Lauren

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A Small Town with One Road Gary Soto

• By Maggie and
• Lauren

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Gary Soto

• 1952-present
• Center of Joaquin Valley in Fresno, California
• Mexican-American
• Philip Levine
• M.F.A from California State University for poetry
• The Elements of San Joaquin

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Poem Text

• We could be here. This is the valley
• And its black strip of highway, big-eyed
• With rabbits that wont get across
• Kids could make it, though
• They leap barefoot to the store-
• Sweetness on their tongues, red stain of
  laughter,
• A hot time falls from their palms,
• Chinks of light, and they eat
• Candies all the way home
• Where theres a dog for each hand,
• Cats, chickens in the yard,
• A pot bangs and water runs in the kitchen
• Beans, they think, and beans it will be,
• Brown soup thats muscle for fieldwork
• And the tired steps to a fruit ladder.
• Oakie or mexican, Jews that got lost,
• Its a hard life where the sun looks.
• The cotton gin stands tall in the money dream
• And the mill is a paycheck for the wife

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Poem Summary

• The speaker opens the poem by describing the
  town, which he grew up in.
• The town is very poor and life for inhabitants is
  hard and consists of long work days in
  unfavorable conditions.
• Money is a dream and a goal.
• The speaker displays the possibility of losing
  his current life and returning to the life he
  knew as a child.
• Daughter is concerned about the future, while the
  speaker is mainly focused on the child that is
  crossing the street.

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Speaker

• First person narration
• Seems to be a male- but not necessarily
• Speaker refers to his/her relationship with
  another being
• Possibly autobiographical

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Imagery

• Imagery creates setting
• This is the valley and its black strip of
  highway, big-eyed with rabbits that wont get
  across.
• Cats and chickens in the yard
• its a hard life where the sun looks

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More Imagery...

• They leap barefoot to the store-sweetness on
  their tongues, red stain with laughter
• A pot bangs and water runs in the kitchen.
• He looks both ways and then leaps across the
  road where riches happen on a red tongue.
• A hot time falls from their palms.

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Tone, Structure, and Sound Patterns

• Hopeful reflective survival
• Repetitiveness
• Alliteration
• Free verse
• Flashback to childhood

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Symbolism

• The highway-freedom, hope
• Town-predictability, poverty,
• barrier
• Sunglasses-barrier
• Anything under the suns
• rays-hardships
• Money, children-hope
• Rabbits-important of the
• children
• Candy-desire for life happiness
• Brown soup-necessities for healthy way of life

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Figurative Language

• Brown soup thats muscle for fieldwork
• And the mill if a pay check for the wife
• its black strip of highway, big-eyed
• Papas field that wavered like a mirage
• Worry is my daughters story
• Town-Highway
• Children-Rabbits
• Candy-Brown Soup

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Themes

• Learn to appreciate the simple things in life and
  always know a better life is right around the
  corner.
• Hope and optimism is the best way to creating a
  successful future.
• The future is often unpredictable, yet one can
  always steer it in the right direction.

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Personal Responce

• The descriptions of a life that we are not
  necessarily familiar with.
• Commentary allows reader to be more actively
  involved in the poem
• Imagery paints a vivid image

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Historical and Cultural Context

• Poverty
• Hard work
• Trouble finding jobs
• Limited opportunity

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Criticisms

• Gary Soto reflects upon the power of imagination
  to transform our realities even as it grows from
  those realities.
• (Davis)

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Works Cited

• Davis, Heather. Essay on A Small Town with one
  Road. Poetry for Students. Eds.Mary K.Ruby.Vol.
  7.Detroit Gale, 1997.
• Ruby, Mark K. A Small Town with One Road.
  Poetry for Students. ed., 1997.