“The Jacket,” by Gary Soto tells the story of fifteen-year-old Tony Mendez living in a California ghetto. The book begins with Tony hearing that his friend had been stabbed defending him against bullies at school. The principal of the high school calls Tony’s father to let him know what happened and the police are called. The police officer comes to their house to talk with Tony, who is lying in bed trying not to show what happened. The officer asks Tony if he knows the boy who was stabbed, but Tony lies and says no.
The book goes on to detail Tony’s struggles both at school and at home. The worst part of his day begins when he walks into his house and hears his stepfather Johnny, yelling at his mother. The story ends with Tony going on a walk with his new friend Brandy, where she comforts him by telling him that she understands what it’s like to have a difficult family life. Gary Soto is an American author of fiction and poetry for young adults. ” The Jacket ” is one of his first books which was published in 1987.
The book has been noted for its realistic portrayal of the struggles of Mexican-American adolescence living in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The book also deals with the issues of violence among youth, drug dealing and gang mentality as well as alcoholism and domestic violence between family members such as parents and stepparents or children and their stepparents. The book has been commended for its bluntness and lack of preaching, as well as its use of the first-person narrative voice for a young male character.
The novel was adapted into a film of the same name starring Brad Renfro as Tony Mendez in 1997 . The story deals with many social problems such as child abuse, bullying, peer pressure to join gangs, violence, drugs and alcoholism. The Jacket is about a fifteen-year-old boy named Tony who lives in California’s San Joaquin Valley with his family that he describes as a very dysfunctional family on both sides. His father is an alcoholic that likes to beat him and his only sibling’s mother only stays because she does not want her children living without a mother figure.
The book is about a rough time in Tony’s life where two of his friends have been stabbed and he was being blamed for it even though he did not do it. The book is also about his sister finally leaving for college, him getting mixed up with the wrong crowd, and trying to avoid his alcoholic father from killing him. The book has some physical abuse but mostly mental abuse that really endangers Tony’s life. The theme of the story is that you should never give somebody else power over your happiness.
The Jacket was a very good book with a lot of excitement all throughout it. The only bad part was when Johnny would beat Tony up which made me want to stop reading this book because I didn’t like how he treated him. The Jacket was a book that had a lot of social problems in it that are still happening today. The family Tony is living with all has serious drinking problems and their step-father beats them when they get out of line.
The brother is also drinking with his friends one night after getting into a fight with somebody at school, so he gets really drunk too which leads to him being arrested the next day. The drugs in this story are mostly alcohol though but there were some instances where hashish was mentioned so I’m not exactly sure if it’s the same thing as marijuana with different names but I know for sure they were both illegal then just like they are now. The Jacket is an amazing book that people should read because it has great detail and keeps you wanting to read more and more.
The main character Tony is a very strong person to handle the things he has been through in his life. The book The Jacket is an amazing book about a boy who goes through all types of problems such as family issues and social problems like bullying and peer pressure. The story The Jacket is about a boy named Tony Mendez living in California with both sides of his family that drink too much and fight constantly, while dealing with having friends get stabbed, joining gangs and trying not to get beat up by his alcoholic father.
The Jacket was written by Gary Soto which is about a Mexican-American boy growing up during the 1960s where there were many racial tensions between whites and Latinos so it makes sense why the book The Jacket has all of these social issues that I never heard about in my life. The main conflict for Tony is that he does not want to be part of the gangs but his friends are pressuring him into it because they are afraid to go by themselves, also when Johnny tries to convince Tony into smoking hashish which puts him in a very dangerous situation because if somebody finds out he will get arrested or beaten up depending on who finds out.
The setting takes place mostly in Fresno, California where Tony lives with his family where all the characters in The Jacket speak in an informal way like “you see” instead of “see you” which shows how rough their English accents are and they even use words that hardly anyone uses anymore like ‘ain’t’ and ‘git. ‘ The Jacket was a very good book with a lot of excitement all throughout it. The only bad part was when Johnny would beat Tony up which made me want to stop reading this book because I didn’t like how he treated him. The Jacket was a book that had a lot of social problems in it that are still happening today.
The family Tony is living with all has serious drinking problems and their step-father beats them when they get out of line. The brother is also drinking with his friends one night after getting into a fight with somebody at school, so he gets really drunk too which leads to him being arrested the next day. The drugs in this story are mostly alcohol though but there were some instances where hashish was mentioned so I’m not exactly sure if it’s the same thing as marijuana with different names but I know for sure they were both illegal then just like they are now.
The Jacket is an amazing book that people should read because it has great detail and keeps you wanting to read more and more. The main character Tony is a very strong person to handle the things he has been through in his life. The book The Jacket is an amazing book about a boy who goes through all types of problems such as family issues and social problems like bullying and peer pressure.
