Week Five - Idea Paper - Sociological Perspective

If I focused on the Sociological perspective, I would focus on how the setting that Dagoberto Gilb placed Sonny in creates a dramatic change in Sonny’s behavior.

In the beginning of the story Sonny seems to be a not too innocent but seemingly harmless kid. He is shown to have a tough exterior and a knack for getting into trouble. Not that he looks for trouble, it comes to him. He does not pick fights, but will defend himself when the situation arises.

However, when his mother marries Cloyd and they move to Los Flores, his behavior changes quickly. At first he just keeps to himself, but eventually the setting he is placed in leads to the rise of relationships which lead to his behavioral changes. One of the relationships that changes him is that between him and Cindy. He falls into Cindy’s seductive trap and begins to smoke weed and have sexual encounters with her. That and his home situation causes his personality to darken. He gets angry at Cindy for attracting him, because he  knows it’s wrong to be with a married woman. He also befriends Pink, the car salesman, which is also a relationship that changed him.  With Pink, he drinks malt liquor and even gets behind the wheel when he knows that he shouldn’t be either of  those, much less both at the same time.

I feel that just looking at those two relationships show how that setting has changed his personality and behavior so much. He is much more likely to have an angry temper and do things that a kid his age shouldn’t be doing. I feel that those things may give him a sense of power in his life. They may also make him feel like more of a man than he was before.

Another reason why the setting affects Sonny is the strong sense of racism found there. Cloyd is one of the characters that is racist and is quick to stereotype. Sonny is exposed to Cloyd’s hatred of blacks and frequent comments and comparisons of Mexicans and Blacks.

So those are the two major factors in which setting affects Sonny that I would focus my analysis on: the influences of the people around him and the racism found in his new neighborhood.