The Flowers Essay
For my report on the novel The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb, I’ve decided to write with a Feminist view. I will be discussing the comparisons and differences between the older and younger generation of female characters in the book, how they are treated and how they respond to it.
One of the most complex characters in the book is Silvia, she tries to do what is expected of her as a wife and mother but she doesn’t like to be suffocated by her surroundings and responsibilities so she goes “shopping” most days. According to Sonny before her new marriage his mom would only clean his room if someone was coming over but now “For a minute she did almost every day”(Gilb,37). Silvia after getting married tries to be the traditional housewife and mother that Cloyd expects her to be by doing the housework and cooking dinner. When Silvia cooks she dresses in new dresses and her way of making Mexican food for Cloyd is putting jalapenos in spaghetti sauce. Silvia tries to be the perfect housewife and mother that Cloyd expects her to be but her own shortcomings and his stand in the way.
One of the most complex characters in the book is Silvia, she tries to do what is expected of her as a wife and mother but she doesn’t like to be suffocated by her surroundings and responsibilities so she goes “shopping” most days. According to Sonny before her new marriage his mom would only clean his room if someone was coming over but now “For a minute she did almost every day”(Gilb,37). Silvia after getting married tries to be the traditional housewife and mother that Cloyd expects her to be by doing the housework and cooking dinner. When Silvia cooks she dresses in new dresses and her way of making Mexican food for Cloyd is putting jalapenos in spaghetti sauce. Silvia tries to be the perfect housewife and mother that Cloyd expects her to be but her own shortcomings and his stand in the way.
Whenever Silvia goes out to shop, Sonny doesn’t believe her because of what’s she’s wearing and the way she smells. According to Sonny when she goes shopping “she was already dressed-low cut front and back, draping like curtain,she was perfume dusted”(Gilb,140). With the way she dresses and smells Sonny doesn’t believe for a second that all she is doing is shopping. Most of the time when Silvia comes back home Sonny believes she is drunk because “she stank of cigarettes and cocktails”(Gilb,162). When she is out at bars and partying, she is most likely looking for a new man to take care of her and Sonny because of how unhappy she is and because of how Cloyd is and how he treats her.
Silvia deals with at least emotional abuse if not physical abuse, while married to Cloyd. Silvia say’s that the reason she doesn’t tell Cloyd what she wants is “because then we’ll have an argument, and then I might not be able to go or want to”(Gilb,142). This shows that Silvia and Cloyd don’t agree on a lot of things and they either fight about it or he doesn’t let her do what she wants. According to Sonny “they were having these other kinds of raising - the -voice- a- little- bit discussions that weren’t, much about what they were talking about”(Gilb,72). Cloyd perpetually drinks alcohol or is drunk throughout the novel and his behavior sometimes scares or unsettles Silvia. Silvis says“I’m not happy here” and that Cloyd believes she “should just be here all day and dust”(Gilb,141), going out makes her happy so she goes even though Cloyd doesn’t always like it
Another older female character who deals with a controlling and abusive husband is Mary, she deals with things differently than how Silvia does. Mary is putdown by her husband because of her heritage and because she’s not a great beauty like Silvia. She doesn’t say if he hits her or not but it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to think he does because of his anger and the way he talks to her. Bud snarls “ Don’t fuckin’ tell me shit”(Gilb,215) when she tries to get him to stop saying bad things about the blacks. Mary says “ God, I hate when your drinking”(Gilb,52) in response to the racist things Bud is saying and because his temper is also worse once he’s had something to drink.
Mary is also unhappy with the way her life is going, Silvia says to Sonny that she is trying with her husband but if he doesn’t get better she’s leaving him. According to Sonny “ Her face sagged as miserable as the rest of her when I saw her walking by my locker”(Gilb,51). She tells Sonny she’s ashamed of the lengths she went to be a American citizen and that she misses her family; who Bud would not like on principal, she tells him “some women are just born with looks”(Gilb,185) and that his mom is lucky. She doesn’t try to impress people with her looks or how she dresses but she is wistful of the looks some women possess like Silvia and the attention they get.
For the younger generation Nica is considered to be the good girl when compared to Cindy but they both have their problems and different ways of dealing with them. Nica deals with parents who are never there that make her essentially into a mother for her younger brother because she takes care of him all the time. Nica tells Sonny “I wish I could”(Gilb,59) when he tells her he goes out every night, she is stuck spending all her time in the apartment watching her brother and she doesn’t even go to school because of it. Her stepfather Margarito spends his time when he’s not working yelling and most of the time it’s directed at Nica. Sonny always hears him yelling at her “He was always telling her to do something else and then saying it wasn’t right, and how come she couldn’t do it right without him showing her again”(Gilb,68).
Nica is unhappy with the fact that she has to spend all her time in the apartment watching her brother and hearing her stepfather put her down all the time, she wishes she could get away from it all. One thing she wants to change is her name to Cathy because “It’s a good, happy, American name”(Gilb,103), she doesn’t like to be Mexican sometimes and she wants to be more American because of what it symbolizes, freedom to choose for yourself and to be free. She feels stifled with her responsibilities to her brother and she wants to be able to do what she wants and not what others want her to do.
Cindy is the other female character from the younger generation who has a lot of problems and she doesn’t deal with them very well. Cindy married her husband Tino when she was young because she was pregnant, but then she had a miscarriage and now her and Tino rarely interact with each other. She clings to Sonny because he shows her the attention that she craves, she tells Sonny that “I’m lonely here, and I’m bored”(Gilb,123) whenever they really talk. To deal with being alone all the time she drinks and does drugs; from her drug dealing husband, Sonny observes “She’d been smoking mota again, the smell strong in her place, She had her wine drink in a glass going just as strong”(Gilb,85).
Another way that she deals with her loneliness is by taking comfort in other men, she cheats on her husband fairly often with Sonny. When Sonny visits her he observes that “It seemed like more people had been here than just her and the Tino I’d never seen”(Gilb,85). Also to grab attention she wears skimpy clothing, Sonny observes her wearing “A bikini top and some cut-off jeans”(Gilb,69). Whenever Sonny comes to visit her she offers him pot and beer, also she’s the one who makes all the moves when their together and he just follows her lead. When her husband is home they most likely fight, Sonny says “That Tino, talking fast, and it could’ve been mad talk(Gilb,104) when he hears him and Cindy in their apartment.
From a Feminist point of view the characters: Silvia, Mary, Nica, and Cindy are perfect examples to write about, some of their problems are clearly stated and others you have to interpret. Comparing these two generations they all have similar problems and they all deal with them in different ways.
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