The Life as a Unfashionable Guy

The Life as a Unfashionable Guy

Gary Soto’s “The Jacket” is a short story about a young boy who deals with life as a not very fashionable guy. The reader accompanies the boy in a period of his life.

The mother of the boy buys him a new unfashionable jacket. Because of that nobody likes him but he has to wear it for three years. He hopes so much that he will get a new one when it is broken but his mother has no money to buy a new one.

The story is written in the first-person perspective and this, I think, makes the story easy to understand because then you can always follow his point of view. The plot is rather boring and chronological sequenced. There is no flashback and no climax in the story. The only thing you know about the setting is that the story takes place in the USA. But it is not necessary to know that.

The main character is a boy, who is eleven or twelve years old. He is in the sixth grade. The reader doesn’t know his name. He is not one of the “cool” kids, because he is not as fashionable as the other students. The boy´s character isn´t dynamic because he doesn´t change through the story.

All you know about the mother is that she has a bad taste in clothes, buys cheap clothes and always has steamed-up glasses because she cooks very often.

The multicultural aspect is that the author, Gary Soto, is from Mexico. He worked at a field when he was young and when his father died his family had struggle to find work. He immigrated to America to study.

All in all, the short story is well written but a little bit boring and the characters are flat. However, the story is easy to read and you understand the theme the first time you read it. I wouldn’t recommend the story because in my opinion it is too boring.

These are just my thoughts. What do you think about the story?

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