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Gary Soto Behind Grandma's House Analysis

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In his poem “Behind Grandma’s House,” Gary Soto details the life and daily routine of a somewhat masochistic ten year old boy as he kicks over trash cans, terrorizes cats, and drowns ant colonies with his own urine. In many ways the boy acts as any other boy his age would be expected to, but he tends to go further than most young boys with his actions and descriptions of how he feels. This extra violence and destructive tendency the narrator exhibits can lead the reader to believe that, rather than being a typical child, he strongly craves attention due to his circumstances, and he is willing to act out and act obscenely in order to receive that attention. Throughout the poem the narrator details all the things he does to prove how tough he is, many …show more content…

The speaker’s grandmother is originally presented in a way that causes the ending to be a surprise, saying, “Her apron flapping in a breeze, her hair mussed, and said, ‘Let me help you’” (21-22). The imagery of the apron blowing in the wind characterizes her as calm, and when she offers to help her grandson, she seems to be caring and helpful. Once she punches the speaker, this description of her changes entirely from one of serenity and care to a sarcastic description with much more meaning than before. The fact that the grandmother handles her grandson’s behavior in this witty, decisive way raises the possibility that this behavior is very common and she has grown accustomed to handling it in a way that she deems to be effective; however, it is clearly an ineffective method, evidenced by the continued behavior that causes her to punish the speaker in this manner in the first place. It is likely ineffective not because the speaker is not learning about the consequences for his actions, but rather because he

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Gary Soto the writer of the poem Behind Grandma's House stats off the poem by saying "at ten I wanted fame. " This gives the reader comprehension that the poem is a flashback to when the speaker was a young boy. The title Behind Grandma's House gives the reader knowledge about the poem's setting before reading it, also that Grandma may be in the poem. Soto writes the poem is in free verse form in first person. All through the poem, Soto writes about a young child coming of age, by doing pointless and asinine things.

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When we look at the grandmother in the story, we see many traits of which cause problems and precarious situations. The grandmother when looked at closely is the main reason that all the problems in the story happened. In the beginning of the story she displays a stubborn attitude and shows a spirit of independency; maybe too much. She carefully sneaks her cat into the car, and later down the road the cat sneaks out, jumps on the drivers face, and causes them to have a wreck. As seen in the article “A Good Man is Hard To Find” it states “The grandmother never turns her critical eye on herself to inspect her own hypocrisy, dishonesty, and selfishness.

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