Seeing Green

In this weeks reading I noticed a few different traits in Sonny. His attitude was starting to change a bit and it seemed like instead of letting people bother him he was being smart with them back. One major part was he started doing his studying of his French textbook from the twins. Almost each page mentioned how he wanted to say something in French to get a reaction out of others, or to see if they would laugh. The root of his change I believe would have to be his theft of the money from the cabinet in Cloyd’s office. Once he had taken it and it was already too late to go back it set him in this mood where he was always on his toes and thinking about the consequences looming over his head which in turn had an impact on his attitude on those around him. One of the first encounters that stood out to me was when Bud was pulling up in to his parking spot and Sonny was on his way upstairs. This scene was right before Sonny took the envelope but it had been on his mind. Bud as usual tries to push Sonny’s buttons and says to him “Your dad around? (156)” which usually angers Sonny on the inside but this time he had a response of “Not in years,” I said. “Maybe he’s with your mama. (156)” This comment had Bud all flustered and he kept telling Sonny to tell him what he said. As time progressed after Sonny stole the money he treated another normal situation differently. This time was when on any normal day walking home with the twins, that creepy guy who follows them is back, but this time Sonny had an idea. He picked up a rock which he described as “baseball size and heavier. It was a good rock. (167)” Without the twins noticing that he had a rock in his hands he approached the curb which had the guy pull over towards him to get closer giving him his window of opportunity. From that point he said “I stepped out on the street and threw the rock as hard as I could at his face. It cracked against the windshield. (168)” These actions that were taken in this chapter surprised me just because up until this point Sonny would just let things slide and have a sort of “screw it” mentality. There was one last quote that I wish I could remember the page on but Sonny had mentioned at one point before making a decision about how rich he was feeling which determined his actions.