Both Cynthia and Marcus have a parent who does not acknowledge their situation, leading them to pursue destructive and disruptive behavior somewhere else. Cynthia Sower is known as a humorous, disruptive student by her classmates, yet she uses humor to disguise that she wants love and attention from her mother. It was 5 minutes before class ended, it was time for the one and only Cynthia "Say-So" Sower to put on a show in front of the class. This was the only way to keep Cynthia from disrupting and derailing the lesson” (Reynolds 137). According to the text, Cynthia is the humorous clown. Causing disruption, and adding humor, her classmates enjoy this, but Cynthia enjoys this more since she is getting attention from her classmates. Furthermore, when TJ and Jasmine are …show more content…
Cynthia jokes all the time since she gains laughter and smiles, but mostly, she gets attention. Since her mother was too busy to give her attention, Cynthia would get it from her classmates. Also, after school at 3:33 PM, Cynthia will do a comedy show. The reason for this comedy show was that at 3:33 pm, was for Cynthia's mother. She got off work as a barista at 3:00 and had school -- now graduate school -- at 4:15. She always went straight to class, but if for some reason she decided to skip, to take the day off, to give herself a break, Cynthia would be right there, standing on Cinder's Block” (Reynolds 149). Cynthia's behavior shows that she has this hope that her mother would either skip, take the day off, give herself a break, or come home early, Cynthia would be right there waiting for her. Additionally, Cynthia's desire for laughter and attention at school is due to the lack of laughter and attention at home. Although she gets attention and laughter from her classmates, what Cynthia wants is "a love thing with her mother, the way her grandfather had with Miss Fran -- through laughter” (Reynolds 144). All Cynthia ever wanted was