Character Development

So far throughout the novel, The Flowers Cloyd has developed many interesting characteristics. I have noticed that he tries to act professional and masculine, but at the same time he is rude, selfish, a racist, and very controlling over Sonny. When Sonny witnessed Cloyd talking on the phone he said, “I love to eat them tacos, and now I even got myself married to a pretty little Mexican gal.” (51) I found this to be very insulting and selfish of Cloyd to say. This shows that he does not care for his wife Silvia and instead only cares about the food she makes him and her charming looks. I thought that it was even worse when he said that he liked the salsa that he thought she made, when in reality she bought from the store. When Cloyd, Silvia, Bud, and Mary are all having dinner together, Bud and Cloyd talk about black people and what they think of their work ethics and just the idea of them living at the apartment complex. When Bud asked Cloyd about how it would be possible to keep them out Cloyd argued, “I own 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? We take care of each other by taking care of our own interests.” (53) Cloyd is demonstrating racism because of the way he talks about black people and believing that they don’t belong at his apartment complex. He feels that all black people are bad and dangerous, so everyone at the Los Flores would be threatened. Ever since Cloyd has been married to Silvia, he has treated Sonny like crap. He has taken advantage of him by not paying him for all the work he does and does not show him the respect that he deserves. One job that Cloyd assigned Sonny was to chop down a bunch of weeds around the complex. Sonny overheard him talking to his mom about this job and stated, “I had to learn responsibility, how I had to earn my right to stay here. That he was teaching me to be a man.” (63) It seems like Cloyd is just controlling and taking advantage of Sonny to flex his power and authority. He wants to torture him by doing brutal chores because he knows that he can get away with it and, so he will not have to do them. He tries to convince Sonny that he is earning his keep and turning him into a man through tough labor. In reality, he is just using Sonny and this gives himself a way to get rid of Sonny for a while because he obviously does not like him very much. Cloyd shows a sign of masculinity and etiquette when he introduced Sonny to Mr. Womack. When they were about to shake hands Cloyd said, “You shake his hand like a man… Give it a good grip.” (89) Cloyd is once again trying to teach Sonny how to become a man and teaches him how he should interact with certain people like Mr. Womack.