is living in. I think he finds the Scarlett letter A, which we later find out is Prynne’s. I’m not really sure if the other stuff said are the narrator’s words or if it’s still part of the pages that he is reading. Is the actual story being written by the narrator or is it being read from the pages found? Also, I don’t know if my reasoning and summary are correct so I would appreciate if someone could correct the summary and answer my question.

Difficulty Paper- Minister's Black Veil

The short story The Minister’s Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story about a minister who decides to wear to cover his face with a black veil. The minister decides one day to cover his face and it makes all of the townspeople question him. They think that he has committed a terrible sin, since that can be the only explanation according to them, and also because he gave his sermon on sins, which was implied by the townspeople that it was about the minister. I really enjoyed this story, it was very interesting but there was something that was hard for me to understand. At the end of the story, the minister says that while he was wearing the veil, everyone was thinking that he had done something bad, but then he said it was the people that were bad because they were avoiding him and kids had screamed out of horror. What I got out of this was that he had the veil on to prove that the townspeople and everyone else were very judgmental on looks, which is a sin. The last lines though is what made me think twice, “  Still veiled, they laid him in his coffin, and a veiled corpse they bore him to the grave... but awful is still the thought that it [his face] mouldered beneath the Black Veil!” (Hawthorne last paragraph). I was confused on the part where it says his awful face beneath the black veil. Does this mean that the minister really committed a sin? Was the minister saying that the people were judgmental as an excuse for something that he really did?

imitation

Don't take the car without asking. Don't fight with your sister. Do your own laundry. Mow the lawn and pull the weeds. Don't yell at me. Feed the dogs and clean up after them. Treat everyone with respect. Take out the trash. Calm down. Stop yelling. pick your sister up from school. Take your sister to her friend's house. Stop complaining, your life is easy.

Roque

In the short story, Roque, by Dagoberto Gilb, we would guess that the protagonist most likely would be the person named Roque, which is an adult, but it really is the little boy named Erick. Erick is just a little boy who pretty follows his mom to every guy’s house that she dates and he listens to whatever she says. He doesn’t talk to any of the guys his mom brings home or to anyone else, his mom likes to say that it’s because of his English, but he just doesn’t say much. Roque is the man who his mom is dating, but Erick told his friend that Roque was his uncle because he had already said that a rich engineer was his new stepdad. Roque is an important character because he is the one who takes Erick to his first baseball game, which is the most important setting in the story.

The climatic moment in the story is when they arrive to the baseball game and Erick catches the home run ball. This is the first time that he goes to a game and right away, before they even sit down, he catches it. The way he explains it, makes it sound like it was destiny, “the fifth inning? That’s how late they were. Or were they right on time, because they weren’t even sure they were sitting in the right seats yet when he heard the crack of the ball, saw the crowd around them rising as it came at them. Erick saw the ball. He had to stand and move and stretch his arms and want that ball until it hit his bare hands and stayed there.” At this point he feels proud and like everyone is looking at him with amazement. He caught the ball with his bare hands and it’s very painful to do that, that’s why everyone was amazed and why he was proud. Also, he was a little kid which makes all that much astonishing. 

There is some foreshadowing in the story when it says that Erick prays to God for good to come to him and his mom, “ He prayed for good to come, for his mom and for him, since God was like magic, and happiness might come the way of early morning, in the trees and bushes full of sparrows next to his open window, louder and louder when he listened hard, eyes closed.” At the end when he gets his signed baseball, Gilb compares the fans with sparrows. These sparrows, to me, are the sign of Erick’s happiness, or they could also be a sign of God. When he is praying to God, there are sparrows outside of his window. When he gets his signed ball, which seems like the happiest moment of his life, the author compares the people to sparrows.

transitions

addition:again,also,and then,besides,equally important,finally,first,further, furthermore,in addition,in the first place,last,moreover,next,second, still,too
comparison:also, in the same way, likewise
concession: granted, naturally, of course
contrast: although, and yet, at the same time,but at the same time, despite that, evens so,even though, for all that, however, in contrast,in spite of
example/illustration: after all, as an illustration, for example, in conclusion,in other words, of course
summary: all in all, as has been said, finally, in conclusion, in other words, to summarize

Rough draft-RR Cloyd

Throughout the story, Sonny is influenced by characters and is also influenced by other people. One of the most influential people is Cloyd. He is an unlikeable person if you really know about him and the way he thinks and acts. He is Silvia’s new husband which makes him Sonny’s stepdad. One of the things that makes Cloyd an unlikeable person is that he always has to be the biggest person in the house, but he does it in manners that are disrespectful to others. He also has ways in which he sees society that are disrespectful, and also racist. I am writing from the Reader Response view and I will explain how the ways of Cloyd influence Sonny.  

When we first met Cloyd, he was trying to get on Sonny’s good side, and also Silvia’s, by asking Sonny what he wanted. Sonny answered by telling him that he wanted to go to Notre Dame in France. Sonny could tell that Cloyd was just trying to get on his Sivia’s good side, “ He was trying to show he was, you know, interested in me...It was a show for my mom” (10). Sonny knew that Cloyd didn’t really care about him from the beginning of the story, he knew that Cloyd was doing it all for Silvia, which is why Sonny came up with the idea of him wanting to go to Notre Dame. Sonny then asks for a French book so that they will think he is serious about it, and it turns out that Sonny learning some French words and phrases are influential to Sonny because later on he uses them when he’s angry in order to crack a smile.

Cloyd’s physical appearance definitely shows who Cloyd really is too. In the first meeting between Sonny and Cloyd, Sonny says Cloyd was wearing a fake blue suit and tie and his hair was pomade oil. Sonny then says, “ I never saw him in one ever again... That also was the only time it [hair] was so neat that you could see the comb lines”(9). We, as the readers, know that Cloyd is definitely not ever nicely dressed up like this, just like he is never this nice to Sonny, except for this first encounter between them. 

We know Cloyd as a man who always wears the same grey suit and we start to see him get more and more angrier with everything as the book goes on. Sonny describes Cloyd in one scene, “Cloyd was already red-eyed, and he was wearing that hick smile I hated the most and swirling that ice cube. He had on his grey work uniform, still starched from laundry, like he hadn’t sweated in it today. His bottle of whiskey was on his office desk like it was his latest trophy, shiny below all of those dead deer with blank marble eyeballs”(88). This is the Cloyd that we, as the readers, know. We know that he is always wearing that same grey suit and drinking his whiskey. The whiskey is influential to Cloyd’s character because he is usually drinking and when he drinks enough, it shows the real side of him, the dark side.

A lot of times it seems like it’s the alcohol that brings out the racist side of Cloyd. He is never racist to Mexicans or any other race, he is only racist to black people. “Bud, have you seen one yet living on our street? Have you seen one black living on any ten blocks around here?... You have not, it’s not likely to happen neither...I own this apartment building, you think I can’t let who I want to live here?”(53). This shows that Cloyd doesn’t like black people and there is no way that he would rent a room to one. We see more racism increasing throughout the story in Cloyd, but the alcohol also brings out the angry side towards Silvia. It seemed like if Silvia didn’t let Cloyd know when she was going out, he would get mad. She was worried about Sonny   not letting Cloyd know that she was, “Please tell him that I left the salsita in the refrigerator...M’ijo, please tell him?...Will you please tell him? For me? Please?”(81) Silvia would never say when she would get back and that’s usually what Cloyd would ask for. 

As the book went on, Cloyd would get angrier with Silvia when she would go out and they would argue about it. Sonny heard some of the arguments, “I was hearing my mom and him out there for too long. They were arguing, and I could make out the words if I let myself, but I didn’t want”(105). We never really know what they argue about, but we can infer that it’s because Silvia goes out because she starts to say that she gets bored at her house and she eventually tries to go out before Cloyd gets home, probably in order to avoid confrontation and more arguments.

Cloyd likes to be in charge of the household by having Sonny do work around the apartment complex. Sonny didn’t mind all of the jobs, just some, like the weeds, “Cloyd was wanting me to chop down weeds on the back side of the building. Everything else was okay, I just didn’t want this job...That he was teaching me to be a man”(63). He uses Sonny as a free labor worker and a way to make it seem like he is his father and he’s teaching him to be a man.   Cloyd tries to control Silvia by keeping her at home all of the time, which is why she doesn’t work, but that’s not what Silvia wants. He admits she gets bored there, which is why she goes out all of the time. Cloyd’s controlling ways make him unlikeable and they really show the kind of person he really is.

When we get towards the end of the novel, we see a side of Cloyd that we never saw before. Sonny stands up to Bud, Cloyd’s friend, by hitting him and trying to beat him up. Bud tosses Sonny around the house, but Sonny doesn’t care and keeps on going. When Cloyd hears about this, he feels bad and goes to talk to Sonny, “We gotta talk. You don’t have to call me sir...It’s about what’s going on. That was wrong. I’m sorry that happened...That was bad, what happened. It was. He shouldn’t of pushed you or hit you...Or threw you, because he could of really hurt you. You’re all right, aren’t you?”(226). This shows Cloyd’s compassionate side. Sonny explains that he was drunk when he was telling him this, “He was drunk, but no glass in his hand”(226). This could explain why he was so compassionate, or could have also been because he was proud that Sonny stood up to someone bigger than him. Right after Cloyd talks with Sonny, he shows him the shotguns he has in the house because of the danger of the riots, so his compassionate side disappears and goes back to the racist side.

Although Cloyd has the one compassionate moment, that can explained by alcohol, he is still an unlikeable person. The racist side that he has whether or not he’s drunk is definitely a problem. He sees black people as a problem, but they’re are just like everyone else. Also, the controlling side he has makes him unlikeable to Sonny and Silvia, his own wife. You can’t have a good family relationship if one is always trying to control all of the other people. The evidence I gave is enough to conclude that Cloyd is definitely is an unlikeable person.

idea paper

I am going to write a reader response to Cloyd. I am going to talk about the views he has on society and the way he looks upon Sonny and Silvia. Also, I am going to explain why Cloyd is an unlikeable person and how the way he thinks and his beliefs influence his character.

week 4- Re-examination of character description

Cloyd still has the same attitude towards Sonny and Silvia, but now it seems like he gets more frustrated and angry with both of them. Now when Silvia goes out, Cloyd gets more upset and he is always asking Sonny all of these questions about where she is. Silvia tells Sonny not to say anything when he does see her leave and Cloyd gets upset every time Sonny replies with i don’t know. When Cloyd gets drunk, he gets angry a lot more, especially when Sonny calls him “man”. For example, “ ‘I dunno, man’...’Don’t call me man!’ Then he punched the wall right next to the door and it left a hole.”(149). In the beginning of the book, when Cloyd was first introduced, he seemed like a nice guy. As we got deeper into the story, he started to become more irritated with Sonny and get more angry about things and we also saw his racist side. Now, we see that when he is drunk, he gets really upset with everything and with everyone. In one part of the book, we see him yell and get angrier than he has before. He is yelling at Sonny and Silvia about Pink and about how he thinks that Pink has a black man living with him in his apartment. The way I see it, Cloyd has an anger problem and it seems like his level of anger is increasing more and more throughout the story. However, the perception of this character has somewhat stayed the same, the only difference now is the level of anger.

Week 4- Prediction

Sonny has mixed feelings about the money he took. Sometimes he is glad he took it and sometimes he feels bad that he did. I think he is going to keep it. The reason I think this is because Cloyd has been getting really angry at everyone lately and I think Sonny feels like taking the money could be a way to kind of get back at him. Also, I think Sonny has been angry with other things too, so stealing the money was a way to let out some of that anger. I think Sonny is probably going to start spending it, maybe on trying to impress Nica or something like that. If he doesn’t do that, I think he might just save it and use it on whats he’s been using it on right now. However, I don’t think he is going to give put it back in the drawer, he said it himself, “ I wished I didn’t take that money. In another way I was like, well,not sorry. Then again, I couldn’t be. Then again, it didn’t matter, it was done”(168). If I were Sonny, I think I would probably do the same that he did. I would have probably taken the money because Cloyd really seems to annoy Sonny and I would have been annoyed with him too. I think taking the money is a good way to get back at Cloyd for the way he’s been yelling at Sonny and also for all if that racist stuff that Cloyd says. 

week 3- themes

One of the themes in the novel, I think, is the importance of family. Sonny is definitely impacted by his family. Now that his mom married Cloyd, it seems like he feels that he doesn’t really have a family because he doesn’t like to be home and he doesn’t even eat dinner at home either. He is always trying to be out of the house in order to avoid his family. He goes and eats at the bowling alley almost every night because, according to him, doesn’t like his mother’s cooking. “ No, really, it is, I do. Over there, where I am living, I don’t like to eat. They got nasty food.” (145) Also, it seems like Sonny has been really annoyed with Cloyd and vise versa because lately, they have really been arguing a lot and Cloyd yelling at Sonny. “ ‘Where’s your mother?’ ‘ I dunno, man.’ ‘Don’t talk to me like that!...You talk to me with respect, you understand?’”(126) Sonny doesn’t yell back at Cloyd, probably because he doesn’t want to upset him even more and probably upset his mom. Instead, Sonny is letting his anger out in different ways like when he’s bowling and when he got in a fight. Sonny got mad while he was bowling and yelled a cuss word and got yelled at by Mr. Zuniga. When Sonny was leaving the bowling alley, he beat up a man and took his wallet after a confrontation. All of this seems like a way for Sonny to let out his anger he has at home towards the way his family relations have changed.

It seems like Silvia is also not happy with the family situation. She doesn’t like having to be at home all day every day. She started going out with her friend, Nelly, in order to get out of the house. She says that shopping makes her happy, but that Cloyd is really strict about his money and he doesn’t like that much getting used on that. It seems like she tries to get out of the house before Cloyd gets home in order to avoid confrontation because she is always telling Sonny to let Cloyd know that she had gone out and how long she’ll be out. She actually admits to not liking being home all day. “ I’m not happy here,...I’m a little bored.” (141) I think she is talking more about the way their lives have changed than actually just being stuck inside all day. 

Cloyd doesn’t seem happy with all of the family situations either. He doesn’t like Silvia going out, he likes to have her inside and clean and cook. He gets mad at Sonny when he doesn’t know where she goes. He sometimes says racist things and sometimes about Mexicans, but then follows it up with a positive comment like it cancels out the bad thing he said. He is mow married to a Mexican and has a Mexican stepson, but it doesn’t seem like it makes a difference to him. It seems like everyone is this family is having negative feeling towards one another, but I think it will change later in the book.

Free Write- My father always

My father always tells my sister and I about his rough childhood. He always tells us stories about how he and his siblings would get made fun of because they couldn't speak English very well and because they didn't have that much money.

week2 character description-Cloyd

Cloyd is Sonny’s new stepdad and also kind of his boss in a way. He makes Sonny do a lot of stuff around the apartment, even though Sonny says it keeps him busy, there are things that he doesn’t like to do, like cutting the weeds. What bothered Sonny was when he found out that Cloyd had said that Sonny was unable to finish cutting the weeds and Sonny got mad because he just didn’t want to finish. Cloyd wants to be a dominant person by having Sonny do what he says and also by having Sonny’s mom always stay home and make the food and clean the house, even though she never cooks. Cloyd is also a jerk because he is racist. For example, “The truth is, I don’t want their problems...It’s not that I don’t work with black people who aint like that too sometimes”. (53) Also, when he saw that Pinkston was selling a car to a black man, he got really mad. All of this racism shows that he is a jerk and he doesn’t respect people. Sonny kind of describes Cloyd as someone who is conceded. For example, “Cloyd was already red-eyed, and he was wearing that hick smile I hated the most and swirling that ice cube. He had on his gray work uniform ,still starched from a laundry, like he hadn’t sweated in it today. His bottle of whiskey was on his office desk like it was the latest trophy, shiny below all of those dead deer with blank marble eyeballs.” (88) Cloyd is really into his trophies and like to brag about them to Sonny. He was an attitude of someone who only cares about himself. I don’t think he really like Sonny, I think he just likes his mom and is just having Sonny do all that stuff around the complex to get in some free labor and also to get Sonny out of the house. Also, I think Sonny’s mom is starting to have second thoughts about her marriage with Cloyd because of the stuff he has been saying. For example, Sonny and his mom always laugh about how Cloyd says that they too much toilet paper. Also, it seems like she is tired of being in the house all day because she has started to go out with her friends. Sonny has also said a lot about his mom and Cloyd arguing. He says he can hear some of the arguments because they’re loud, but some aren’t so he can’t. He usually doesn’t know what they argue about either, he just knows that they do. Also, you can tell that Sonny doesn’t like to be home even when he doesn’t have anymore work to do because he usually goes out to eat. He doesn’t usually eat at home, instead goes to the bowling alley to eat a burger. This could be because of Cloyd being at home, maybe Sonny just doesn’t want to confront him and instead avoids going home all together.

week 1 prompt 1

Sonny is a very smart kid who realizes everything that’s going on around him. I have feeling that he is going to get curious about the other tenants in the apartment, just like he has about Pink and Cindy, and he will probably get into some trouble. Just like when Cloyd got mad when he realized that Pink was selling a car to an African American man, but was kind of getting mad at Sonny like if he was part of it. I think Sonny also might get with Cindy because she seems very flirtatious and Sonny seems to really like her, especially after the way he was talking about her when they had their conversation in her apartment. 

Sonny’s mom and Cloyd don’t seem like the happiest couple in the world. It just seems like Sonny’s mom is just with him for the money because she never talks about him as a husband, but as a person who is getting them stuff that they want. For example, Sonny said he wanted to go to Notre Dame, and even though he doesn’t really want to, it seems like Cloyd wouldn’t mind sending him there. Also, Sonny’s mom doesn’t have to work anymore, all she does now is stay home and “cook” as Sonny would say. For these reasons, I think that Sonny’s mom won’t stay with Cloyd forever. Sonny thinks that this is true also because he is always saying that the reason he isn’t trying to make friends is because he knows that he and his mom won’t be living there for a long time. 

Sonny’s curiosity has almost gotten him into trouble with Cloyd and I think it might get him into more trouble especially now that Cloyd has Sonny going around to all of the apartments to do all of the cleaning on the window screens. I think that as he meets more people in the apartment, he will probably be getting into more trouble. I think that the twins might get him into some trouble too because even though Sonny says that they’re nerds or whatever, i think they are trouble makers just based on the stuff they say, like when they were talking about the girls in Sonny’s apartment and how they were asking Sonny if they had big chests or bottoms and stuff like that. I think that just by the way they have been talking so far, they will probably convince Sonny to do stuff, especially since they are his only friends and probably will be his only ones. I also think that Cindy might get him into some trouble to because she seems like someone without any cares so she might get Sonny to do some things that aren’t necessarily good because in the back of the book it says that Cindy is druggie who is married and bored so there might be some drugs that she’ll tell Sonny to try, especially since Sonny likes her and is a very curious kid.

I am

I am...18 years old and this is my first semester at Gavilan. My favorite thing to do is play sports, especially baseball and basketball.