Gary Soto The Pie Rhetorical Analysis

He blames his theft of apples on the peer pressure he had when he did it. The lesson he learns here is that “friendship can be a dangerous enemy, a seduction of the mind. ” Like love, it must be subjected to reason if it is to be truly good.

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.

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.

Cesar Chavez, a civil rights leader fighting for improving pay and working conditions of farmers, employs the use of nonviolence resistance in his role as a leader of the United Farm Workers. As a child, Chavez and his family worked as farmers on a field as migrant workers who were most likely treated in an unjust manner and thus, he dedicated his life to improving the conditions for all farmers. To honor Martin Luther King Jr. on the 10th anniversary of his death, Chavez wrote to a religious magazine that helps people in need about the benefits of nonviolent resistance. Throughout his letter, Chavez applies rhetorical devices such as pathos, diction, and juxtaposition to persuade and inform people about how powerful and effective nonviolence techniques can be for civil rights.

The speaker’s attitude here of gratification is further demonstrated through imagery. Once again, the imagery, like the diction, is sensory. In the sentence, “I gave him persimmons, swelled, heavy as sadness, and sweet as love,” the reader can imagine, by the use of a simile, exactly what the speaker is trying to make us see. Other images that can be easily captured are the last lines, “the texture of persimmons, in your palm, the ripe weight.” The speaker also provides the reader with the color of the persimmon by comparing it to the sun. When he says, “my mother said every persimmon has a sun inside, something golden, glowing warm as my face,” he is trying to help us visualize exactly what this specific fruit looks and feels like. All of the information the speaker provides further proves his complete understanding of his past misconceptions, which thus show his attitude of contentment through recognition.

Letting go of comfortable, familiar feelings is a task many individuals are not willing to forget. For example, in the final paragraph of “Goodbye to my Twinkie Days” Nguyen writes that she may never eat the ten pack of Twinkies purchased. Even all throughout Nguyen’s story, in excerpts from the first paragraph to the last, it is made clear that Twinkies are not healthy nor a necessity. Nevertheless, the author knows that there is a certain comfort in knowing that in only a short trip to the top of the fridge, the tasty packaged “time machines” would always be there, whenever

Some people believe that lies will always be bitter in the end, no matter how sweet you make them in the beginning. In William Gass’ The Tunnel, he expounds the validity of this belief by taking the reader on an emotionally evolving journey, as he recounts the self-realization of a young boy, who’s frightening lie unravels in front of not only his own eyes, but also the readers. Gass successfully enriches this story with striking imagery, symbolism, and comparisons; exposing how no matter how sweet you make a lie in the beginning, it will always turn bitter in the end.

I feel that this specific piece by Soto is about this mind boggling relationship we have with our condition. Through portraying a made up animal in a made up world, Soto makes a representation for our humankind. We are never again individuals from nature and earth, we are our own result of a culture that has done only mischief our condition, we our kin who have wrecked our normal surroundings for an assembled situation. What Soto catches in this animal is our own particular humankind. Our purity and our expectation, this is what is brilliant and lively in his work. In spite of every one of our imperfections, people can love, to mind, and to support. For instance, in this piece the characters grin is significantly more considerate than the red animals, his eyes are gentler and he is encompassed by blossoms, regardless of the way that one can derive that his kind could be the motivation behind why the mountains are infertile. Something in Soto's work is cheerful. This is the expectation that there is trust. This expectation comes from resurrection, the cycle of life, the conviction that regardless of whether people were wiped off this planet that something may keep on living, to develop, to flourish. It is a conviction that life will preserver regardless of what since that is the normal request of things, regardless of whether this life isn't individual, it is still life despite everything it exists and that will never

Symbolism is what gives a story a deeper and more insightful meaning. It can be a person, object, action, place or an event that in addition to its literal meaning, suggests a more complex meaning or range of meanings. Throughout this short story, many things have been symbolized to a more in depth meaning. A major symbol in the story that is talked about over and over again is the curse. This curse symbolizes the need to complete unfinished business. When the overpowering feeling of hunger struck the husband, it instantly brought him back to the original bakery. Since he technically didn’t rob the original bakery, the curse was lingering over him to do so. This symbol relates back to the theme of choice because the husband had the choice of

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”

Throughout the story Soto feels guilty and seeks redemption because Soto steals the apple pie. His guilt is magnified when he thinks everyone knows of his sin, and starts to develop paranoia. The author’s attitude towards guilt affects how he is behaving. By using imagery and allusions Soto recreates the guilt felt by a young boy who has stolen an apple

Soto’s use of imagery serves as an aid to the reader to better understand the author’s perspective, which is that of a six-year-old boy. Prior to stealing the pie, the author uses imagery to describe his temptation to steal. “My sweet tooth gleaming and the juice of guilt wetting my underarms” (Soto 1). The imagery here illustrates both the irresistibility of the temptation to steal and the immaturity of the young boy as he can’t take his mind off of anything but what is in front of him. After stealing the pie, Soto

     As mentioned before diction was used along with other elements to help bring out the heart of the matter in Soto’s story. When Soto says he held the pie like a “discus” it makes one think that maybe he was ready to throw it like a Frisbee because at the time he was so nervous. Also, when Soto first steals the pie, he notices that the grocer’s forehead “shone with a window of light.” It seems because Soto is so nervous, he begins to notice every little detail of what is going on in front of him. Another example occurs when Soto is eating the pie and he declares that his teeth were “bathed with the jam-like filling.” This makes him look as if he is relishing every moment of eating the pie.

Moreover, the author induces imagery of different types to project his argument of lost innocence. The narrator expresses “I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to make interest in her wares seem the more real.” (Joyce 246). Kinesthetic imagery portrayed in the quote allows the reader to recognize the loss of innocence of the narrator due to the choices the narrator makes. The narrator decides to linger around because he understands the reality of the bazaar, which interposes his lost innocence.

Ultimately, here is a little girl who isn’t understanding why her mother is angry and why she has all this resentment towards the missionaries. She’s excited about the apples. Apples are something she doesn’t get