Rough draft of formal paper

Jorden Castanon

3/7/11

English 1B

Professor Stacey Knapp

The American Teen

In order to convey Sonny as a normal teenager in the novel The Flowers by Roberto Gilb, it has to be established what normal is and considered what the standard teenager is. “The cultural standards that define normal behavior for any society are determined by that society itself”(Haviland.) The characters that surround Sonny shape his character making him typical and normal teenager in some aspects. In my teenage years I think the influences that impacted my life could be considered normal and typical due to the standards that were socially acceptable.

            It’s almost a right of passage for every teenager to engage in certain risky behaviors. Without those behaviors we cant grow and learn. From a young age we learn right from wrong and we test those limits. Sonny engaged in standard teenage behavior such as stealing dirty magazines, getting into fights, experimenting with drugs, alcohol, and sex. Most of these experiments seemed to be with one of the tenants, Cindy. Sonny’s first experience hanging out with Cindy he states, “I was confused, smelling her marijuana so much it almost felt like I was already smoking it with her. I also kind of hated being around drunk people-her now too-and also, maybe, because she was getting real close to me, fast”(87.)  Throughout the book Sonny never really over abused the experience with alcohol or drugs. I think he saw the effects it had on Cindy, his mom, and Cloyd and was not interested on how it made them act. At that age I occasionally drink but I never liked the way I lost respect for people who went overindulged in drugs and alcohol. The town where I grew up it was socially acceptable amongst the teens to experiment with drugs because that’s what most of the town did in order to escape the boredom.  In order to relieve stress and take a brake from the pressures of everyday life an outlet has to be created otherwise it might drive a person to insanity. Sonny’s outlet was the bowling alley owned by Zuniga’s.  Sonny projects his feelings about the alley by stating, “Every time I came here, I wondered why I didn’t bowl more, and why I didn’t just eat here every single day. I guess maybe I was kind if embarrassed. To not have friends, to not want to be home…. I liked bowling. I liked throwing the ball, aiming. I liked the smash of it”            (145.)  Sonny is the standard teen who has feelings of being distant towards their parents; at the alley he can escape those sensitivities. He can eat, relax, and do what he enjoys which is bowling. In a sense bowling is therapeutic for Sonny and he receives the feeling of being wanting from the Zungia’s. At the same age I never really enjoyed being home with my parents. My friends and I would usually hangout at the Skate Park or river park mostly because we could just relax there and meet up with different friends. At the park we could swim, bike ride, and just enjoy being young. Like Sonny we had chores, but at the same time we could do what he did, which was leave right after and stay gone. School was long and stressful and going home to parents who are equally as stressed sometimes didn’t seem too smart.

            Thankfully I never had to experience anything as intense as riots in my time as a teenager. Riots are something the standard teenager wouldn’t be expected to go through. For Sonny it was inevitable because the surrounding situation of racism and inequality were especially high and in that society it wouldn’t be abnormal. People like Bud and Cloyd are examples of why these riots started. They couldn’t learn how to be flexible and fully tolerant. An example of this is when Cloyd has a fight with Silvia because Bud said he saw a black man in Pink’s apartment. Cloyd declares, “You know there’d be hell to pay! You know it!... That just wouldn’t be right....I didn’t rent to one of them! Wouldn’t either (180.) Bud and Cloyd are closed-minded are set in their ways which helped fuel the fire’s of the riots. I grew up in a small town were it was predominately Caucasian. There was a small mixture of Mexicans, African Americans, and other races. It sometimes caused some gang violence among these races but never riots. A few gang fights took place where some innocent people were caught in the crossfire but never riots that engulfed the whole town. My sister first hand experienced one of the fights that broke out were a person wielding a chainsaw tried to kill someone else, for which she told me was pretty intense. She happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but in a riot it takes the whole city over. Luckily in her situation the police came and it eventually stopped. In a riot it can’t be predicated when the anarchy will end.

            Sonny’s experiences as teenager are standard in relation to where he lives. Looking at the tenants surrounding him those behaviors he engages in are normal because all tenants in some aspects are messed up in their own ways. They have their standards of what’s socially acceptable and the problems they have are tolerated by one another.  Bud, Pink, Cloyd, and Cindy all have encouraged Sonny to drink. At that age my friend’s parents, adults, or stepparents never offered any type of alcohol. It something now that wouldn’t be socially acceptable. It does depend because I’ve seen first hand in some areas where the adults take a lack of interest in their kids lives and don’t care how other parents influence their kids. It really depends on where you live and what the society around you accepts out of a teen to determine if the teen is average or normal.