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In "Raymond's Run," what can we infer about Cynthia Proctor?

In Toni Cade Bambara's short story "Raymond's Run," Cynthia Proctor is a character who Squeaky, the narrator, talks about. Readers never meet this character directly. Squeaky gives readers enough information about her to infer that she is prideful and pretentious. 


Cynthia is prideful because she wants to draw attention to herself and her many talents. She wants other people to think that her academic and musical talents are effortless and come naturally to her.


Cynthia is pretentious because she goes to great lengths to be noticed. She "accidentally on purpose" gets knocked around so it looks like she just falls onto the piano stool, and then begins playing complicated pieces. She wants everyone to think she is casually amazing, but in reality, she is designing scenarios so she can draw attention to herself in various ways.



"Now you take Cynthia Procter for instance. . . If there’s a test tomorrow, she’ll say something like, “Oh, I guess I’ll play handball this afternoon and watch television tonight,” just to let you know she ain’t thinking about the test. Or like last week when she won the spelling bee for the millionth time, “A good thing you got ‘receive,’ Squeaky, cause I would have got it wrong. I completely forgot about the spelling bee.” And she’ll clutch the lace on her blouse like it was a narrow escape. Oh, brother. But of course when I pass her house on my early morning trots around the block, she is practicing the scales on the piano over and over and over and over.



The second mention of Cynthia Proctor comes at the end of the story, when Squeaky is waiting to see who won the race. This is after she has seen Raymond run for the first time, and is thinking about the possibility of training Raymond to be a runner. She thinks about what else she could do besides running, and thinks about the fact that Raymond doesn't have anything to cling to that gives him hope and purpose. She thinks,



After all, with a little more study I can beat Cynthia and her phony self at the spelling bee.



She calls Cynthia phony because of the false modesty she displayed at the Spelling Bee. Cynthia made a big production about letting people know that she doesn't practice or expend a lot of effort on the subjects at which she excels. Squeaky knows this isn't true, as she passes by Cynthia practicing musical scales on the piano repeatedly, then sees her act surprised by her own ability to play the piano in school.

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