The Flowers

The Flowers

by Dagoberto Gilb

distributed by

Publishers Group West

Summary

          This is the story of a latino teenager named Sonny Bravo who experienced

criminal activity, drugs and racism in a neighborhood home. He met a different people

who teached him a lesson about being a man. One teaches him about lust, another  teaches him about quiet lessons about being a man, another girl teaches him about

love and letting go. through it all, Sonny grows up and learns a lot.

Main Characters:

Sonny Bravo       (He is a teenager Mexican-American)

Silvia                  (Sonny’s mother, beatiful woman)

Cloyd Longpre     (Sonny’s stepfather, alcoholic person, building contractor)

Cindy                 (She is a druggie person, babysitter)

Nica                   (Mexican girl)

Pink                   (car seller, black men)

Joe and Mike      (Sonny’s friends, twins)

Bud                   (construction worker who hates black and Mexican people)

The Flowers 

It’s the story of a Latino teenager named Sonny Bravo, who is an isolated teen living in a working class, racially charged area of L.A., illegal immigration. He  experienced things such as racial profiling, verbal abuse, sex,drugs and a world of prejudice, frustration and failed dreams. Sonny moves with his mother Silvia to an apartment complex in Los Angeles because his mother has recently remarried with Cloyd Longpre, an alcoholic person who owns “The Flowers”, a lower-class apartment building which houses tenants of various races as Chicanos, whites, and blacks.

Sonny works for his stepfather painting, weeding, sweeping, and he gets to know the residents in the neighbors in the small apartment complex where they live and also concentrating on how he deals with his own pain, disappointment, and happiness regarding other people. In the process he meets everyone in the apartment building and they all teach him a lesson of some sort. young girl named Cindy who teaches him about love and letting go. An old Russian man teaches him quiet lessons about being a man.

A man named Mr. Pinkston, who sells used cars illegally out of his apartment. Bud, a muscled-up construction worker who hates blacks and Mexicans, even while he’s married with a Mexican-American woman. A girl named Nica, a teen, who looked inside her apartment all day taking care of her little brother at whom Sonny helps to escape to Mexico to survive some racial violence. Some tenants accept the changing of the

neighborhood, others, such as Cloyd and Bud, refuse to embrace diversity of opinions.

Through it all, Sonny grows up and learns a lot. Sonny’s reactions to all of these people and more reveal his insecurities, corrupted understandings of right and wrong, and the psychological damage his mother has provoke.

Finally, he learned a lot of what he passed being discriminating by those people who don’t want them. He also learned that everyone is equal and no matter what race you are everyone should respect to each other because how you treat the people is how you are going to be treated.

Other yearling books you will enjoy

of Dagoberto Gilb:

Gritos

Woodcuts of women

The Magic of Blood

The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña

An Anthology of Texas

Important Quotations

“Of keeping things swept up and clean, you’re doing such a good job. The building

looked better”

it means that Sonny Bravo felt good doing the best in his job.

“Yeah, Reading can get you into tough, dangerous shit too, you know?”

it means that knowledge can lead you to build a Revolution and defend yourself

from bad people”

Glossary

sobbed:          (v)to weep with a catching of the breath or in sudden, short

gasps, to put or send (oneself) by sobbing .

quick witted:  (adj) having an alert or nimble mind.

scattered:      (adj) distributed, dispersed, distracted, disorganized.

unrest:          (n) dissatisfaction or turbulence.

sweep:          (v) to remove or clear, spread quickly.

grab:             (v) to seize suddenly, eagerly to take possession illegally.

blasted:         (adj) ruined, confounded.

bouncing        (adj) stout, strong or active exagerated.