Cynthia

Cynthia is a twenty-five-year-old social worker. She is married to Sonny-man. Cynthia is a middleclass, educated, African-American woman, whose attitude toward Tommy, like that of Bill and Sonnyman, is arrogant and patronizing. She and Sonnyman meet Tommy in a bar, where they recognize her as the image of a down-and-out woman Bill is looking to paint. They take Tommy to Bill's apartment without explaining why and allow her to believe that she is being set up with Bill as a romantic interest. Thus, although she and Tommy are both African-American women, Cynthia demonstrates a lack of respect for Tommy, allowing her to be used by a man whose attitude toward her is insulting.

When the men leave, Cynthia and Tommy have a discussion that demonstrates Cynthia's ideas about how African-American women should behave in their relationships with men. She tells Tommy that she is too coarse and unfeminine...