Bezoyan 1

Yervand Bezoyan

Professor Kane

English 115 MW

3 September 2019

PROGRESSION Exercise 1.1​: a P-A-S-E for "The Jacket" by Gary Soto

Preview:

Gary Soto seems to be a very successful person with many awarding novels. I believe “The

Jacket” is going to be a poetic short story about the symbolic meaning of the jacket. It would be

something to cover or show off about. The author seems to be very credible due to the many

awards he’s gotten in life as well as the support on arguments he’d make. I believe Soto is

writing to the general American population or maybe those who have hispanic backgrounds. I

believe this text will be interesting enough to see the author’s point of view on. I might or might

not have any biases against the author’s points depending on what it’s going to be about.

Annotation:

Paragraph 1: His clothes, possibly meaning the way he looks, isn’t going too well for him.

Paragraph 2: He wasn’t talking metaphorically? Possibly he wanted a new piece of clothing

(jacket). He seems to be very close with his mother but the jacket he got wasn’t exactly as he

described.

Paragraph 3: He did not like the jacket at all. Why did his mother tell him the jacket was in the

closet and why was it so big compared to his size?

Paragraph 4: Even though he doesn’t like the jacket he is still respectful and thanks his mother.

Cold outside.
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Paragraph 5: Jacket ripped, is he going to tell his mother? What happens next?

Paragraph 6: No one wants to help him and why aren’t the teachers doing anything?

Paragraph 7: All the kids were making fun of him because of his large green-ish jacket, typical

kids, why doesn’t he say anything back?

Paragraph 8: If the jacket was so much of a burden that it interrupted your learning then why just

not wear it or wear the older one even though it’s smaller?

Paragraph 9: He resorted to going into a less favorable crowd because no one would speak to

him just because of his clothing apparel? You could have tried opening up more to other people.

Paragraph 10: As the years went on the condition of the jacket worsened and he had fed up with

it all. He confronted his mother about it and blamed her for not getting him a better jacket. Why

didn’t she? Who is the sister Debbie that came up suddenly?

Paragraph 11: Why didn’t he let go of the jacket if it was all torn and worn out?

Paragraph 12: A dinner of powdered milk, buttered tortillas, and beans shows how poor the

family was and that’s all the mother could have afforded for him.

Summarize:

“The Jacket” by Gary Soto is about a young teenage boy who was taunted because of the jacket

his mother got him. For years he was made fun of, and was isolated by many people who were

supposedly his friends and due to that his grades worsened. He always hated the color of the

jacket and blamed his mother for buying him such an ugly thing. His family was always very

poor so their mother couldn’t afford to buy a new or better jacket for him. As the years went buy

the jacket began to wear out and he began to embrace the jacket rather than hate it like it’s apart

of him now.
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Evaluate:

There were certain points that made me generally angry like why he just stood there and got

bullied, if he hated the jacket so much, then why did he just not wear it, and why did no one want

to be friends with him just because of his jacket? Overall I believe this story goes a long way to

show no matter how rich or poor you may be, you should still thank your parents for providing

you with whatever they can and that you should embrace what you have no matter how “ugly” or

bad it may seem.