A. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Soto, G. (2006). Buried onions. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.
B. PLOT SUMMARY
Buried Onions is a story about a young man named Eddie, who has recently lost his cousin due to gang violence. Eddie is trying to get his life back on track and earn a decent wage with a respectable job, but several of his friends and family members are trying to convince him to take revenge on the people responsible for the killing, even going as far as bringing him a handgun to do the job. As Eddie tries to block out all of the negative influences in his life, a string of bad luck threatens to bring him back to the streets.
Eddie finds a job doing manual labor for a man who lives in a nicer part of Fresno, but after the man asks Eddie to bring a load of garbage to the dump, the man's truck is stolen. Eddie and a friend who has returned to his hometown before shipping off in the Marines eventually find the truck, but as Eddie is running to notify the police and the man that his truck has been found, some young gang members stab his friend. The friend eventually recovers from his wounds, but not before being hospitalized for over a week.
Thinking that Eddie was responsible for the truck going missing, and the eventual beating of an elderly man, the man that he was working for has Eddie arrested while completing a job for him. After being cleared by the police, Eddie again tries to get his life sorted out. After meeting up with an old mentor and coach, Eddie contemplates joining the Navy, something he feels will help him escape his hometown forever. After a few run-ins with Angel, the person suspected of having his cousin killed, Eddie eventually finds him at his house one day and beats him up. Not long after, Eddie signs up to join the Navy, eventually leaving town on a bus hoping for a better future for himself.
C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Gary Soto does a wonderful job in Buried Onions of intertwining Spanish and English to give an authentic feel to the character of Eddie and the rougher parts of Fresno where he grows up. Included in the back of the book is a glossary of terms, which was helpful since I know very little Spanish. Even for non-Spanish speaking readers, most words could be pieced together using context clues, and so the reading was not overly difficult. Had this book been written by someone who was not Mexican-American, I might find some reasons to critique the depictions of certain characters and the stereotypes portrayed throughout. The mentions of the ongoing battles between the Mexicans and the Hmongs was a conflict that I had little knowledge of, but this was very likely a very large problem in California during this time period. However, Soto grew up in Fresno, and the characters and the situations they find themself in felt largely authentic. The depictions of the surroundings, the young wanna-be gangsters, and even the familial bonds described in the book made me feel that Soto had experienced much of what took place in these pages. The desire for a respectable job and a better life for Eddie made me realize that sometimes getting away from home is the thing that could save someone in the end.
Aside from the language used and the descriptions of characters and places throughout the novel, Soto does a wonderful job of incorporating his culture and specific elements of Fresno into the book. The struggle felt by Eddie when he is riding his bike through the scorching heat looking at all of the white-owned houses in the nicer part of Fresno made me realize that this was not a book centered around racial differences. The real discrepancies that Eddie focuses on are class-based, centering around his desire for a better life. His aspirations to leave his hometown had little to do with racial biases or conflicts with a certain group of people, and everything to do with opportunities and a chance to fill his pantry.
D. REVIEW EXCERPTS
"Soto's descriptions are poetic, and he creates deep feelings of heat and despair. A powerful and thought-provoking read."
--School Library Journal
This unrelenting portrait is unsparing in squalid details: The glue sniffers, gangs, bums, casual knifings, filth, and stench are in the forefront of a life without much hope``Laundry wept from the lines, the faded flags of poor, ignorant, unemployable people.'' Soto plays the tale straight the only sign of a ``happy'' ending is in Eddie's joining the Navy. The result is a sort of Fresno Salaam Bombay without the pockets of humanity that gave the original its charm. A valuable tale, it's one that makes no concessions.
--Kirkus Reviews
E. CONNECTIONS
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