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Transcript

Saturday at the Canal - Gary Soto

Analysis

T: A lazy afternoon, spent watching water and doing nothing but dream

P: Speaker is unhappy, somewhat stagnant in the boredom of highschool. Wants to get out of town and follow his dreams (living in San Francisco)

C: focus on detail, point of view (details of highschool and what they were imagining, PoV looking back on a teenage memory)

A: Speaker's life - dominated by escape (specifically to SF) Unhappy with how highschool is, but passionate about his dream of going away. Soto - little attitude towards this, basically saying it is how it is

Analysis cont.

S: feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard/On a Bedroom wall. Unhappiness - stems from unfulfilled dream. Poem shift from focus on dreary, boring highschool life to the life they dreamed of, driven by the dream for the rest of the text.

Theme: Teenagers are driven by their dream.

boredom of highschool - tolerated due to the drive to fulfill their dream; any means necessary wish to escape Fresno for SF. Soto is suggesting all teens have a similar dream that keeps them going.

Gary Soto: New and Selected Poems

Most well known of Soto's collections

Finalist for both LA Times Book Award and the National Book Award

Book focuses on everyday life

Draws from his ethnic background

Poems are relate-able and easy to connect with

Common themes about growing up, hardship and nature.

Questions

I was hoping to be happy by seventeen. School was a sharp check mark in the roll book, An obnoxious tuba playing at noon because our team was going to win at night. The teachers were too close to dying to understand. The hallways stank of poor grades and unwashed hair. Thus, A friend and I sat watching the water on Saturday, neither of us talking much, just warming ourselves by hurling large rocks at the dusty ground and feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard on a bedroom wall. We wanted to go there, hitchhike under the last migrating birds and be with people who knew more than three chords on a guitar. We didn't drink or smoke, but our hair as shoulder length, wild when the wind picked up and the shadows of this loneliness gripped loose dirt. By bus or car, by the sway of train over a long bridge, we wanted to get out. The years froze as we sat on the bank. Our eyes followed the water, white tipped but dark underneath, racing out of town.

Favorite/memorable line?

what effect does PoV have?

Biographical Info

Born in Fresno, CA

Parents were Mexican-American

64 Years Old

Disliked school as a kid

Admires service workers, volunteer teacher of English to Spanish Speakers

Has received awards and acclaim for his poetry, including fellowships from guggenheim and national endowment for the arts

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