Oranges By Gary Soto

Detail can be a powerful tool for a poet, nonetheless any writer. Too much detail overwhelms the main idea, and too little makes the piece of work dry and bland. One can describe events in a simplistic style, without any figurative language or writing devices, or one can choose to fill their work with fancy words that catch the reader’s attention. This poem is just right. “Oranges” is about a young boy’s first walk with a girl. This poem shows how the simplest things in life may have the most tremendous impact on a person.

This poem opens with a delicate flourish of description and detail and ends the same. Soto not only uses detail to describe the occasion, but also describes the weather. He describes the weather as, “cold, and weighted down (3).” Describing the weather that way creates powerful imagery. This eludes the reader to sympathize with the boy. It is cold outside but yet he is taking a girl out for a walk. This reminds the reader of the fragil

This poem was written in 1952, if this were to take place now in 2003, the outcome would surely be different. The image of “cuteness” would not be the same, because the woman in the store would look at the little boy and think he was 1) Crazy to attempt to buy the girl something if he only had a nickel and two oranges, 2) Stupid for even trying to pay for a piece of candy with an orange, and 3) Even dumber if the boy thought she was going to let him pay for the candy with an orange. In 2003, if a boy or anyone for this case doesn’t have enough money when it comes time to pay a bill or to buy something, a girl would drop him like a bad habit. This boy got lucky.

A lot of motion is mentioned in this poem. Action words like “walked (1),” “pulling (13),” “touched (16),” “led (16),” “entered (22),” and “turned (25)” are used to show what and how things happen. All of these action words help the reader to see what is going on in the poem. They draw the reader into the action, making them involved. It is almost as if the reader is reliving their own nostalgic moment. Most of this poem is one brief event drawn out into a lovely and memorable one. This piece of writing could be considered both a short story and a poem.

If the poem is read just like it is written, line-by-line, then the poem makes very little sense. If one were to interpret this poem like most other poems it would cause a lot of confusion. “Oranges” reads more like a story, further simplifying the tale of the young boy and girl. If one reads the poem as a story, paying attention to the punctuation, it makes perfect sense and flows. The whole poem is eight lengthy sentences put together. This unique writing technique is clever in that it can very easily confuse a reader but it forces one to think. Therefore, sentence structure within this poem is very important and a key factor in understanding the poem.

When Soto, in the eyes of the boy, describes the lovely little girl, she is described very briefly. The girl has on gloves and her face is “bright/With rouge (14-15).” The rouge on the girl’s face can be makeup, and if so it can be inferred that she does not know how to put it on. This once again reflects the theme of youth and inexperience

Some topics in this essay:
Gary Soto, , boy girl, reader’s attention, “how cute”, pay chocolate, action words, candy orange, description detail, main idea, girl poem, walk girl,