Author: Gary Soto
Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.
- Eddie, he's a nineteen year old Mexican boy that lives in a bad conditioned apartment in Fresno.He has lost his father, best friend, and recently his close cousin. Throughout the whole novel, Eddie was trying to find out who was the guy responsible for his cousin Jesus' death. Eventually that lead him to be apart from everyone and having issues trusting everyone else. Once he found out who was the one to blame, he got into a fight with him trying to get revenge for what had happened. This young man though, during his lifetime after his cousin's death, he had tried to become a better person but living where he was with gangsters and all the crime brought him so many obstacles that led him getting nowhere. He started off at a city college studying to be a air conditioner repairer but ended up dropping out. He had no job so he would just go around to work at whatever place that would offer him a job but that did not work for him either. Eddie finally made the decision to join the navy and that is where he ended up staying at.
Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
- The theme, I would say would be "No matter how hard you try, you can never get rid of your past--it will always follow you everywhere." The theme is reflected upon this novel in the way that the main character, Eddie, tried so hard to become a much better person but his past always came back to him in various ways.
Describe the author's tone. Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
- Gary Soto's tone in the novel to me would be like a hopeful but at the same time hopeless tone. Eddie, throughout the whole novel is just hopeful that life will turn out better for him, he doesn't want to be dealing with all the problems that he's had in the past but life for him is so hard that his past keeps coming back to him."For me there wasn't much to do except eat and sleep, watch out for drive-bys, and pace myself through life." This quote shows a little bit of a hopeful/hopeless tone in the way that he says it in the way that he hates living like that but really he can't do much about it. "No telling when someone was going to jam a knife in me. No telling when Angel would pull a gun from a paper bag and fire on me just as I crossed the street or bent down to tie my shoes." this quote again shows the hopeful tone in the way that he is like begging that none of this ever happens to him but shows hopelessness because he doesn't know if it will happen, when it will happen, or if it won't happen at all. Another quote that reflects the tone would be "I wanted to resemble a straight-ahead kind of dude, someone who had his act together." this quote shows full on hopefulness in the way that he wants to become a better person and actually says it.
Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone. Include three excerpts that will help your reader understand each one.
- Gary Soto wrote his novel in a similar way as most authors. He used many literary devices to get through his whole plot. Soto's diction was perfect for anyone who would have wanted to read this novel--it was not difficult whatsoever. He was very descriptive while writing the book which made it easy for his audience to understand. The author used a lot of imagery in which we could have pictured exactly what was going on in our heads. Other literary devices Soto used were irony, symbolism, and a couple similes here and there.
- “The sun was climbing over the trees of City College and soon the black asphalt would shimmer with vapors. I had a theory about those vapors, which were not released by the sun’s heat but by a huge onion buried under the city. This onion made us cry. Tears leapt from our eyelashes and stained our faces. Babies in strollers pinched up their faces and wailed for no reason. Perhaps as practice for the coming years. I thought about the giant onion, that remarkable bulb of sadness.”-Metaphor
- "I had no more than a couch and two chairs, college books that I intended to resell, a bed and dresser, and family pictures angled so they almost looked at each other. I had a print of a ship riding the ocean, its sail full, going somewhere."- Imagery
- "...with Angel's crucifix that he probably stole"-irony
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