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Literary Elements And Symbols In Gary Soto's The Jacket

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Finding a gift or a piece of clothing that is not what was expected or unappealing can be disappointing and can cause distractions on insubstantial stuff. Do I have to keep this? Can I get rid of this? Will everyone be looking at me when I have this with me? Do I have a choice? In Gary Soto’s “The Jacket” the young man receives a jacket he dislikes greatly and does not appeal to his wants. In addition, Soto uses literary elements, symbols and figurative language to influence the overarching theme that being concentrated on your self image can be a distraction to what needs to be done or needs to be the main focus. To begin, Soto uses a metaphor to influence the theme that being distracted by less important things like appearances instead of focusing on more important things. One event that shows this is when the main character is referring to the jacket as his ugly …show more content…

One event that displays is when he asked for a certain jacket and it had to look a certain way. Gary Soto explains “When I needed a new jacket and my mother asked what kind I wanted, I described something like bikers wear: black leather and silver studs…” This reveals he wants to be like everyone else and most people have something that has a certain look. In addition, the author shows he is upset with the jacket he got instead of the one he told his mother he wanted. Soto says “I discovered draped on my bedpost a jacket the color of day-old guacamole... From my bed, I stared at the jacket. I wanted to cry…” Soto only reinforces this idea with this quote. This may symbolize his culture because there are many other things that are green and guacamole is found in many Hispanic cultures. He wants to be like everyone else and is embarrassed of his culture. The point is focusing on how you look and your self image can sidetrack you from what is most

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