Response to Looking for Work - Gary Soto

Response to Looking for Work by: Gary Soto

Have you ever wanted to live the perfect life where you were rich, have a mansion, and a loving traditional family, like in the television shows Leave It to Beaver? Well in Gary Soto's "Looking for Work" that is exactly how he would want his family to live. In the story Soto, a young Hispanic child wishes he could live a happy and luxurious life. Soto tells us in his story how maybe living in a rich society would probably make his family's life much easier and happier.

In Gary Soto's "Looking for Work" tells a story of himself as a nine year old Hispanic child who wants his family to be more like traditional American family that he sees on TV. Having the picture perfect family in his mind be made up of: the parents loving and caring for each other, kids following and listening to their parents and the family living in a nice mansion. Unluckily, this is not actually how his life really is. Money seems to be the most important part of creating his perfect family so in Soto's mind he knew he would have to be wealthy in order to live his fantasy life.

For instance, Gary Soto is watching Leave It to Beaver he sees a scene from the show were the family is having dinner the father looks on in his suit. The mother, decked out earrings and a pearl necklace, and cuts into her steak and blushes. After watching this scene on TV, Gary wanted his family to be like the family on that show. He saw the true happiness in the TV family as they ate their dinner and wanted his family to ensure the same feeling. In addition, he later compares his family to that of the TV family. He states "Our own talk at the table was loud with belly laughs and marked by our pointing forks at one another." He grew up learning and understanding differently that of another child who grows up in a regular traditional family.

However, in "Looking for Work" his family is labeled by race and salary instead of joy and love in a unified family. Through his experience growing up, Soto reveals to us that growing up at that specific time, being envious was a great thing to him. Gary Soto wanted to try and be like the families of the TV show that he always watched. He even tried to convince his siblings to wear shows to dinner and improve their appearance so that white people would appreciate Hispanics more. From the story we can imply that this nine year old boy loves in an okay neighborhood it may not be Los Angles but it's a fairly nice area. He goes and does unusual jobs for his neighbors he seems to be a kind, loving person and is concerned of the well-being of his loved ones.

To sum up, Gary Soto writes this short story from the view of a young nine year old Mexican American boy, who only wants to have the perfect family so that people will like him better. He gives wonderful and precise details describing