Gary Soto Essay

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Gary Soto

Michelle Lobatos
Mr. Blackmore
English 11
13 March 2016

Michelle Lobatos
Mr. Blackmore
Poetry Analysis
13 March 2016 Gary Soto People should know the importance about growing up Mexican-American, Gary Soto did exactly that in his poems. He wrote novels, plays, poems, short stories, and books for young children. His poetry usually focuses on working as a child to get money, racism, poverty and crime. He is most known for writing for children and young adults. Soto always says his famous lines "As a writer my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican Americans. I'm one who provides portraits of people in the rush of …show more content…

He was raised on the bad neighborhood known as barrios in Fresno, California. Soto rarely went to school and throughout his whole high school his grade average was a D. When he was 5 years old his father had a tragic accident that took his fathers life. Causing his mother to not have any income to pay for their needs. Angie then moved her family to a industrial sketchy area. Soto started working in the fields of San Joaquin and factories, so he could help his mom out. Because they where struggling for the money so everyone is the family was looking for jobs but it was not enough money to sustain them all but they had to deal with it. That's when Soto's grades started dropping because he has no motivation at all to study and no time at all because of working. He also had no books the only books he had where recipe books for menudo. Soto said he was exploring the school library when he came across Ernest Hemingway and that's when his love for poetry came to …show more content…

The "Black Hair" which was written in 1985, Soto was focused on how him and his friend would talk about his daughter and his times spent together. His collection "Neighborhood Odes" (1992) and "Canto Familiar/Familiar Song" (1996) these take connections with community, place, and families. "A Fire in my Hands" (2006) has one of Soto's most famous poem. The poem is called "Oranges", oranges is a story about a guy picking up an girl and taking her out to get something at the store and him grabbing a orange knowing he didn't have enough money for the both items and the clerk knowing that he really liked her so she helped him out and covered the cost and then him walking her back home to her

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