The Jacket By Gary Soto Summary

Many people, especially teens, tend to be unappreciative of what they have and choose to only think about themselves. One does not think about others but only about what they have and how they look, even if they are very fortunate for what they do have. All that matters to people these days is how they look or what they have, and if it is going to set off the right impressions to others. In Gary Soto’s short story “The Jacket” the boy is very unappreciative of this “new jacket” his mom has just brought him saying that the jacket looked like “the color of day-old guacamole.” Whenever the boy would wear that jacket he would feel as if everyone thought differently of him because ‘it made him look different.’ The boy never wanted to wear the jacket

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