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Summary Of Broken Chain By Gary Soto

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Not every child has the same privileges. Take the shorts stories ‘Broken Chain’ and ‘The Jacket’ by Gary Soto for example. The short story, ‘The Jacket’ is about a kid who gets an ugly jacket and has to learn to accept it. The other short story, ‘Broken Chain’ is about a kid who is about to go biking with a girl, but his cheap bike breaks. After several close reading of ‘Broken Chain’ and ‘The Jacket’ by Gary Soto, the reader understands that they are stories about how some people lead different lives, how some people don’t have as much money as others. and how not everyone has the same privileges. The short story, ‘Jacket’ uses culture and background to illustrate how some people live completely different lives than others. The main character …show more content…

The main character’s (Alfonso’s) dad was described as “Pure Mexicano”, and after Alfonso butched his hair, said, “Did you hurt yourself at school?” (Soto BC 2). His dad was too Mexican to realize that Alfonso wanted to look good with his hair butched up on top, and did not understand that it was a style and that Alfonso wanted to look good. Alfonso’s Dad also took his work to the next level. He would become extremely happy if his team did good. The narrator described it as, “ He swaggered into the living room.” How his team decided how he was going to act. Here, work is only a small aspect of life. But in Alfonso’s world, work was …show more content…

For example, they both use symbolism to show the theme of poverty. In ‘The Jacket’, the jacket itself is used to symbolize the theme of poverty. When he first gets his jacket, he doesn’t believe it. Afterwards, he thinks, “The jacket was so big I knew I would have to wear it for a long time” (Soto Jacket 1) This clearly shows that his family is too poverty-stricken to afford a new jacket after he grows out of his current one. Furthermore, at the end of the book, he “Curses his mom’s cheap ways” (Soto Jacket 4). This shows how his mom is willing to buy cheap, ugly clothes in order to save money, showing how their cheap ways. The cheap jacket symbolizes the theme of

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