Oranges by Gary Soto Essay - 653 Words

Oranges By Gary Soto Gary Soto was born April 12, 1952, in Fresno, California to Mexican-American parents. His grandparents emigrated from Mexico during the Great Depression and found jobs as farm laborers. Soto grew up poor in the San Joaquin Valley and learned that hard work pays off through chores, such as moving lawns, picking grapes, painting houses, and washing cars. When Gary was five his father died as the result of a factory accident, and his mother was left to raise her three children with the help of her parents. Soto describes his family as an illiterate family. They did not have books and were not encouraged to read. In fact, Gary did not start writing poetry until he was in college. He also is an author of†¦show more content†¦Brightness shows how much power the orange actually has. The references in the story build up the power of the orange. Soto talks about sacrifice, and we all go through that. What we do to please other people. The boy had to give up his orange because he didnt have enough money. He told his girlfriend that she can chose any kind of candy found in the isle, and she chose a chocolate bar that cost a dime, now the boy only had a nickel and a pair of oranges in his pocket. Instead of feeling embarrassed and cheep in front of his new girl, the boy decided to put up the nickel and an orange on the counter for the saleslady. Oranges are rare in the winter and their encounter might be precious. They convey a powerful feeling. Making fire in the hands represents that he is in love. That he feels God like, he feels tough like he can do it all when hes around his girlfriend. The tone of the poem is simple with broken down sentences. Adolescent love is simple much like childhood love. There are the sweaty hands, heavy breathing, butterflies in the stomach, but when kids fall in love, its not true love, it most likely is just a crush. The words that are used in the poem are not complex but short and meaningful. When reading between the lines, and reading the poem more than twice, it is much easier to put two and two together and have a betterShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Oranges And Small Town With One Road 1372 Words   |  6 Pagesthrough passion, prior experience and multiple outer influences. Gary Soto is a famous poet who blossomed in the late 20th century. Soto used different variations of poetry tools to create expressive poems based on his own life experience. While Soto wrote many different poems, the poems â€Å"Oranges† and â€Å"Small Town With One Road† stand out and can be deeply analyzed. Both poems are strongly emphasized with his past experiences in life. Gary Soto writes poems about hope, diversity and harshness of life, becauseRead MoreGary Soto1452 Words   |  6 PagesFinal Essay: Gary Soto Gary Soto, born on April 12th, 1952 is a proud Mexican-American that grew up in a very low class neighborhood in Fresno, California with both of his parents (Gillespie, Becker 100). Soto exclaimed that he was marginal kid; this means that he could have either ended up in prison or easily graduate from college. He put forth more effort in other things than school, such as girls or work. As a child and teen Mr. Soto was never interested in his schooling but he tried hisRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Oranges And First Kiss 1062 Words   |  5 PagesPrompt #1: Compare and Contrast â€Å"Oranges† and â€Å"First Kiss† The poems â€Å"Oranges† by Gary Soto and Pamela Moore’s â€Å"First Kiss† share many common elements. I will examine comparable attributes of these poems such as the correlation between love and warmth or light and the poet’s ability to encourage the reader to re-experience events in their own lives. These poems also share many commonalities in their settings which are cold and wintery. The poems also offer a contrasting point of view in the differentRead More Fruits of Love Revealed in Gary Sotos Oranges Essay690 Words   |  3 PagesThe Fruits of Love Revealed in Gary Sotos Oranges  Ã‚   Imagine that its winter and cold outside. Theres nervous electricity around you, and love is a new and exciting experience. In your heart you feel warmth youve never known before. This is the moment Gary Soto captures in his poem Oranges. The feeling and power of adolescent love is created using tone, contrasting imagery, and symbolism. First, the use of tone in Oranges clearly helps to set the theme of the poem. Children oftenRead MoreMy Free Time Decoding Crosswords Essay1541 Words   |  7 Pagesallows me to form a deeper connection with not only the poem as a whole, but also the poet. The passion that projects out of Michael Lee’s voice as he performs â€Å"Pass On,† the anxious and innocent tone created by the short enjambment used by Gary Soto in â€Å"Oranges,† and the way that Mary Oliver finds peace in the beauty of nature throughout â€Å"Grass† leaves me with a countless amount of images that create a bridge connecting the personal experiences of the author to those of my own. Throughout the breathtakingRead MoreGary Soto s The San Joaquin Valley2143 Words   |  9 PagesKatelynn Pilon 11th Adv Literature Ms. Brown December 20th 2016 Gary Soto â€Å"Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in April, 1952, to working-class Mexican-American parents. At a young age, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. He was not academically motivated as a child, but became interested in poetry during his high school years.† Soto uses his cultural experiences lead him to write about his character how he does and throughout all of his short stories, books, and poems heRead MoreLike Mexicans By Gary Soto935 Words   |  4 PagesIn the story, †Like Mexicans† by author Gary Soto explains how he was always told him to marry a girl from his same ethnicity, but unexpectedly fell in love and married a Japanese girl. Sotos grandmother advised him to marry a girl that fitted the stereotype of a Mexican girl. He decided to ask his mom about the issue. His mom agreed that if he were to find a righteous Mexican women to marry her. Soto decides to ask Scott as well, who happened to be a second generation okie. An okie wa s what hisRead More The Innocence of Love Essay896 Words   |  4 PagesIn Gary Soto’s â€Å"Oranges,† the speaker is describing the first time he walks with a girl. He is at the tender age of twelve and this simple act of innocence takes place on a cold, grey day in December. As the two walk together, they stop in a drugstore and, being the typical boy, the speaker â€Å"asked what she wanted† (27). When she shows him the chocolate and he realizes that he cannot afford it, he then does a quick barter with the shop lady and exchanges his lone nickel and one of his oranges forRead MoreGary Soto : A Mexican American Author2363 Words   |  10 PagesDecember 2016 Gary Soto Gary Soto, a Mexican-American author, was born in 1952 in Fresno, California. His parents were both Mexican-American. Soto did not expect a lot from his life; he imagined he would ’marry Mexican poor, work Mexican hours, and in the end die a Mexican death, broke and in despair’ (Lee). Instead, he became a great writer of poems and short stories. James Sullivan describes Soto as â€Å"one of the most important voices in Chicano literature† and Don Lee counts Soto as â€Å"one of theRead MoreGary Sotos Like Mexicans: Personal Experiences Essay1887 Words   |  8 PagesGary Sotos Like Mexicans: Personal Experiences My decision to write in response to Gary Sotos work, Like Mexicans was influenced for the most part because of the similarities between myself and Gary Soto, and our families included. Gary Soto is a Mexican American male, who grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in the industrial part of a town called Fresno. His grandparents came to this Great Valley in search of creating a better life for themselves and their families. I am also a Mexican