Analysis of Looking for Work Story - Essay Example

“Looking for Work” “Looking for Work” is a humorous story about the perception of a nine-year old on perfect families. Gary Soto begins his story by a flashback remembering his childhood obsession with the morning program “Family Knows Best” (Orr 11). Gary Soto is an adult but begins his story by a flashback that describes his unwavering desire for the perfect families in the family sitcoms. The flashback helps the audience see his satirical thoughts influenced by his juvenile and immature reasoning. By beginning the story with a flashback, Soto highlights how his thoughts have matured from his childhood to his present adult life. The use of direct quotes of the author calling his siblings shows the author’s attempts to imitate the family set-ups he watched in his favorite program. The quotes are useful in creating an imagery of the author’s actions and his desire to mimic the perfect families in TV. Orr (82) explains that the use of satire throughout the story is the writer’s strongest aspect in constructing his arguments. The author asked his brother Rick and sister Debbie to put on shoes to the dinner table just like in the TV where people dress appropriately for dinner parties. However, Rick defied him and came to the dinner table with only his swim trunks on. The writer’s attempts to influence his siblings and his brother’s defiance occurred without the mother realizing. The use of satire is more evident in the author’s use of an exclamation mark in the sentence “…to become wealthy, and right away!” The author is so obsessed with the rich lives of the families he watches in the TV such that he decides to take a rake and look for work in the neighborhood. Even though doing manual jobs such as cleaning using rakes cannot make one rich, the author still believes he can be rich. Even more satirical is the fact that the author walks in the neighborhood requesting to collect leaves in the summer. It is clear that the author’s obsession has impaired his judgment and reasoning. It is in the summer therefore, there are no leaves to clean up. However, the author’s insistence on the presence of leaves to clean up is ridiculous and discomforting. The author’s use of satire is his strongest literary aspect to show his childhood and often, stupid obsession with families in TV (Orr 83). Gary Soto discusses at length his quest to work for people in the neighborhood in order to get rich (Orr 93). He succinctly describes the work he did for his neighbors and in the process, highlights the stupidity of his ideas to the audience. Highlighting the stupidity and absurdity of his obsession is Soto’s best strategy of convincing the audience. Soto describes how he fetched coke for one of the neighbors and received a nickel in return. He wed the flowerbed for Mrs. Moore, cutting and uprooting the Bermuda grass. In addition, the writer describes the work of the most of the residents in the neighborhood. Most of the residents were welders, mechanics, ware-housemen and plumbers. Besides, many had retired and were enjoying their retirement benefits. It was therefore, absurd for the writer to considering getting rich by doing manual jobs for mostly retirees and people performing low- paying jobs. The author’s description of the economic situation of the neighborhood depicts the absurdity of his obsession with families in the TV. Garry Soto also uses flashback strategically to give the audience a background information about his intellectual history while in school. The author uses flashback to highlight his schooling days and his relationship with his friend Little John. Through the flashback, the audience learns that the author’s intellectual ineptness led his high school teacher, Miss Marino, to label him as stupid. In fact, both the author and his best friend, Little John were labelled as stupid. Through the flashback, the audience learns that the author and Little John sat next to the bright students with the hope that they will improve their grades Orr (12) explains that nonetheless, the author’s academic performance did not improve, which eventually led to Miss Marino cursing the author and his friends. Soto use of flashback especially about his academic failures was strategic, meant to cast doubts on the validity of his obsession with families in TV programs. By highlighting his academic struggles, the author leads the audience to vilify his obsession with families in family sitcoms and other programs. The use of dialogue is among the most effective strategies the author uses to show his obsession with families in TV programs. The use of real conversations brings into prominence the author’s obsession. The author asks her mother if she could prepare a turtle soup after watching on TV, a Polynesian family taking turtle soup. The author had previously watched a Polynesian family kill and stew a large turtle in an open fire. The author engages in a dialogue with the mother trying to convince her to prepare a turtle soup for the family (Orr 68). The conversation enables the audience to learn the source of the author’s ideas as the television programs. The author also requests the mother in the conversation if they could dress for dinner similar to the way David King dresses in the TV shows. The author uses dialogue to highlight the lifestyles he envied of the families in one of his favorite shows ‘Leave It to Beaver.’ One of the dialogue shows food as well as the harmonious relationships among rich white families. Sato therefore, uses dialogue effectively to show the lifestyles in TV shows he desired and was obsessed with as well as his efforts to convince his family to live like the families in the TV shows. Soto successfully uses contrast to in the article to show his obsession with lifestyles in family sitcoms (Orr, 45). He compares their family lifestyles with the lifestyles in his favorite TV shows. He compares the polite conversations in one of the shows with the quarrelsome and tense conversations in their family during dinners. In addition, the author contrasts the general etiquette and table manners observed by the rich white families with the lack of table manners in their family such as belly laughs while eating. The author uses the contrast to justify his obsession with the family lifestyles in sitcoms. The contrasts makes the author’s obsessions look a normal desire to have a better lifestyle rather than a juvenile and immature fascination of rich families. Such comparisons are effective to convince the audience and both the author’s family of the need to live like these families in the TV shows. Among the shortcomings of the author is that he is not convincing enough to both the audience and his family members. The author fails to explain elaborately and succinctly his obsession with families in TV shows. The author engages in conversations with the mother trying to convince her to imitate the families in some of the shows but in most occasions, he fails to convince his family. In fact, the family reacts surprisingly to some of his suggestions. Her mother and sister, Debbie considers him crazy because of his weird suggestions. The author engages in a bitter quarrel with Debbie who openly rejects his suggestion of dressing up for a dinner. The author tries to convince Debbie that dressing for dinner will might make their lives better but he fails in this endeavor. In fact, Debbie reacts furiously and calls him “craphead.” Although the author had an intense fascination with the lifestyles of families in TV shows, he fails to convince his family on the necessity of imitating their lifestyles. The author relies on the use of satire to debunk his obsession with family lifestyles in TV shows. He satirizes his actions such as asking his siblings to put on shoes for dinner and looking for work in the neighborhood in order to become wealthy (Orr 49). Soto ignores the use of other literary styles such as irony and sarcasm to achieve his objectives. In addition, he employs minimal use of punctuation marks such as exclamations and question marks to show emotions and achieve other literary objectives. The overuse of humor and satire does not help to debunk conclusively the author’s childish and illogical fascination with family sitcoms. Nonetheless, Soto’s story elaborates the influence of excessive TV watching on children. Excessive TV watching creates a sense of delusion as people try to imitate the often, fictitious lifestyles of their favorite programs’ TV stars. Works cited Orr, Tamra. Gary Soto. New York, NY: Rosen Pub. Group, 2005. Print. Read More