Gary Soto’s The Jacket Essay - 1610 Words

All of us pass through adolescence before reaching adulthood. It is a crucial stage in everyone’s life that plays a big role in the adult life. â€Å"The Jacket† is a representation of Gary Soto’s adolescent life. It is a short story depicting his hardships as an adolescent as he battled with peer pressure and low self-esteem or lack of confidence caused by the ugly green jacket. The jacket serves as a symbol of his personal battles, growth, maturity, and his readiness to face the cold and harsh challenges in his life. The narrator strongly claimed that his clothes have failed him when he recalled the green jacket he wore on his fifth and sixth grade. He believed that instead of looking like a champion, his day-old guacamole colored jacket has†¦show more content†¦He got D on his math quiz and bullied by the playground bully Frankie T. while his best friend Steve Negrete did nothing but stare at him, and the girls turned away to whisper and talk about him. He also claimed that the teachers were of no help as they looked at him and talked about how foolish he looked like in his new jacket. He felt that they were all laughing and belittling him while wearing that awful jacket. During lunch time, he stepped out to the field and wanted to play kickball. Despite of the cold atmosphere, he removed his jacket and started playing. When the school bell rang he slipped back into his jacket and went to his class. As soon as he was able to warm up a bit, the fire bell rang that prompted everyone to go outside. As he queued outside, other children looked at him and again he felt as though they were all laughing and saying, Man, thats ugly(Soto, 474). Although he believed it was ugly, he continued wearing the jacket since he has no choice. All the more he felt bad because wicked things happen continuously. He was unable to do his homework, he got C’s in most of his quizzes, and he even forgot the capitals and rivers of South America. The girls who were previously friendly to him blew away like loose flowers following boys in neat jackets (Soto, 474). Despite of the bad lucks it caused him, he still wore the jacket for three years and has tagged along with him wherever he went. And all those years he was unluckyShow MoreRelated Fruits of Love Revealed in Gary Sotos Oranges Essay690 Words   |  3 PagesThe Fruits of Love Revealed in Gary Sotos Oranges  Ã‚   Imagine that its winter and cold outside. Theres nervous electricity around you, and love is a new and exciting experience. In your heart you feel warmth youve never known before. This is the moment Gary Soto captures in his poem Oranges. The feeling and power of adolescent love is created using tone, contrasting imagery, and symbolism. First, the use of tone in Oranges clearly helps to set the theme of the poem. Children oftenRead MoreZero By Paul Logan, I’m Just Me by Lylah Alphonse, and The Jacket by Gary Soto863 Words   |  4 Pagesself-esteem are the major aspects of those readings. After reading their writings I found that I could relate to their experiences. The three readings that got my attention were â€Å"Zero† By Paul Logan, â€Å"I’m Just Me† by Lylah Alphonse, and â€Å"The Jacket† by Gary Soto. In the reading â€Å"Zero,† Paul Logan is a student who struggled throughout his academic life by being a failure and having a 0.0 GPA. Logan was an A student and he eventually became a C student in his last years. He got disappointed and droppedRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Oranges And Small Town With One Road 1372 Words   |  6 Pagesthrough passion, prior experience and multiple outer influences. Gary Soto is a famous poet who blossomed in the late 20th century. Soto used different variations of poetry tools to create expressive poems based on his own life experience. While Soto wrote many different poems, the poems â€Å"Oranges† and â€Å"Small Town With One Road† stand out and can be deeply analyzed. Both poems are strongly emphasized with his past experiences in life. Gary Soto writes poems about hope, diversity and harshness of lifeRead MoreThe Jacket and Seventh Grade by Gary Soto677 Words   |  3 Pagesdifferent structures for their writings. Thi s can relate to Gary Soto’s â€Å"The Jacket† and â€Å"Seventh Grade†. â€Å"The Jacket† and â€Å"Seventh Grade† have different structures which build up their plot. Three main structural distinctions between â€Å"Seventh Grade† and â€Å"The Jacket† are their point of view, the setting, and the type of conflict. One transparent difference between â€Å"The Jacket† and â€Å"Seventh Grade† is their point of views. In â€Å"The Jacket†, Soto chose a first person narration, but for â€Å"Seventh Grade†Read MoreMy Free Time Decoding Crosswords Essay1541 Words   |  7 Pagesa poem allows me to form a deeper connection with not only the poem as a whole, but also the poet. The passion that projects out of Michael Lee’s voice as he performs â€Å"Pass On,† the anxious and innocent tone created by the short enjambment used by Gary Soto in â€Å"Oranges,† and the way that Mary Oliver finds peace in the beauty of nature throughout â€Å"Grass† leaves me with a countless amount of images that create a bridge connecting the personal experiences of the author to those of my own. Throughout