Soto’s narration of his childhood experience of sin and guilt utilizes many rhetorical strategies. Every aspect of his prose including his pacing, repetition of phrases, imagery, and use of contrasting elements gives the reader a deeper understanding of what he felt during the pie raid. He clearly portrays how a child would react to the situation. Although throughout the essay, pacing is most clearly used as a literary device in paragraph two. Soto uses a quick pace to convey a sense of nervous anxiety and panic such as “He looked at me, and I got up and headed for home. I raced on skinny legs to my block.” This is a drastic change from the preceding paragraph when the pace was slower and the sentences flowed smoothly.
The same quick pace was used to describe the stealing of the pie and the getaway afterwards. This type of pace implies that the author is afraid of being caught and is being extra vigilant. It also gives the story a lively twist and presents the story as if it were happening. Many themes are phrases are repeated in the story. After stealing the pie, the author feels guilt. Due to this feeling begins to become cynical and thinks everyone knows he stole the pie and are out to get him.
The driver knew, Mrs. Hancock knew, his mother knew, and finally he knew. Of course, the only person that truly knows what he has done is himself, but his guilty conscience is creating this false sense of suspicion. The “howling sound of plumbing” is also repeated in his story.
The Essay on Gary Soto Pie Story Time
... self. Different elements such as contrast, repetition, pacing, diction, and imagery. Soto narrates this story as a young boy at a time ... is relishing every moment of eating the pie. Finally, imagery is used throughout the story such as the "proximity of God howling ... he was so nervous. Also, when Soto first steals the pie, he notices that the grocer's forehead "shone with a window ...
By comparing the howling to the voice of God, Soto lets us know that he truly does feel guilt about the pie. The howling, the shadow of angels, and the light all represent the child’s conscience as they are telling him that what he is doing is wrong. He says that “I… forgetting the shadow of angels and proximity of God howling in the plumbing underneath the house, sneaked a pie… .” meaning he had ignored his conscience and gave into temptation. Soto uses this to show he does have a conscience and that it was overwhelmed by temptation.
.”.. licked some of the crust and closed my eyes as I took a small bite… The slop was sweet and gold-colored in the afternoon sun… greedily push big chunks of pie down my throat… a burp perfumed the air” Soto uses all this imagery to recreate the experience for his readers. We can instantly imagine what the pie smelled like, tasted like, and felt like in our minds.
This imagery also helps us understand the temptation he felt and emphasizes why he stole the pie. Through his use of imagery, readers are able to share his experience and “eat” the pie with him. Lastly, there are many contrasting themes in the story. Some are more apparent than others the most obvious being the theme of right versus wrong. This is shown in several ways. First, elements of both heaven and hell are portrayed.
.”.. shadow of angels… holy in every bone… hell…
.” Secondly, the theme of conscience versus temptation is shown. “Forgetting… I sneaked a pie.” By using these contrasting themes Soto puts emphasis on his inner conflict of good versus evil and right versus wrong. We are presented with universally accepted objects that symbolize this..
