Bronx Masquerade Traits
People all have different backgrounds, personalities, and thoughts, thus creating a different mask per person. For example: Sterling S. Hughes; his mask has to do with his religion, Gloria Martinez; has to live by chasing time, and Janelle Battle; who has many obstacles going on in her mind about herself. In Bronx Masquerade, out of all the introduced characters of the book, the characters who I connected with the most are Sterling S. Hughes, Gloria Martinez, and Janelle Battle.
Sterling S. Hughes was nicknamed “Preacher” by the other students, I have related to Sterling a lot more than all the other characters in the story. For starters, based on my understanding of his story, I realized that he hides his temperament, in this case anger, behind his mask of religion. I felt a connection to this because he was trying to follow the word of God, and following God can be difficult, as there are a lot of temptations. In the book Sterling states, “I stared down at my shoes, counting. One. Two. Three. Four. By the time I reached ten, I realized the counting was not going to suffice. I need you, Lord. Hold back the Samson in me. I may not have his strength, but you know I have his temper” (Grimes 88). Based on this, we can see how Sterling always does his best to get his temper under control and not let his emotions come up to the surface. I do this as well since I try my best to hide what I truly think and feel and be someone happy and calm, even though a lot of things trigger me. Not only that, but he has found himself in love with God, and wanting to do the right thing, all because he has seen the hand of God and this is what I related the most to with him. I’ve seen and experienced all the great things that God has done in my life and how even in the worst situations, he’s always helped me.
The next person in my character list is Gloria Martinez, a student with a whole different life outside of school. She is a mom. I don’t relate to her in that aspect, but Gloria, unlike many other students, has very limited time, and it’s all very hard for her to manage. “Even with Mami’s help, I hardly have time to study or do my homework” (Grimes 41). “It’s no more Gloria Loca, party girl. Fun ain’t even in my vocabulary anymore.” (Grimes 41). In these quotes you can see how Gloria has no time for anything anymore. Like Gloria, I don’t have time for fun, studying, or even sleeping. Unlike her, I spend my time working. Having the same routine every day, wake up, go to school, come home, do homework for an hour, go to work until 9 PM, finish homework, sleep and repeat the next day, weekends are even harder.
Lastly, Janelle Battle, she seemed odd to me in the beginning, comparing herself to everyone, and putting herself down. However, after reading more, I understood her a lot more than I would’ve liked, because I know what it’s like to compare yourself to everyone you know, and even strangers, people you just have a class with. “I wish, I wish, I wish, God, I wish people could see me on the inside. I know I’m beautiful there” (Grimes 49). In this quote, Janelle expresses how much she wishes people wouldn’t see and judge her from the outside but from the inside. I related to her in this part; I want to be judged based on my personality and not my looks. Another reason I related to Janelle was because she feels out of place, “When no one is looking, I check to see if anyone else seems as scared as me or as lonely or shy or insecure” (Grimes, 143). Here she expresses how she feels around everyone else, as if she was out of place. I understand how she feels, there are times when I feel very out of place and I just don't understand things that other people seem to grasp onto easily and quickly.
People all have different backgrounds, personalities, and thoughts, that build up their mask. Sterling S. Hughes' mask hides his anger. Gloria Martinez, chasing time while it seems to be running out. Janelle Battle, who has many comparisons to others going on in her mind. I was able to relate to these characters and their traits above all of the other characters introduced to us in Bronx Masquerade.