Commentary on an excerpt from A Summer Life.
Knowingly and ignorantly, preconceived and spontaneously, but as humans we are prone to sin, it is inevitable. Young Gary Soto recreated a childhood experience in his autobiography, A Summer Life. In this book, he shared his story about the time he stole a pie from the German Market. To emphasize the guilt he possessed as a young six-year-old, Gary Soto utilizes rhetorical devices such as contrast, repetition, pacing, diction, figurative language and imagery to recreate the unforgettable memory. .
Soto expresses his tone of remorse and guilt, causing the reader to delve into the mind of the young author and experience the mental torment he endured. The employment of contrast and repetition are among some of the devices used to express this self-punishment. After stealing the apple pie Soto relates it with the biblical image of "an apple got Eve in deep trouble with a snake." He inadvertently contrasts himself with the first and original sinners, Adam and Eve, upon finding a connection between the two because of the apple. The coincidence scares him even more when young Soto realizes that they were punished for their action and so will he be. Lights and glares that reflect off shiny objects, serve also as reminders to Soto of his sin. The young boy, tormented by his sins, perceives the sunlight's reflection as a symbol of God. While leaving the store with the pie, young Soto grins at "the bald grocer whose forehead shone with a window of light," and observes the light in the pie tin later and again in his mind at the end of the passage. The light of God is shinning off items to make the boy aware of the fact that God is watching. Also, it represents a flashing warning signal from God. This could also be classified as an example of repetition, "the pie tin glared at me" and later, "[I] saw the glare of a pie tin on a hot day." The pie tin looks at him condescendingly, and mocks him.