In Gary Soto’s short story “The Jacket” the main character, the boy in the jacket, vows “ I spent my sixth-grade year in a tree in the alley, waiting for something good to happen to me in that jacket, which had become the ugly brother who tagged along wherever I went.” The boy blames his jacket for all the struggles that happened to him and he believes that the jacket brought him bad luck. Soto uses this to support the theme because the boy is being distracted by the jacket. Which makes him not try to improve his life. Soto uses literary elements, symbolism, and conflict to support the overarching theme: focusing on the small things like appearances can distract society from the bigger more important things. First and foremost, the literary element in “The Jacket” supports the overarching theme, focusing on the small things like appearances can distract humainity from the bigger more important things. In fact, the boy distracts himself with the small things like his jacket, therefore his life was filled with conflict and hard times. Soto explains, “I blame that jacket for those bad years. I blame my mother for her bad taste and cheap ways. It was a sad time for the heart.” The boy struggled during in his life, and instead of taking the blame for his troubles he blamed it on his mother and his green jacket. This difficulty could relate back to something that happened in his childhood that affected him. The boy may have had a hard life experience that made him struggle and