Adolescence in Gary Soto’s The Jacket

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Adolescence often places a child in the difficult position of wanting to impress

their peers and simultaneously please their parents. Such quandary occurs in Gary Soto’s

“The Jacket” when the young boy is placed in the unenviable position of wearing a jacket

that is a displeasing shade of green. The jacket was given to him by his beloved mother.

This young man was hoping for a cool jacket , “something like the bikers wear: black

leather and silver studs, with enough belts to hold down a small town.”(3). But instead ,

the boy had received an ugly green jacket. He was then stuck in a position where he had to

either please his mother by wearing the monstrosity , or he could go to school without it

so he would not be thought of as a dork. He ended up wearing the jacket which to him...

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