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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...
Gary Soto wrote a memoir called, “A Summer Life.” In a memoir, being yourself, and telling your own story are all important. They are important because you don’t want to lie and say you like something if you don’t. Speaking freely is telling how you really feel and not caring what other people think about it. And telling your own story is very important because the story is suppose to be about you not anyone else.
The jacket is one of the Royals which created the hatred that andy was stabbed for. The assailant even yelled at andy “that’s for you royal!” (hunter 1). The label that andy was given made these people not see andy but see a Royal they see the jacket something that they find repulsive enough to end people's lives to end them. Andy being with royals wearing the jacket even innocent bystanders began to fear even associating with andy. Two of those innocent bystanders being Freddie and Angela the couple that finds andy in the alley.Freddie wants to help and but Angela says “I don't know I don’t want to get mixed up in this” (hunter 5). Freddie and Angela don't see a dying man if he wasn’t wearing the jacket that was associated with the Royals he wouldn’t have been stabbed and even if he did he could have been saved by Freddie and Angela. It was his gang affiliations that brought him the label and his death. Even after death, he was seen as a just a royal by most. After everything was finished for andy a cop and andy’s former girlfriend show up. The cop says “a Royal” (hunter 7) but Laura rebuttals that “no he's andy”(hunter 7). Everyone but Laura saw Andy as a Royal just a Royal not Andy just like the people before him but still Laura see him for his true self only if the rest of the world would too. People could make it so that people see people as themselves not what they are labeled as
The novel The Catcher in the Rye follows Holden Caulfield for a weekend. The story begins in Agerstown, PA at Pencey Prep school with Holden standing on top of the Thomson Hill on his way to Mr. Spencer’s, his history teacher, to say good bye because Holden was expelled for not following rules. On his way to Spencer’s, Holden “felt like [he] was sort of disappearing”. (Salinger 5) The sense of symbolism with the word “disappearing” is that he feels alone and almost invisible. When Mr. Spencer starts to read Holden’s failed paper, Holden starts to daydream about “wondering where ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over” (13) in Central Park in New York. The symbolic significance in this comment is that Holden is frozen in adolescence.
How does one know that a person is maturing? Are there signs? What defines maturity? “A mature person assumes responsibility for his or her actions” (“Maturity”) but does that mean someone who cannot do that should not be considered mature? In The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, both Holden and Taylor go through a period in their lives where they start “putting aside ‘toys’ and fantasies...seeing the world as it really is” (“Maturity”). For Taylor, adulthood is thrust upon her when she “inherits” Turtle, while for Holden it takes till the end of the book--when he is with Phoebe--to realize.
He’s being ignored on his instructions for a table. Not only does the parent of the birthday boy give him an hard time from the moment Tandolfo has arrived , he is also making it harder to find Tandolfo a table. As he gets more and more irritated with his surroundings
environment, the pigs Jack and his hunters come to love hunting are also pink. On Jack’s first
In "The Jacket" Gary Soto uses symbolism to reflect on the characterization and development of the narrator. Soto seems to focus mainly on a jacket, which has several meanings throughout the story. The jacket is used as a symbol to portray poverty, the narrator's insecurity, and the narrator's form of self-destruction.
“Boys” by Rick Moody summarizes the life journey of two stereotypical boys and how they gain power from the experiences they face. The boys face both positive experiences and tragedies that impacts their amount of power. In the short story, the author is conveying the idea that as the boys mature they obtain more power. He shows this through the literary devices conflict, tone, and repetition.
The narrator strongly claimed that his clothes have failed him when he recalled the green jacket he wore on his fifth and sixth grade. He believed that instead of looking like a champion, his day-old guacamole colored jacket has embarrassed him that lead him to think it has failed him (Soto, 473). He had actually hoped and requested to his mom a different jacket. It is the kind of jacket that the bikers wear which is black leather and silver stud with enough belts that will make him look brave. But disappointment struck him when he found an ordinary green jacket instead. He stared at the jacket and wanted to cry because to him it was ugly and so big. Moreover, he knew he will have to bear with the fact that he will be wearing that ugly jacket for a very long time. For a brief moment he was still in denial and was expecting it was his brother’s jacket. Acceptance came later since he has no other choice but to wear it. With a heavy heart he slipped into his jacket and decided to head out of the house.
Langstaff, Dave. “A brief history of the FFA Jacket and the people who make it” Universal Lettering Co. www.universallettering.com, n.d. web. 29 Jan 2014.
In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, the main character Holden Caufield believes that innocence is corrupted by society. He exposes his self-inflicted emotional struggles as he is reminiscing the past. For Holden, teenage adolescence is a complicated time for him, his teenage mentality in allows him to transition from the teenage era to the reality of an adult in the real world. As he is struggling to find his own meaning of life, he cares less about others and worries about how he can be a hero not only to himself but also to the innocent youth. As Holden is grasping the idea of growing up, he sets his priorities of where he belongs and how to establish it. As he talks about how ‘phony’ the outside world is, he has specific recollections that signify importance to his life and he uses these time and time again because these memories are ones that he wont ever let go of. The death of his younger brother Allie has had a major impact on him emotionally and mentally. The freedom of the ducks in Central Park symbolize his ‘get away’ from reality into his own world. His ideology of letting kids grow up and breaking the chain loose to discover for themselves portrays the carrousel and the gold ring. These are three major moments that will be explored to understand the life of Holden Caufield and his significant personal encounters as he transitions from adolescence into manhood.
There is a certain process that every human being on the planet has in common. Not everyone can say it is a pleasing experience, but nobody can deny that it happened to them. ‘Growing up’ happens to everyone one whether they like it or not. The transition between childhood innocence and adulthood is long and confusing, which often reveals questions that can never be answered. The novel Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger explores how the adult life has its complexities and can be very puzzling to teenagers starting that phase in their lives. The main character Holden Caulfield realizes the confusion of a teenager when faced with the challenges of adapting to an adult society. The catcher in the rye shows the inevitable loss of innocence
Growing up and becoming mature can be an intimidating experience; it is difficult to let go of one’s childhood and embrace the adult world. For some people, this transition from youthfulness to maturity can be much more difficult than for others. These people often try to hold on to their childhood as long as they can. Unfortunately, life is not so simple. One cannot spend their entire life running from the responsibilities and hardships of adulthood because they will eventually have to accept the fact that they have a role in society that they must fulfill as a responsible, mature individual. The novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger follows the endeavours of Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old teenage boy who faces a point in his life where he must make the transition from childhood to adulthood. In an attempt to retain his own childhood, he begins hoping to stop other young children from growing up and losing their innocence as well. As indicated by the title, “The Catcher in the Rye” is a book that explores a theme involving the preservation of innocence, especially of children. It is a story about a boy who is far too hesitant to grow up, and feels the need to ensure that no one else around him has to grow up either. His own fear of maturity and growing up is what leads to Holden’s desire to become a “catcher in the rye” so he can save innocent children from becoming part of the “phoniness” of the adult world.
Aiming at elder teenagers who are facing or have experienced the process of entering adulthood, the cartoonist Daniel Clowes illustrates the twisting feeling between resistances and attempts during the transition toward adulthood in his successful graphic novel Ghost World. In the story, the author characterizes the two protagonists Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmeyer as rebellious and cynical; they aimlessly wander around the town and "their main activity, though, is mocking -- with a callow conviction worthy of Holden Caulfield -- the phoniness and hypocrisy that surrounds them. (Scott). By portraying the entering adulthood melodrama based on his own experience, the rhetorician illustrates contemporary teenagers' angst and confusion triggered by both the changes they have to face and the pressure of mainstream culture. Moreover, the graphic medium and comic genre sufficiently reaches targeted teenager readers: the adoption of dark green which represents the somber atmosphere and mass media's penetration, the intentionally portrayed ostensible figures which implies teenagers' constant judgment toward external world, and the direct language(sometimes impolite) language which specifically aims to teenagers in real world who use the same kind language; all of them serve as effective components of the melancholy but realistic atmosphere through the whole story. Thus, by illustrating the protagonist's twisting inner feeling between the attempt to suit in and the resistance toward the constantly changing external world and unknown adulthood, author Daniel Clowes constructs an entering adulthood melodrama with the help of graphic novel components, which provokes readers to consider teenage angst and the fear during coming of age time,...
The only thing that he is willing to spend money on besides video games is shoes. Most students his age have that common interest, especially boys. However, they do not take it to the extreme that he has. He owns seveler 150$+ shoes. To him shoes are the most important part of an outfit. He will wear Jordan’s and a fruit of the loom T-shirt all in the same outfit.