Idea Paper

For my paper I want to write about Sonny’s strange episodes where he blacks out or zones out and goes into his own little world. I think his part of the text was the most interesting to me. I can’t decide exactly what the cause of these episodes are, whether they’re just a defense mechanism, a way for Sonny to clear his head or if something is medically or psychologically wrong with Sonny. I cannot decide if I will be writing my paper through the formalists/structuralist/ new criticism theory perspective or through the psychoanalytic criticism theory perspective. As I start picking out quotes and begin my writing I will be able to figure out which new criticism theory will work the best. I will be asking questions like: what is the purpose of Sonny’s episodes? Are they all the same, or do they differ? What causes them? What effect do Sonny’s episodes have? As I read more about the psychoanalytic criticism I think that I will try and write my paper using that perspective and if I have trouble, then the formalist perspective will be my second choice.

Sonny explains his “dreams” or episodes with a lot of detail. In order to clear his head he makes up different scenarios and decides how he would react if that situation ever occurred in reality. On the second page of the book, The Flowers by Dagoberto Gilb, Sonny is already describing himself spacing out and going off into his own world in his head.  He says, “What would finally come were colors and lines busting through, flying out and off and cutting in, crazy fires and sparks, and it’d come out speeding, and I’d be like a doggie out the window…I’d start to see shapes floating and straightening and wiggling and see it like it was a music that didn’t make sound but was making a story.” I thought this was a really great example of one of Sonny’s experiences. Right off the back, Sonny is describing this place he goes to in his head. In this particular example, before Sonny begins describing his experience, he is talking about sneaking into people’s houses and imagining what it would be like to be that person, living in that house. Throughout the book Sonny describes experiences like this. Many of these zone outs occur when Sonny is imagining himself being something else or doing something that he wouldn’t actually ever do. Another experience Sonny has is while he is listening to music and he describes it like it “was the fourth of July, colors and explosions of colors and lights and shapes, the singer’s voices spinning like planets and moons, getting bigger, and smaller, and farther away, and closer, and closer, then over there, and up” (26). Once again Sonny relates these experiences or visions to music and music being colors. It is really interesting what happens in Sonny’s head when he hears things and those sounds become visuals to him. I think Sonny’s episodes like this are a means of coping and relaxing. I’m still working on finding all of the evidence to support that.

Word Count: 522