Summary Of The Poem Kathleen By Gary Soto

The poem begins with a beautiful display of imagery, starting off with an interpretation of his family, describing them simply as his “wife”, “baby”, and “Kathleen”. It is regrettable how at this point we would not know who “Kathleen” exactly refers to, as there is more than one possibility. It says that he had a “baby”, which could possibly be ‘Kathleen’, if the baby is a girl. But another possibility is that ‘Kathleen’ refers to his wife, however, this possibility is unlikely as it would be a repetition from earlier. With both possibilities ruled out, it is safe to assume that a fourth party is involved and present, that of which could be a child, a mother, or possibly a sister of the author. Moving on from the family he then begins to illustrate the outside environment, describing the sun present as “flame-white” disc, painting a very bright
The author then makes a noticeable turn from light to dark using symbolism make a transfer from the bright hearted tone to a depressing one, then stating “If I in my dark room dance naked, grotesquely”. The feel completely did a face-heel turn, throwing a curveball at me as I read. The unexpected dark drop impacted me because it was stunning on my end, as I, and more than likely no one else who read this previously was expecting such a sudden turn. That being said, the theme of this poem seems to be how life can look very pleasant on the outside, but others often are unaware of the terrors that lurk on the inside. Him being alone in his room could imply him being alone in his thoughts, “naked” and “grotesque” possibly elaborating on how he feels on the inside. It is quite possible that the author, or the main character in this case, may have some sort of inferiority complex. This is made apparent when he described himself like “grotesque”, this being a very ugly word to describe oneself