Gary Soto Broken Chain Analysis

In the short fictional story “Broken Chain” Gary Soto begins drawing in the reader’s attention by describing Alfonso pushing back his teeth because he felt inadequate about his appearance and was trying to fix his teeth on his own because his parents could not afford braces. I immediately felt compassion for this character. I immediately wanted to know what was going to happen next, that’s when I learned he met a girl and needed to borrow his brothers bike.

First the story begins with Alfonso’s older telling him about an older girl he met with braids and then Alfonso met a girl that had the same description they thought they both liked the same girl.
On page 8 Alfonso’s older brother Ernie snarled at Alfonso and said,