Soto uses literary elements, such as conflict, setting and symbolism show that one can often let their expectations get in the way of their happiness. First, Soto uses conflict to reveal the theme, expectations get in the way of our happiness. The boy goes through many internal and external conflicts. The jacket is an external conflict. Because of the jacket, the boy is unpopular and treated poorly.
Most generally, people remember that one disappointment, that one time where they felt betrayed by their family and peers. In the case of the small boy in Gary Soto’s The Jacket, he feels let down by his mother, friends, teachers, and many other peers. Due to the embarrassment he receives from a new guacamole-green jacket with yellow lining, this boy turns depressed. Teachers, friends, and other kids at school all revile against him just due to his appearance and how he dresses, which in this case he cannot control. From disappointment to mockery, this young boy faces much persecution, lost friends, disrespectful teachers, and an incompetent mother; his feelings toward the jacket rash, leading to several unpleasant instances, which therefore
First, the literary element in “The Jacket” supports the overarching theme “Focusing on the small things can distract one from the important things that matter.” The boy is met with an ugly green jacket that his Mom bought for him for his middle school year. The boy’s confidence has vanished because his clothing didn’t meet the popular kids clothing standards. The boy blames his mother for buying a jacket that did not meet his expectations and hopes. He believes that the gossip and loneliness at school was because of his physical appearance and unpopular clothes. The boy with the ugly jacket, says, “I blame that jacket for for
It was incredibly obvious, at least I believed so. But I now come to believe that the narrator hid it rather well, because, after all, the story was told from the narrator’s point of view. But still, did Luo know? I think he did, and that he decided not to say anything because that’s what friends do. Maybe he decided to not say anything so he could keep the friendship; Clearly stated, the theme is “Friends are more important that anything” If Luo would have “unfriended” the narrator for the little seamstress, he would have ended up alone and sad when she left in the end of the novel.
His brother only thinks of himself and only cares of his own achievements and success, making him not care so much for his brother which leads him to the guilt in the end of the story from what happened and what he did to his brother. The Scarlet Ibis connects with this theme because the Scarlet Ibis is a representation of Doddle in the story, foreshadowing what will happen to Doodle and how his brother is left with the feeling of guilt from Doodle’s death (the theme of guilt). In conclusion, the story uses many different forms of symbols and foreshadowing, some listed, to help get the reader's thinking and to create another meaning to the story besides what’s just literally written down in the text. They both help connect to the main theme of the story and in the end, instead of making the story a boring book required for class, it becomes a piece of literary art because of its multitudes of meanings and beauty from inside the
“It’s funny how one little thing can change your perspective on everything.” For young Gary Soto, that one thing was a guacamole-colored jacket. In the memoir, “The Jacket,” author Gary Soto conveys the message of his insecurity, his poverty, and his ultimate self destruction through the use of figurative language. Soto’s clever use of personification, metaphors, and similes clearly illustrates the message that the way you dress influences how you feel about yourself. To emphasize, Gary Soto uses descriptive language to reveal his secret insecurity about his jacket. The tone of his writing is slightly paranoid and he uses purely coincidental anecdotes to support his delusional ideas.
In the story The Jacket by Gary Soto, the jacket has a negative affect on his life because everybody laughed at him and tried to do it behind his back. On paragraph 6 page 31 the author writes, “I saw there heads bob with laughter, their hands half covering their mouths.” This quote supports the claim because they thought that his jacket was so ugly that they tried to hide their laughter from him. Another piece of evidence is on paragraph 7 page 31 the author writes, “Although they didn’t say out loud ‘Man, that's ugly,’ I heard the buzz-buzz of gossip and even laughter that I knew it was meant for me.” This quote supports the claim because instead of telling him that your coat is ugly or stupid they laughed and gossiped behind his back. In
The first theme shown throughout the novel is growing up. One example of growing up is when Scout learns to value even the smallest things in life as soon as her teacher says she can no longer read at night with Atticus. After her first day of school, Scout says to herself, “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love
Throughout the whole story the boy is being very unappreciative of what he now has and that he has made it all about himself but finally, he realizes that it is what it is and he is going to have to deal with it. Soto uses the boys context, “I went outside with my jacket across my arm,” to show that the boy is still very unappreciative of this “jacket” that he is forever stuck with. This choice of words emphasizes the point that this brother of his came into his world and wrecked it so that caused the boy to not be acceptant of the boy because he totally turned his life upside down. Quickly after the boys actions Soto includes, “I started up the alley and soon slipped into my jacket, that ugly green brother who breathed over my shoulder that day and ever since.” What Soto is trying to say is that the boy is now realizing that he is going to have to deal with this brother of his because he is actually very fortunate to have him. No matter what the boy tries to do to get his new brother away, he will always be there and that is just something that the boy is going to have to understand and learn how to cope
The central theme of Full Metal Jacket is that war is dehumanizing. There are other themes present, but this was the most obvious to see as the main theme. A part of reaching the central theme is that regular boys are carved into soldiers through the total institution that is the US Marine Corps. This institution was able to make a kind person like Pyle turn into a savage who murdered his sergeant in cold blood. All of the other men in the bootcamp became the same person, just multiplied, with equal ideals and actions.