What do you think of the word Fear? Have you ever wondered how much fear can change a person? In the short story,”Fear by Gary Soto” it describes the lives of two young fifth graders. Gary and Frankie and many other students from their class live in poverty and both their personalities are affected by fear. In the short story, the central theme is Fear and how it can affect one's actions or thoughts. The author helps us understand the theme of fear by showing us how Gary thinks when he is in a sticky situation with Frankie. “ I thought of running but knew he would probably catch me if not then, the next day. There was no way out of being a fifth grader — the daily event of running to teachers to show them your bloody nose. It was just a fact, …show more content…
If he pushed us down, we stayed on the ground with our eyes closed and pretended we were badly hurt. If he riffled through our lunch bags, we didn't say anything. He took what he wanted, after which we sighed and watched him walk away after peeling an orange or chewing big chunks of an apple.” (Soto Paragraph 8). This is important, because it shows that the students are afraid of Frankie and they do their best to avoid him at all costs. Frankie must be feared by everyone if just seeing him around the area makes the people around him avoid him. And if he does make contact with them, the students just accept it and try their best to not make much contact with him so they won’t get bullied or hurt. I think Frankie is the way he is because of the fragile and fearful background he lives in. In paragraph 9, it states,”We knew the house he lived in: The empty refrigerator, the father gone, the mother in a sad bathrobe, the beatings, the yearnings for something to love.” This scene describes his living experience as a place no one would ever want to live in. Having a bad family relationship, dealing with poverty, the beatings he has to suffer through, and the feeling of