A+Crush+Response

“A Crush” Response Down Syndrome is capable of doing many things, even preventing relationships. Cynthia Rylant's “A Crush” is about Ernie, a man who has Down Syndrome and has led a rather depressing life, who has a crush on Dolores, a buff woman who knows more about a car than anyone in the city, and he sends her flowers every day to express his feelings. In this story, the main characters go through many changes. Dolores started out as a friendly, but tough as nails kind of woman who worked in a hardware store: “... carpenters and plumbers and painters took her advice to heart. They also liked her tattoo.” As Ernie's relentless storm of flowers continued, they started to grow on Dolores. One day, after yet another bunch of flowers from Ernie, Dolores came to work wearing a white blouse as opposed to a T-shirt, and she wore blouses ever since.

Ernie was a miserable man who really loved his precious seeds. That was until Jack, a college student who worked at Ernie's mental hospital, told him that seeds grow into plants. Ernie was more impressed by the seeds, but he still would not give them up: “He could not let the garden have his seeds.” It wasn't until he saw Dolores that he chose to plant his seeds. He would then leave the plant at the door of Stan's Hardware every Wednesday for the rest of that summer. Jack also took Ernie to his first outside restaurant: Bob's Big Boy. This helped build Ernie's social skills around people: “Their first time in the Big Boy, Ernie was too nervous to eat. The second time, he could eat, but couldn't look up. The third time, he not only ate everything on his plate, but he lifted his head and he looked out the window of the Big Boy restaurant toward Stan's Hardware across the street.” While Dolores contributed somewhat to Ernie's change, it was really Jack who truly **changed** him. Both of these characters went under massive changes, but the one I found the most surprising was Dolores'. She went from this tomboyish, beefy girl into this cleaner, more feminine woman. Sure Dolores' change was more surprising than Ernie's, but that doesn't mean it was a bigger change.