Growing Up By Gary Soto Summary

Has Bobby in the “first part last” come of age? After reading this book many people wonder if he came of age. He came of age when Bobby decided to keep Feather. Nia, after giving birth went into a vegetative state which caused her to basically be brain dead. Bobby and Nia before the problem occured, decided to have the baby get adopted with the help of a social worker. Bobby decided to keep Feather right when he saw her and of what happened to Nia, he felt like he should do his part. The author who wrote “first part last” name is Angela Johnson. Some symbols of Bobby coming of age is a red balloon, basketball and the trophies.

The authors of the four memoirs overcame their childhood obstacles with the help of their parents. Gary Soto overcame his childhood obstacle by finally listening to his mother. Laurence Yep overcame his early life obstacles by letting people into his life. Barack Obama over his infancy obstacle by accepting his father. Julia Alvarez over her barrier by accepting the U.S. All these authors have only one thing in common they all had help from their parents to achieve their obstacles.

In the novel, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the theme of growing up is prevalent throughout the book. Throughout the novel, a young mexican girl named Esperanza goes through experiences as she matures that involve her friends, society, dangers that expose her to the outside world and help her to realize what the real world is like.

Gary Soto, who among many things was a Mexican-American poet, many times wrote about what he knew best: his life. Growing up as a Chicano in America in the 50s and 60s, Soto worked in fields as a laborer from a young age. It is evident that coming from a Hispanic working class family greatly influenced his poem “Ambition”. As he is known for, Soto's poem is filled with imagery of everyday life, while harping on important details and themes of things that he may have seen around him., but in this instance, there was a bit of confusion. To begin with, the poem “Ambition” starts off with the line "For years our ambition was to eat/Chicken"(1-2). Without further analysis, at this point the reader is most likely confused, much like I was. Chicken? How could eating be one's goal, one's aspiration in life? The word ambition is usually associated with lofty goals. It would not seem out of place to say that one's ambition was to become a doctor or to make a better life for oneself. So the speaker in the poem could not truly believe that all that he wanted in life was to eat chicken. The outlandishness of this statement seems to be the speaker pointing huge arrows towards places in the poem that invoke deeper meaning to

And my family goes too." (Page 2) I had expect Maria to soften and feel bad for her father who worked hard and wanted to take a break to spend time with his family, yet she just walked away. But slowly during the time that her family left her alone she started to feel bad for arguing with her father and that the turned into worry. "She felt bad for her mother and two brothers that would have to spend the next three hours in the car with him. Maybe he would do something crazy , like crash the car on purpose to get back at her..." (Page 4) she then worried more and more, I believe that she was regretting not going with them. Finally, when Maria had thought " How dare they have so much fun? While she worried herself sick about then,they splashes in the waves, stayed at great America until nightfall, and eaten at all kinds of restaurants. They even went shopping for fall school clothes." (Page 8) The reason why Maria is upset, I believe, is that she wanted to have fun with her family, I think she wanted to be here with her family more than worrying about her family. She listed a bunch of very fun things and "How dare they have so much

Anne Moody learned about the importance of race early in her life. Having been born and raised in an impoverished black family from the South, she experienced first-hand the disparity in the lives of Whites and Blacks.

In this coming of age story, the character of Rachel portrays a typical young girl, who, by herself, attempts to understand age and the benefits of growing older. By using a setting of her eleventh birthday, Sandra Cisneros skillfully shows the elements that make one who they are and the difficulties that exist in growing up. Cisneros employs descriptive imagery and literary devices to describe Rachel’s experience.

If society was asked what defines “coming of age,” what would it say? Some would say people come of age when they act more mature, think grown up thoughts, or do certain actions. This quote by someone unknown helps form an explanation of what coming of age is: “Maturity doesn’t mean age; it means sensitivity, manners, and how you react.” In the literature piece “The First Part Last,” the author Angela Johnson writes about two teenagers, Bobby and Nia, who struggle with the difficulties of teen pregnancy. Throughout the book, they both face many hardships that put their relationship, patience, and responsibility to the test. With the help of a red balloon, a basketball, and family pictures in a doctor’s office, Bobby comes of age after paying attention to these symbols and signs throughout the novel.

All three of these themes really helps you go in depth into the story. You realize how many times each of these pop up, which events they popped up in, and how important those events even were. We see you never know the worth of water until the well is dry with Sal as well as Phoebe, maybe even Mrs.Cadaver. When Sal’s mom leaves because she feels rotten in comparison to Sal’s father, we find this is a major event because we now have an insight as to why she left, she didn’t feel perfect, even though she was only human. Sal accepting her mother death was a terrible thing in her life, yet she had to and was also a key event in the story. These themes can all easily be integrated into our modern day society. Such as when you lose a relative, you have to accept their death even if you desperately don’t want to or when said family member dies you don’t realize how much they mean to you. Or with all the stereotypes and expectations we sometimes forget that we’re all only human. Tell people close to you you love them, you’ll never know when you’ll lose them. Make sure they know you appreciate them, but most of all, always know that nobody’s

Whether it be due the malleable minds of children, or the turbulent world around them, dramatic changes in life are an absolute certainty. Young, naïve children are highly impressionable. Their parents teach them one thing, their friends another, and society, yet something else. Fickle, they morph in and out of the plethora of ideologies and mindsets laid out in front of them. This leads to a disorienting and rather confusing child-to-young-adult life, one without a clear sense of morality. The lack of focus upon what is right and wrong, inherently subjective terms, continues into our early adult hood and, for better or worse, seemingly defines the child for the rest of his or her life. This universal theme has been explored for many years through films aptly called “coming-of-age” stories, recently, and perhaps most effectively in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom (2012). This film revolves around Sam and Suzy, two recently pubescent kids, their romantic affair, and their effects on the world around them. The film not only captures the youthful dynamic between the two protagonists, but explores the “coming-of-age” theme through Anderson’s signature flat perspective and through the actors’ portrayals of these characters.

The theme is normally the message the author wants the reader to understand and take in. The theme of the story started with this quote, “From my office, I could look across town to the weather signal on the Mutual of New York Building and the lights that alternately spelled TIME and LIFE above Rockefeller Plaza; that pleased me obscurely, and so did walking uptown in the mauve eight o’clocks of early summer evenings and looking at things.” (Pg. 6) The theme of this story is about time and life. It took time for the character to finally realize the things she wanted in life. She thought she wanted to live in New York and settle in. However, her time in New York wasn’t the best experience she had hope for. Her life was a mess, and she wasn’t focused on the right things she was suppose to be focusing on. Seeing the words TIME on Rockefeller Plaza, one of New York’s main attraction gave her hope again. From the beginning she believed that time would help her adapt to New York. When she first got to New York, she was young. Being young gave her opportunities and time to find jobs and work her way up. It took time for her to realize all the problems she had been living with. It took time for her to realize that Los Angeles was a place she enjoyed living in in the future. New York was a stage of time where she had to discover herself as an individual. The last sentence of the passage showed that she was happy living in Los Angeles. “There were years when I called Los Angeles “the coast,” but they seem a long time ago. (Pg. 8) Normally, people living in the east coast would call Los Angeles the coast, but it was a long time ago since she called Los Angeles the coast. This provides the reader a hint that she had settled down in Los Angeles and have been living there for a long time. It took her a long time to discover the life she wanted. New York wasn’t the one for her. It only took time for her to discover what she

Growth within characters makes them more appealing. Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” conveys character growth as a way to achieve more appealing characters. “The Lesson” follows an obnoxious girl named Sylvia who goes on a trip with some friends. Miss Moore orchestrates this trip; Sylvia and her cousin, Sugar, hate Miss Moore. The children and Miss Moore travel from Harlem to Fifth Avenue to visit a toy store.

Recently I read the book How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough. This book had five main sections. These sections included How To Fail (And How Not To Fail), How To Build Character, How To Think, How To Succeed, and A Better Path. In each of the five sections the book talked about many different points. Each point had a number. These numbers would go through about one to seventeen per each section of the book. Along with giving a summary of the book I will analyze it. We will start with section one, How To Fail (And How Not To).

The theme seems to be about how the expectations of a parent can lead to resentment from the child when the child fails to meet those expectations. The theme is partially set in the opening paragraph with the statement, "My mother

“Oranges” and “Seventh Grade” are both written by Gary Soto. They both have a similar theme and conflict, however, they do share some differences including format and tone. In “Oranges” he shows how the girl and boy are dating while in “Seventh Grade” they are not. However, the theme stays the same in both stories. Throughout the stories, you will see similarities and differences. I will tell you about some of the most important ones.