Figurative Language In Gary Soto's 'Buried Onions'

Figurative Language Essay - Buried Onions
Have you ever struggle to get out of a bad situation? In Buried Onions by Gary Soto, the main character is being pressured into avenging his cousin's death but the main character is just trying to let it go and move on with his life. Throughout the book, figurative language has become vital since it is constantly used in every chapter. Figurative language helps the book because it makes the book come alive, gives the reader a point of view of Eddie, the main character, and gives the reader a visual.
Out all of the figurative language used in the book, I chose three. The first one I used is found on page 2, “The Sun was climbing over the trees of city college and soon the black asphalt would shimmer with vapers.” This figurative language is personification because it is giving human-like traits to the sun. The meaning of quote is that the sun represents hope or a new day and the vapors of the onions represents the dreadful things that might happen; so basically, a hope versus evil scenario. It is significant to the book because the city is apparently cursed with onions that leaves vapor wherever a bad situation occurred. The whole hope vs evil is what really makes the book come to alive to. Next we will talk about the other figurative

language that was used in the book.
The second figurative language that I chose in the book is a metaphor.

“He had the IQ of a kid who plays with boats in the bathtub”(Soto 100). The meaning of this quote conveys that Larry is dumb because only a mind of a child plays with boats in a bathtub. It is significant to the book because both Eddie and Larry were going nowhere in life so they were considering joining the service to get a easy way out. It also gives the readers a point of view of Eddie since he and Larry were both in the same situation but Eddie left before he got enlisted because he didn’t need the service to get a easy way out like Larry. In the next paragraph I would talk about the last figurative language I

chose.
The last figurative language I chose is a simile. “Police,” they sang like a choir”(Soto 104). When Eddie dug up another onion, he inherited bad luck, then a few seconds later police came and arrested Eddie. This is significant to the book because once again the onion’s mischievous motives strikes again. It also gives a reader a visual because they can imagine the onion dragging down Eddie one step at a time until he breaks emotionally. Next, we will summarize everything I talked about in the next paragraph.
I used three figurative languages in my essay, which are personification, metaphor, and a simile. The first quote meaning is hope versus evil. The second quote is Larry and Eddie are going nowhere in life so they turn to the service but later on Eddie decided he can do better than Larry. The third quote meaning is the onion always bring bad luck to whomever it wishes. In conclusion, figurative language helps the book because it makes the book come alive, gives the reader a point of view of Eddie, the main character, and gives the reader a visual.