A Summer Life By Gary Soto Essay

The story of Summer, by David Updike, is set during that idyllic time in life when responsibility is the last word on anyone's mind. And yet, as with all human affairs, responsibility is an ever-present and ever-necessary aspect to life. What happens when the protagonist, Homer, loses his awareness of a certain personal responsibility to maintain self-control? Homer's actions increasingly make him act foolishly, internally and externally. Also, how does Homer return to a sense of sanity and responsibility? To a degree, I would say that he does.

“‘No one saw,’ I muttered to myself, the pie like a discus in my hand, and hurried across the street where I sat on someone’s lawn.”

Each description he gives of the pie, himself, and the way he felt conjures up vivid images for the reader. He describes chocolate pie as being his “dear fat-faced” friend, explaining his struggle to resist temptation. The “juice of guilt,” also known as perspiration, represents

In the autobiographical narrative “The Pie” by Gary Soto, the author recreates the experience of his guilty six-year-old self as he describes his first experience with stealing. He effectively portrays his worst sin through his use of contrast, repetition, and imagery. While contrast describes the existence of both the Holy ways and temptation of human desires that Soto faces, repetition emphasizes the guilt that he is feeling, and imagery aids the reader in imagining the guilt and satisfaction that Soto is feeling through the eyes of a six-year-old.

In his autobiographical narrative A Summer Life, Gary Soto vividly recreates the guilt felt by a six- year-old boy who steals an apple pie. Through Soto’s reminiscent he has taken us on a journey of his guilt, paranoia, and redemption through the usage of tone, allusions, and imagery.

Throughout the autobiographical narrative written by Gary Soto, many different literary elements are used to recreate the experience of his guilty six-year old self. Different elements such as contrast, repetition, pacing, diction, and imagery. Soto narrates this story as a young boy at a time when he seems to be young and foolish, Soto foolmaking mistakes, but at the same time hoping to learn from them. Soto uses each of these devices to convey different occurrences in the narrative.

Have you ever been on a vacation? To me a vacation is a time to be with friends or family. When I think of vacations, I think of packing, the flight or drive, and relaxation. Not only is it very exciting to go on a vacation, but you get closer to the people that go with you.

Authors often create texts that share common themes to teach readers importance of certain aspects and hardships of life. Theme may be expressed through an author’s use of rhetorical devices and many other contributing factors such as figurative language and repetition. The essay, “Once More to the Lake” written by E.B. White and the poem “Forgetfulness” written by Billy Collins, both contain a theme of identity loss. In “Once More to the Lake” E.B White connects to a lake at young age and when returning with his son years later is unable to identify himself. In similar theme “Forgetfulness” describes different factors of human life and everyday things being forgotten and lost. Both White and Collins use repetition and metaphors to further push the theme of identity loss throughout the texts.

In “Summer Life”, Gary Soto takes the reader through a guilt-filled day from his childhood. He describes himself at 6 years old stealing a pie. Utilizing Biblical allusions, Vivid Imagery, and an immaculate diction

The author uses imagery to interest the reader in her story that may seem mundane without the imagery. An example of this happening is when Jeannette is going to her new school in Welch it was her first day and the teacher picks on her because she did not have to give the school her records to her not having them as that is happening a tall girl stabs her out of nowhere“I felt something sharp and painful between my shoulder blades and turned around. The tall black girl with the almond eyes was sitting at the desk behind me.

Throughout the text, he seems to be confused and gets caught between his thoughts for the girl versus his spiritual thoughts. Specifically for the chalice imagery, I found this to be associated with the boy's obsession to the girl. The way the chalice is held is the way the boy wishes to hold the girl. I think the religious imagery of the apple tree is associated with the boy’s temptation and loss of innocence for the girl. The boy has already given in spiritually to the girl by having lust for her, therefore he feels though he has bitten the forbidden fruit and lost his knowledge; his initial knowledge of knowing Christ. The boy is willing to risk his spiritual life all for the sake of the girl. For the salver mentioned, I think the boy associated the salver to religion by the stark image of mixing money in with this. Money and religion are never good together. The last religious imagery is the description of his setting which associates his religious experience with his personal life. He has an essential relationship with Christ and therefore spends a lot of his time in

In the short story “All Summer in a Day”, the author Ray Bradbury uses sensory imagery such as sight and sound to describe the setting of his version of planet Venus and to describe the children. He then uses the absence of sensory imagery when describing Margot to create contrast which helps us understand the idea that people who are different are ostracised and hated.

Often times in life, people begin to appreciate relationships when reflecting on one’s previous actions and regretting what one has done. In “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden describes how a son remembers his father’s sufferings and sacrifices that he did not appreciate in the past. Hayden uses visual and auditory imagery, personification, alliteration, and drastic shifts in tone to show how the son recognizes his father’s physical and emotional pain, and regrets his former indifference.

In “Just as the Summer Began to Say Summer” the author uses harsh repetitive language and mechanical references in order to reveal her perception of a school environment which helps the reader realize the negative component in the education system.

The summer time is a lot of fun, but it is a lot of work for me. I usually do not get to do too much as a teenager because I am always busy. The good part about the summer is I like my work and it makes me plenty of money to last the year of school. My summer this year consisted of working, sports camps, and little bit of camping at the river.