Gary Soto

Raised in Arvin and one of my former classmates, Gurrola comes from a family of Mexican immigrants and understands the disparities my community faces. In an effort to increase access to higher education, Gurrola contributed to the passage of a county proposition allocating funds to establish a community college campus in Arvin. Additionally, he has collaborated with community organizations by increasing access to clean drinking water and has demonstrated support towards immigrant rights when announcing the city would not use its resources to enforce deportation orders.

He also had a desire to help the least advantaged in society. While teaching Mexican-American children in Cotulla, Texas, that exposed him to poverty and discrimination.

“[I] walked to the door, grinning to the bald grocer whose forehead shone with a window of light...Tears blurred my eyes as I remembered the grocer’s forehead” (Soto 1-2). This repetition expresses that Soto is having trouble forgetting the person he affected with the crime, implying that he is generally an innocent boy that is suffering from a deeply guilty conscience. Repetition can again be seen as Soto continually glances at the pie tin after he had scarfed it down. “The pie tin glared at me and rolled away...I looked and saw the glare of the pie tin” (Soto 2). The pie tin, now serving as a physical symbol of his sin, constantly reminds the author that he did something morally wrong and permanent; the fact that Soto mentions seeing the empty pie tin more than once emphasizes just how much guilt the young boy is now feeling. These moments of repetition ultimately reveal Soto’s extremely paranoid mind that is filled with regret from stealing.

He “knew enough about hell to stop [him] from stealing” and was “holy in almost every bone”. Soto’s diction makes it clear that his younger self was well behaved because he was scared of the consequences of sin, but not necessarily because he wanted to be good. It also implies that even fear could not stop the most mischievous parts of him. Regardless of his willingness to behave, the young Soto truly believed in a God, and often saw “shadows of angels” and heard “faraway messages in the plumbing”. These symbols appear throughout the passage in order to show how sin changed Soto’s interpretation of them. The narrative continues, and the young boy stands in a German Market, staring at pies. As he ponders which type to steal, the “juice of guilt” wets his armpits and he “nearly [weeps] trying to decide”. This imagery of wetness is associated with his sin, and strongly contrasts the dryness of “the flowery dust priests give off”. The opposing wet and dry imagery show that the boy is sometimes bored with the dryness of religion, but the possibility of stealing a pie both terrifies and excites him. Once again, he is reminded of “the proximity of God howling in the plumbing”

Since Soto knows stealing the pie is a sin his guilt is amplified when he ignores his knowledge. Soto’s guilt is emphasized through the tone of the story, “my sweet tooth gleaming and the juice of my guilt wetting my underarms… I nearly wept trying to decide which to steal.” By Soto’s tone towards the pies over exaggerating on which one to steal shows that he is nervous and anxious.

They are obviously used to show that Soto is nervous and moving around quickly because there is a lot of action going on at the time. However, in the some of the last paragraphs there are many more complex sentences, which are used to show that Soto has returned to his state of boredom and also to express that there is not much going on inside Soto’s head..

Gary Soto’s tone is filled with resentment for the evil deed he has accomplished. Realizing his actions and seeking forgiveness, this shows how innocent and spirit-minded he tended to be as a 6-year-old boy. It’s essential for people to sort their evil doings and aim to make up for them. This will make you feel better and not be loaded with torment and torture of disastrous ponderings.

I mention it because, in this story we can find my three main points that I am going to talk about. Happiness is an important part to be a successful family, because if we are not happy in our home, with our family, then we will have a hard time to find happiness in our daily life as well. In Gary Soto’s story, when the kid is trying to be the perfect family, as shown in the Tv shows, with eating dinner and speaking politely to each other. His mother denied his idea really quick so as you read, he started working. I think he was completely wrong, and he realized that as well after a while. We do not need to be like other “perfect” families to be able to be happy. It does not matter if we are wearing a nice suit, or a bathing suit to the dinner,

Soto’s writings in this passage construct a tone which gives a feeling of concern, due to his family and also his friend Scott to disapprove of a relationship only because of social class and race. The tone portrayed can be perceived when he has discussions with his family about who is the right woman to marry

Soto talks about sacrifice, and we all go through that. What we do to please other people. The boy had to give up his orange because he didn't have enough money. He told his girlfriend that she can chose any kind of candy found in the isle, and she chose a chocolate bar that cost a dime, now the boy only had a nickel and a pair of oranges in his pocket. Instead of feeling embarrassed and cheep in front of his new girl, the boy decided to put up the nickel and an orange on the counter for the saleslady.

One major trademark of Gary Soto’s works is his use of the importance of family in his stories. Readers can feel and understand his passion and appreciation for family. Often, Gary uses family to tell stories about his upbringing and as a sense of pride in his stories. In A Summer Life, he says, “My brother showed me his palm, where a sliver had gone in quick as a stitch on a sewing machine when he climbed the rabbit hutch at the Molinas’ house” (Soto 14). This quote is an example of his close relationship to his family and his adventurous upbringing in Fresno, California. Later in A Summer Life, Soto says, “My face was hot, my hair sweaty, but nothing scary seemed to happen” (Soto 20). This quote once again shows that Soto had a very adventurous upbringing, and he enjoyed being able to go out and explore for himself at a young age. Soto’s family life has always been important to him, but his family life has also suffered heartbreak and adversity. According

Gary Yamamoto has said ¨Once I got into it and learned all the aspects--the health as well as the good taste, I was hooked¨.He is referring to catching bass which this sparked his career as a professional bass fisherman. Gary Yamamoto is a famous, professional bass fisherman, born august 5th 1943. But he did not grow up fishing he started bass fishing when he was around the age of 30 he went thru college and the air force before he Became the great angler he is today. He has placed in some of the top bass fishing tournaments in the world such as the oklahoma central invitational, Texas invitational, and the FLW world premier. He started out as a cattle farmer but then finally worked his way up to the pros. Although he is a great Angler he has own thing than separates him from the rest of his competitors It is the sinko (or the plastic

In the poem “Behind Grandma’s House”, Gary Soto writes about an experience he had as a young boy. He speaks of himself as being a nerdy Spanish boy who wants attention. He screams out for attention by acting out in negative ways. Most know, to bring attention to one’s self, one can acquire it by acting negatively or positively, but negative attention brings punishment. Soto obtains his grandmothers attention at the end of the poem, but he may have regretted it. Gary Soto’s “Behind Grandma’s House” is a 1952 free verse poem that uses imagery to suggest the speaker’s perspective of the story.

The speaker addresses the dilemma of being neither Mexican nor American, of traveling the trajectory between both nationalities. Because he its color of the skin and lived in a border culture, it was often assumed that he was not an American. The speaker is a men looking for freedom and a better future, an element so well-known that he is willing to risk everything to achieve his goal. There is no need for Soto to run because he is an American. Soto’s poem is emotionally and a practical clever story that many Mexicans Americans relate too.

Gary Soto, who among many things was a Mexican-American poet, many times wrote about what he knew best: his life. Growing up as a Chicano in America in the 50s and 60s, Soto worked in fields as a laborer from a young age. It is evident that coming from a Hispanic working class family greatly influenced his poem “Ambition”. As he is known for, Soto's poem is filled with imagery of everyday life, while harping on important details and themes of things that he may have seen around him., but in this instance, there was a bit of confusion. To begin with, the poem “Ambition” starts off with the line "For years our ambition was to eat/Chicken"(1-2). Without further analysis, at this point the reader is most likely confused, much like I was. Chicken? How could eating be one's goal, one's aspiration in life? The word ambition is usually associated with lofty goals. It would not seem out of place to say that one's ambition was to become a doctor or to make a better life for oneself. So the speaker in the poem could not truly believe that all that he wanted in life was to eat chicken. The outlandishness of this statement seems to be the speaker pointing huge arrows towards places in the poem that invoke deeper meaning to