ipl-logo

The Jacket By Gary Soto Analysis

871 Words4 Pages

Grateful is when someone shows that they are thankful. It could be that someone is thankful for an item that they have or their friends and family. In “The Jacket” by Gary Soto a boy receives a jacket that he is ungrateful about when he should be grateful for it. The boy asked for a bikers wear: black leather and silver studs. Except he receives a jacket the color of a day old guacamole. The theme of “The Jacket” is people need to be grateful for what they have because without life could be worse. The theme in “The Jacket” is supported by symbolism, conflict, and tone. First, the symbolism in “The Jacket” supports the overarching theme: people need to be grateful for what they have because without it their life could be worse. In fact, the …show more content…

In fact, the boy is in a situation where his life could be not as bad but, he decides to make his life more worse by not the wearing the jacket. Soto explains “Even though it was cold, I took off the jacket during lunch and played kickball in a thin shirt, my arms feeling like Braille from goosebumps.” The boy knows that he will be cold but he decides that he would rather be cold then wear this ugly jacket. Also, this shows how much he disliked his jacket and that relates to the theme, how ungrateful he is. Soto doesn’t reveal why exactly he took the jacket off. For all the readers know there could have people around he wanted to impress. However, the boy finally comes the his senses that he needs to put the jacket on. Gary Soto says “but when I returned to class I slipped the jacket on and shivered until I was warm. I sat on my hands, heating them up, while my teeth chattered like a cup of crooked dice.” The boy knows that he is just making his life worse by not putting the jacket on; in the sense that he would be cold the rest of the day. Eventually, he decides to wear it. This may open up an opportunity for him to be a little more grateful for his green ugly jacket. The conflict that Soto uses shows that the boy is ungrateful and his life is worse without his

Show More
Related
338 Words | 2 Pages

Soto explains in “The Jacket” that when he was a young boy he asked for a biker jacket, a simple enough request, or so he thought. The jacket his mother purchased for him was the furthest thing from his request. Soto’s new jacket was an oversized, vinyl, green, disaster just waiting to happen. He finally accepted he would have to wear this new jacket for a while, owing to his small frame. Soto politely thanked his mother for the new article of clothing, and went outside to play with his dog.

Read More
408 Words | 2 Pages

Stephen Ambrose, author of “Undaunted Courage,” uses several key points to describe his purpose in the fourth chapter of his book titled “Thomas Jefferson’s America.” He His uses 3 main points to get his purpose of persuading the reader across. The three main points he uses are: Language, people, and events. of language, people, and events is used to give the reader a sense of persuasion. But how exactly does Ambrose give these points across?

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

Theme 1.1: Envy. In Knowles’s coming of age book, “A Separate Peace”, there are lots of mishaps that happen and the beginning of these mishaps is when one of his main characters, Gene, starts thinking malicious things about Phineas, his friend. It started out as a small inkling of envy, suddenly later on in the book, it turned into something that resembled a fractious disaster. As the chapters progress, Gene shows the readers his way of thinking towards Phineas, by describing his “unexpected excitement” (27) when Phineas was about to receive a scolding from Mr. Patch-Wither, the substitute headmaster of Devon during the summer session. Surprisingly, when Phineas (aka Finny) further explained why he wore the school tie as a belt,

Read More
391 Words | 2 Pages

In the essay “Being Mean” from Living up the Street by Gary Soto, the tone is tense and mischievous based on the author’s diction and the use of repetition. Gary Soto describes his childhood as being very violent and gives details about how it is so: “Rick and I and the Molinas all enjoyed looking for trouble and often went to extremes to try and get into fights.” By Soto saying this, it represents how mischievous he was as a child. Moreover, the title of his essay “Being Mean” fits the tone of being mischievous perfectly because the definition of mean is for someone to go out of their way to cause you pain, which he does, but in a mischievous way. Furthermore, Gary Soto also uses repetition to let the reader know how he feels about certain

Read More
697 Words | 3 Pages

In Chapter 9-14 Holden Caulfield leaves Penecy Prep and heads to New York City. Where he will stay for a couple days before winter vacation starts and he will head home. Delaying breaking the news to his family he got kicked out of school for as long as possible. These chapters are where Holden’s loneliness becomes abundantly clear. The reader is subjected to many long rants by Holden about the company he wants, though he attempts to settle several times.

Read More
584 Words | 3 Pages

Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affect him. Gene is mostly affected emotionally rather than affected physically, “I looked for and finally found his pink shirt.. It’s high, somewhat stiff collar against my neck, the wide cuffs touching my wrists” (Knowles 62). That piece of evidence explains how emotionally he was affected by guilt and he is continued by wearing his clothes. Gene’s envy and imitation of Finny affects him by him ending up losing his real best friend.

Read More
508 Words | 3 Pages

On the other hand, Mr. Sanderson feels that shoes bring him back to his youth. When Douglas had him try on the tennis shoes, he felt his "mouth hung slightly open. Slowly he gentled and rocked himself to a halt... and they stood there looking at each other in a tremendous and natural silence. " When reminiscing about memories of wearing sneakers as a child, Mr. Sanderson feels immense delight trying them on once again. Even if Douglas has to teach Mr. Sanderson about the pleasure of sneakers again, they are both able to find happiness within the occasion.

Read More
639 Words | 3 Pages

In the end, Gene is getting affected through the use of envy and intimidation, and it’s hurting his relations with Finny. In the novel, “A Separate Peace”, Gene’s envy and intimidation affects his relations with Finny. One way the relationship is affected is by Gene trying on FInny’s clothes, giving him a boost of confidence. In the story, it states,”...that I will never stumble through the confusions of my own character again.” (Knowles 54.)

Read More
897 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever read Baseball in April and Other Stories, but have no idea who the author is? Baseball in April and Other Stories is by Gary Soto and is one of his best-selling and most famous works. Who is Gary Soto? Gary Soto is a Mexican American author who writes his work mainly from the many experiences he has had in his life. Gary has become one of the most important contemporary authors throughout his life.

Read More
1308 Words | 6 Pages

Holden Caulfield lives his life as an outsider to his society, because of this any we (as a reader) find normal is a phony to him. Basically, every breathing thing in The Catcher in the Rye is a phony expect a select few, like Jane Gallagher. What is a phony to Holden and why is he obsessed with them? A phony is anyone who Holden feels is that living their authentic life, like D.B. (his older brother). Or simply anyone who fits into society norms, for example, Sally Hayes.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

In Gary Soto’s short story ‘Growing Up,” the main character, Maria, says, “‘I know, I know. You’ve said that a hundred times,’ she snapped.” Maria is acting ungrateful because she doesn’t want to go on vacation with her family and she is arguing with her father about it instead of being grateful for what she has. Being grateful is feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness and being thankful. In the story Maria argues with her father about not wanting to go on vacation with her family and claims that she is old enough to stay home by herself.

Read More
710 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

In the article the boy says,”That green ugly brother who breathed over my shoulder that day and ever since.” He realizes that not everything you get is the most beautiful thing ever. You have to work with what you have get and have to enjoy it while you can because you have memories, good or bad in and with everything. Next, the article states, “I stared at the jacket, like an enemy, thinking bad things before I took off my old jacket whose sleeves climbed halfway to my elbow.” This connects to the above quote because he classifies the jacket as an enemy then later he calls it a brother which shows he finally understands that he needs the jacket to stay warm.

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

First, the symbolism in "The Jacket" supports the overarching theme that the clothes one wears, affect how a person feels. In fact, the main character even tries to get rid of the jacket, throwing it over the fence to the alley. Soto says, “Later, however, I swiped the jacket off the ground and went inside to drape it across my lap and mope.” In this, Soto is saying that the main character will always have

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story, “Seventh Grade,” by Gary Soto, the author pokes fun at the seventh grade boys in the beginning of a school year. The main characters are Victor, Michael, Mr. Bueller, and Teresa, a girl Victor has a crush on. In the end, Victor learns that is it is always best to be himself. The author describes how Victor attempts to impress his dream girlfriend, Teresa.

Read More

More about The Jacket By Gary Soto Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document