Analysis Essay Soto: 1996
AP Language and Composition
29 October 2013 Soto Analysis: 1996 Second Draft
As a child, much of the minds of people reflect on bright, bittersweet moments filled with positivity and innocence. However, young children may also have a sense of knowing right from wrong, while feelings of guilt emerge from little to big mistakes. In the passage from “1996”, Gary Soto’s continuous thoughts of guilt convey themselves through a shameful tone, vibrant imagery, and conventional biblical allusion showing that the guilt associated with wrong-doing ends in self-destruction.
Soto starts off his story with visual anecdote thinking about the actions between right and wrong doing and a greater sense of God within his daily life. However, Soto then internally struggles within himself in thinking about the pros and cons of sin. Gary Soto knows well “enough about hell to stop [himself] from stealing. [He is] holy in almost every bone,” as well as recounts his vision of angles in his backyard along with the sound messages of God within the plumbing underneath the house. Though sinning, Soto greatly portrays the significance of God within his life through his young innocence and youthfully clean life so far ahead. Near temptation soon wavers Soto’s integrity at a German Market where a rack of pies catches his eye and “boredom [makes him] sin” while sweating the “juice of guilt,” Soto cannot come “to decide which to steal.” Gary Soto comes to describe the process of how he came to sin such in a shameful tone of writing, his morals nearly thrown away and his first true sin is committed. Soon after stealing the pie, Soto begins to be filled with a growing guilt. Muttering that “No one saw” in reassurance to himself illustrates his growing anxiety and paranoia. Knowing that sinning equals wrong doing, Soto mentions the “shadow of angels” and “proximity of God howling” under the house as a distancing from his faith and deeper into the sin regardless of the guilty feeling.
29 October 2013 Soto Analysis: 1996 Second Draft
As a child, much of the minds of people reflect on bright, bittersweet moments filled with positivity and innocence. However, young children may also have a sense of knowing right from wrong, while feelings of guilt emerge from little to big mistakes. In the passage from “1996”, Gary Soto’s continuous thoughts of guilt convey themselves through a shameful tone, vibrant imagery, and conventional biblical allusion showing that the guilt associated with wrong-doing ends in self-destruction.
Soto starts off his story with visual anecdote thinking about the actions between right and wrong doing and a greater sense of God within his daily life. However, Soto then internally struggles within himself in thinking about the pros and cons of sin. Gary Soto knows well “enough about hell to stop [himself] from stealing. [He is] holy in almost every bone,” as well as recounts his vision of angles in his backyard along with the sound messages of God within the plumbing underneath the house. Though sinning, Soto greatly portrays the significance of God within his life through his young innocence and youthfully clean life so far ahead. Near temptation soon wavers Soto’s integrity at a German Market where a rack of pies catches his eye and “boredom [makes him] sin” while sweating the “juice of guilt,” Soto cannot come “to decide which to steal.” Gary Soto comes to describe the process of how he came to sin such in a shameful tone of writing, his morals nearly thrown away and his first true sin is committed. Soon after stealing the pie, Soto begins to be filled with a growing guilt. Muttering that “No one saw” in reassurance to himself illustrates his growing anxiety and paranoia. Knowing that sinning equals wrong doing, Soto mentions the “shadow of angels” and “proximity of God howling” under the house as a distancing from his faith and deeper into the sin regardless of the guilty feeling.