Theme Of Fear By Gary Soto

Social class and poverty is a big problem that affects many children and adults. Author Gary Soto often examines this topic in almost all of his short stories and poems. One story, “Fear” is the best conveyor of this matter. In “Fear”, Gary Soto utilizes perspective to illustrate the way social class affects children in today's modern world, and explores mature themes, namely the difference between poverty and a lower socioeconomic class.

Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California on April 12, 1952 to Manuel and Angie Soto. His parents worked in San Joaquin valley, the agricultural region surrounding Fresno. Their jobs included picking various crops such as oranges and cotton. Many of these jobs were dangerous, and as a result of this,

In the beginning portion of the short story, the protagonist/author describes Frankie T, and aids the reader in his or her understanding of Frankie T as a character. Frankie T as a character helps to illustrate the theme of the difference between poverty and a lower socioeconomic class. This quote, the opening sentence of the story (written by Soto), best depicts the theme: “A cold day after school, Frankie T, who would drown his brother by accident that coming spring and would use a length of pipe to beat a woman in a burglary years later […]” (479). Frankie T is really living in poverty. He is so abused, unloved, and unwanted at home that he has takes all of his anger out on the people around him. As a result of his anger towards everyone, he doesn’t have many friends. Since he doesn’t have any friends, and it is doubtful that he does any schoolwork, he has a lot of extra time on his hands. He has all of this energy stored up from not doing anything that he channels all of his extra energy into being vindictive. His poverty-stricken life causes him to be constantly rude, and later on, dangerous. The protagonist clearly talks down to him, because even though the protagonist is of a lower socioeconomic class, technically he is not living in