Oranges By Gary Soto Essay

This explication will be discussing Gary Soto’s poem, Oranges. This poem is a narrative about the speaker, a twelve-year-old boy, and his first date with a girl. The poet opens the poem about the young boy walking to the girl’s house to pick her up for their date. Then, once he picked her up they walked down the street and went to a drugstore to get candy. He wanted to pay for the candy, but the girl picked out chocolate that cost a dime, when he only had a nickel. The twelve-year-old boy worked out a deal with the lady at the counter in order to be able to get the chocolate, then the young boy and girl continued their date. Gary Soto uses symbolism, imagery, form and meter in this poem in order for the reader get a feel and truly understand what is happening in the poem. Gary Soto uses symbolism in the poem Oranges. One example of symbolism we see in this poem is between the oranges and love. The title of this poem is Oranges, so most people who read this title will think the poem is actually about oranges. However, the

By the oranges weighing him down this shows how the young boy is nervous for his first date and shows the feelings that come during your first date with a special person. The oranges go away for a little while, then they reappear on line thirty-six. This is when the young boy had to work out a deal with the lady at the counter because the young girl wanted a piece of chocolate that cost a dime when he only had a nickel. He first took the nickel out of his pocket, then took an orange out as well. He put both the nickel and the orange on the counter and the lady looked at him knowing what he was doing. The young boy wanted to give the lady an orange in trade for the chocolate, which shows another representation of how the oranges are shown as a symbol of love. In the last stanza, the girl eats the chocolate while he peels his orange. The poet