Gary soto, the talk

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My best friend and I knew that we were going to grow
up to be ugly. On a backyard lawn—the summer light
failing west of the mulberry tree where the house of the
most beautiful girl on our street stood—we talked about
what we could do: shake the second-base dirt from our
hair, wash our hands of frog smells and canal water,
and learn to smile without showing our crooked teeth.
We had to stop spitting when girls were looking and
learn not to pile food onto a fork and into a fat cheek
already churning hot grub.
We were twelve, with lean bodies that were beginning
to grow in weird ways. First, our heads got large, but
our necks wavered, frail as crisp tulips. The eyes stayed
small as well, receding into pencil dots on each side of
an unshapely nose that cast remarkable shadows when
we turned sideways. It seemed that Scott’s legs
sprouted muscle and renegade veins, but his arms, blue
with ink markings, stayed short and hung just below his
waist. My gangly arms nearly touched my kneecaps. In
this way, I was built for picking up grounders and doing
cartwheels, my arms swaying just inches from the
summery grass.
_________________
“The Talk” from A Summer Life by Gary Soto. Copyright © 1990
by Copyright © 1990 by Dell Publishing, a division of Random
House, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author.
The Talk
Gary Soto
Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All Rights Reserved. Terms of use. Credits. Privacy Policy
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Before You Read
Read the Essay
Meet the Writer
Making Meanings
Choices
Vocabulary
We sat on the lawn, with the porch light off, waiting for
the beautiful girl to turn on her bedroom light and read
on her stomach with one leg stirring the air. This stirred
us, and our dream was a clean dream of holding hands
and airing out our loneliness by walking up and down
the block.
When Scott asked whom I was going to marry, I said a
brown girl from the valley. He said that he was going to
marry a strawberry blonde who would enjoy Millerton
Lake, dirty as it was. I said mine would like cats and the
sea and would think nothing of getting up at night from
a warm, restless bed and sitting in the yard under the
icy stars. Scott said his wife would work for the first
year or so, because he would go to trade school in
refrigeration. Since our town was made with what was
left over after God made hell, there was money in air
conditioning, he reasoned.
The Talk
Gary Soto
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Before You Read
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Meet the Writer
Making Meanings
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Vocabulary
I said that while my wife would clean the house and stir
pots of nice grub, I would drive a truck to my job as a
carpenter, which would allow me to use my long arms. I
would need only a stepladder to hand a fellow worker
on the roof a pinch of nails. I could hammer, saw, lift
beams into place, and see the work I got done at the
end of the day. Of course, she might like to work, and
that would be okay, because then we could buy two
cars and wave at each other if we should see the other
drive by. In the evenings, we would drink Kool-Aid and
throw a slipper at our feisty dog at least a hundred
times before we went inside for a Pop-Tart and hot
chocolate.
Scott said he would work hard too, but now and then he
would find money on the street and the two of them
could buy extra things like a second TV for the bedroom
and a Doughboy swimming pool for his three kids. He
planned on having three kids and a ranch house on the
river, where he could dip a hand in the water, drink,
and say, “Ahh, tastes good.”
But that would be years later. Now we had to do
something about our looks. We plucked at the grass and
flung it into each other’s faces.
The Talk
Gary Soto
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Before You Read
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Making Meanings
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Vocabulary
“Rotten luck,” Scott said. “My arms are too short. Look
at ’em.”
“Maybe we can lift weights. This would make up for our
looks,” I said.
“I don’t think so,” Scott said, depressed. “People like
people with nice faces.”
He was probably right. I turned onto my stomach, a
stalk of grass in my mouth. “Even if I’m ugly, my wife’s
going to be good-looking,” I said. “She’ll have a lot of
dresses and I’ll have more shirts than I have now. Do
you know how much carpenters make?”
Then I saw the bedroom light come on and the beautiful
girl walk into the room drying her hair with a towel. I
nudged Scott’s short arm and he saw what I saw. We
flicked the stalks of grass, stood up, and walked over to
the fence to look at her scrub her hair dry. She plopped
onto the bed and began to comb it, slowly at first
because it was tangled. With a rubber band, she tied it
back, and picked up a book that was thick as a good-
sized sandwich.
The Talk
Gary Soto
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Before You Read
Read the Essay
Meet the Writer
Making Meanings
Choices
Vocabulary
Scott and I watched her read a book, now both legs in
the air and twined together, her painted toenails like
red petals. She turned the pages slowly, very carefully,
and now and then lowered her face into the pillow. She
looked sad but beautiful, and we didn’t know what to do
except nudge each other in the heart and creep away to
the front yard.
“I can’t stand it anymore. We have to talk about this,”
Scott said.
“If I try, I think I can make myself better looking,” I
said. “I read an article about a girl whitening her teeth
with water and flour.”
So we walked up the street, depressed. For every step I
took, Scott took two, his short arms pumping to keep
up. For every time Scott said, “I think we’re ugly,” I
said two times, “Yeah, yeah, we’re in big trouble.”
The Talk
Gary Soto
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Before You Read
Read the Essay
Meet the Writer
Making Meanings
Choices
Vocabulary
First Thoughts
Shaping Interpretations
Extending the Text
Making Meanings
The Talk
textbook page 380
Reading Check
Imagine that in ten years Scott and Gary happen
to meet in a restaurant. They reminisce about
their talk. With a partner, take the parts of Scott
and Gary. Retell what they recall about their talk.
1. Do any of Soto’s characters remind you of
yourself—or someone you know? Explain.
2. Soto uses exaggeration to describe himself and
his friend Scott. Find two exaggerated statements
in the text. What do they tell you about how the
boys feel about themselves?
3. Look over the Quickwrite notes you made about
the importance of looks in our society. How
important are good looks? What about other
factors—such as good character, honesty, hard
work, money? Rate some factors on a scale. Be
sure to discuss your ratings in class.
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Gary soto, the talk

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