Short Story Seventh Grade By Gary Soto

In 7th grade, I transferred from Bryan Middle school to Visitation Catholic School and there was not enough room in the accelerated math program, which ultimately set me behind. In high school, I found myself bored in math and knew I needed to challenge myself, so I ended up setting up a meeting with the math department head and we discussed my options. Sophomore year, I ended up taking two math classes, which was not easy; double the test, quizzes and lessons! However, by taking two math classes, I was able to get myself into a higher math class which ultimately was my goal, and achieving it was an amazing feeling.

I was in two elementary schools,the first was Panama Elementary school. I was their for k - 4th grade and then moved to Leo B Hart Elementary school. I was nervous when I was going to go to jr high. My biggest concern was me being short and not fitting in. Also I thought it was going to be extremely difficult like my teachers explained, but when I was finally done with seventh grade it was not as hard as i thought.

The dramatic coming-of-age film Dead Poet’s Society follows a group of young as they attend Welton Academy, an ultra conservative all-boys preparatory school, in 1959. Enthralled and inspired by the unconventional musings of their new English teacher, Mr. Keating, each of the students embark on a powerful journey of self-discovery, reflecting core transcendental themes of civil disobedience, non-conformity, and self-reliance. Heeding the mantra of their eccentric professor, the film’s characters learn they must rebel against societal conformity and willingly accept the consequences to truly seize the day and make life extraordinary.

In the story, “Seventh Grade, “ Victor, the main character, learns that with hard work and dedication you will reach your goal, through his embarrassing moments on his first day of seventh grade. In paragraph 24, Victor is asked a question and he answers Teresa, then all of the girls in his class giggled because they figured that Victor has a crush on Teresa. An example of this is, at one point in the text Victor had met up with an old friend he was doing a weird scowl thing he had seen models do, so later on Victor had tried it and a girl looked at him and actually noticed him so he said to himself in his head maybe it does work maybe it really does. When it was lunch it was like Victor was in a maze when he was looking for Teresa, when

In the story “Seventh Grade,” Victor learns trying to impress a girl with a different personality is not the smartest thing to do through his embarrassing moments. For instance, Victor lingered in the classroom to say something clever to Teresa when she walks out of the door, but instead, when Teresa exits the room, he just says something dumb and embarrasses himself. “He smiled back and said, “Yeah, that’s me.” His brown face blushed. Why hadn’t he said, “Hi, Teresa,” or “How was your summer?” or something nice?” (Soto p. 17) This shows that Victor tried to act more clever than actually he is to impress Teresa, but ends up embarrassing himself while doing so. This proves if Victor had just acted like himself, thing would have been better.

Bjorn Skogquist’s essay An Apology is a story about the hardships her and a new group of friends cause for a young girl in their class named Tiffany Stephenson during the fourth grade. Early in the essay Bjorn talks about her hardships she was going through during the time. These hardships include moving to a new school and her parents having marriage issues. The focus soon turns to the ridicule her and the classmates displayed to one of their classmates named Tiffany Stephenson. One of her classmates Describes Tiffany as,”fat and ugly and she stinks,” (Skogquist, paragraph 5.) Though Bjorn personally doesn’t see this she accepts it and goes along with her classmates for fear of not being accepted. The rest of the essay describes the many

Elementary school is a big step, especially getting ready for middle school. For example if one is bitter towards someone, meaning jealous or angry, then their middle school years won’t go very well. They will go through being angry and it will make them focus on less important stuff rather than their studies or sports. Similar to the boy in “The Jacket” by “Gary Soto,”he goes through his life being jealous of kids that are happy or have good relationships and new clothes. The boy does not like the jacket his mother got him and does not appreciate it enough, even though it gets the job done. In other words, one does not get what they always want, one has to appreciate what they get, this supports the overarching theme and is represented by the symbolism, the setting, and the metaphors.

In the short story, “Eleven”, Sandra Cisneros depicts Rachel as an empathetic, wise, but socially misunderstood child who feels excluded by both her teachers and her fellow students. Cisneros utilizes various literary techniques throughout “Eleven” to help bring out the characteristics of the young and bashful Rachel, whose shyness keeps her from being able to express her inner brilliance.

In William Shakespeare’s timeless play Romeo and Juliet, two star crossed lovers are faced with great adversity as they hide their romance from their feuding families. As author James Lane Allen once said, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it”. Romeo, a Montague, struggles to hide his love for the Capulet daughter, Juliet, from his family and friends. The challenge of lying to his closest companions, and going against his family’s ways to secretly marry Juliet causes Romeo to act erratically and carelessly. Throughout Act 3 Scene One, Shakespeare exposes the lovestruck Romeo’s mercurial nature and impulsivity through his thoughtless actions.

Russ and Finley’s relationship changes drastically through time. In the beginning of the story, their affiliation is tense, but as more life-changing events take place, they grow to be close friends.

The author describes how Victor attempts to impress his dream girlfriend, Teresa. He tries scowling, an expression he learned from his friend, Michael. In addition, he lies by saying he knows French. When the French teacher, Mr. Bueller, speaks to him in French, he mumbles random words and makes a fool of himself. Moreover, Gary Soto portrays himself as Mr. Bueller. He describes Mr. Bueller’s days as a college student who would do anything to make

Rumors and assumptions are dangerous when it comes to keeping relationships. An example of the play “Mystery of the Suffocated Seventh Grader” is the game telephone.

In Jonathan Kozol’s report titled “Fremont High School,” he asserts that the use of apartheid methods of schooling still exists as of today. According to Kozol’s report, “Fremont High School enrolls almost five thousand students on a three- track schedule” (716). Fremont High School is surrounded by an eight- foot steel fence that is topped with spikes. Kozol describes the daily routine for students, as well as the conditions of Fremont High School (716-717). Kozol’s report reveals to the audience the prison-like conditions, the crowded facilities, as well as the potential for success as dictated by students.

In the short story “Seventh Grade” Gary Soto incorporated foreshadowing. To start foreshadowing was a big part of the story, for example, “They would stand, one arm around a beautiful woman, with a scowl on their face.” Its says just before this quote that Michael had read a CG magazine, and believed a scowl would impress girls. And so, this specific quote foreshadowed that victor and michael would try to scowl, and in turn impress the girls at their school. In addition to scowling there was this quote, “He raced to the metal shop. After metal shop there was biology, and after biology a long sprint to the public library, where he checked out three French textbooks.” In this scene Teresa had asked Victor to teach her French. This scene foreshadows

Some people believe that turning a year older is exciting and means that you will be treated more maturely. Well, in Sandra Cisneros's short story, “Eleven” Rachel quickly becomes aware that it is anything but that. By using interior monologue, imagery, figurative language, and repetition Sandra Cisneros evokes how rachel really feels about turning a year older.