Week One Reading Journal

1.         I predict Sonny is going to get in a lot of trouble by the end of the book. The book starts of with Sonny describing the times when he'd sneak into peoples homes and look around and sort of lose himself in his thoughts. He started stealing money and once stopped his scrummaging to allow himself to feel a girls underwear. Now that Sonny is living in the apartment complex owned by Cloyd, he is going to have a lot of urges to steal and break into the residents apartments. His curiosity is going to draw him to want to know what the residents lives are like by looking through their belongings to get a better sense of who they are. He might want to steal some of their stuff too including money. Sonny might have a mild case of kleptomania. Although he says he doesn't enjoy stealing, he likes the feeling he gets when he counts his money, and likes going out and buying his own lunch. Cloyd seems to be really attached to his money, and tries to minimize his spending. I don't think It'd be wise for Sonny to steal any money from Cloyd.
            I also believe Sonny is going to have some arguments with his step dad, Cloyd. His step dad seems to be getting drunk a lot, almost everyday. It's obvious that Sonny doesn't like Cloyd. On page 19 Sonny says, "All you had to do was look around the apartment to know this Cloyd wasn't right for either of us."(19) I agree with what Sonny says, there is a big cultural difference between them. I don't think there is anything wrong with having an interracial relationship, however it seems like Cloyd is racist, and may not be right for the family. He doesn't like the fact that Pinkston is selling his cars to Black people. Sonny seems to really like Pinkston, and I think they're going to become good friends. I'm sure Cloyd is going to have a problem with Sonny hanging around Pinkston, and will create an argument between them. In the beginning of the book one of Silvia's ex-boyfriend, breaks into her home and attacks Sonny. Sonny was young and failed to defend himself with the kitchen knife he held in his hand. I believe Sonny and Cloyd will have some kind of fight similar to this one. Sonny might try and defend himself again with a knife, but this time I think he'll be able to fend of his step dad's attack.
3.         One passage from the book I found interesting was the one where Sonny is cleaning the window screen from apartment number 3. This passage begins on page forty with Cindy saying, "Hey, cutie boy! You trying to sneak in on me while I'm in the shower?"(40) I found this conversation to be interesting, especially the part were Cindy starts talking about her husband and her marriage. Her story is that she is eighteen now, and got pregnant sometime while she was in high school, which forced her to drop out. She married the dude, but unfortunately had a miscarriage. She later got pregnant again, but got an abortion. Now she lives in an apartment practically by herself because her husband is never around, and longs to go back to school.
The part I found the most interesting about this passage would be how she acted when Sonny says, "maybe your husband was glad too." At first she didn't really understand what Sonny meant by her husband. It was like she hadn't realized that she was married until that moment. She'd been impregnated twice by the same guy, and has been living with him for some time, but hadn't associated him as a "husband." I believe she still thinks of Tino as a boyfriend, and not a husband because he is never around. She must not be emotionally attached to Tino to want to flirt with Sonny, or maybe she's just bored of being alone in her apartment all day. Even though Cindy is married to Tino, I believe she will continue to invite Sonny into her apartment. Some sort of conflict has to arise between the three, and it will be exciting to find out what that is.