Cloyd

Cloyd is a perfect example of why so many other countries hate America. He is the stereotype of a dim-witted, closed minded, judgmental redneck who tries to put on a fake appearance at first with a fancy tie, suit and slicked back hair. He kind of reminds me of George W. Bush. Our ex-president has made America look so bad that everywhere I have traveled people glare at our group as soon as they hear our accents. He tries to put on the fake appearance of being experienced and intelligent, when really he is ignorant and judgmental. That typical Texas male is what Cloyd is. He tries to get Sonny to be just like him too and makes it hard on him to see his mom get treated and looked at the way she is. He has completely sexist and racist views on life, which I'm sure he got from his upbringings, but has no right to be pushing them on Sonny. He has made many comments on black people in the book and seems to even be a little judgmental of Mexican people when he says things like "My pretty Mexican gal" when talking to Sonny's mom. He is taking advantage of the fact that it is an old Mexican tradition for the wife of the family to be a great cook, stay at home with the kids and be subservient to their husband. Cloyd randomly will yell at his wife for the most mundane reasons too like when Sylvia complained to Sonny about "He cares about the toilet paper. How much is used...I don't think I knew anything like this" (50). It also seems like Sylvia wants to fit Cloyd's idea of this perfect Mexican house wife when she goes out and buys store bought Mexican food and he doesn't even notice. He is so oblivious and uneducated. He can't even tell the difference between store bought and home made food. He just expects Sylvia to sit at home and not be stimulated by everything. So much so, that she has to try to learn how to enjoy television to entertain herself and she has to lie about "going shopping" when she is actually going out to bars and getting some real human interaction. Cloyd seems like he tries to focus on looking manly and fulfilling all of these manly accomplishments like hunting and such because he doesn't have any individual, unique qualities that he could be proud of all on his own. Sonny describes him when he says "Cloyd parked his work truck, as grey and stiff as his starched uniform" (27). He tries to get Sonny to be more manly like him, filling his time with things like "One of the jobs Cloyd had made mine was to make sure the laundry room was cleaned up" (27). He wants Sonny to be this robot for him until he learns how to be a stereotypical manly man just like him. This way, he won't have any troubles with the way that Cloyd treats Sylvia.