1. The Jacket
1.1. Themes:
1.1.1. Don't let the way you look define how you act.
1.2. Characterization:
1.2.1. In the beginning the speaker is showing weakness, insecurity, and self doubt. Then as the story develops the speaker shows that he is more confident.
1.3. Conflicts:
1.3.1. The boy feels as though the world is making fun of him and bullying him due to the jacket he is wearing. In Paragraph 6 the narrator says that on :[t]he next day [he] wore it to sixth grade and go a D on a math quiz" and later that day "the playground terrorist, pushed [him] to the ground and told [him] to stay there until recess was over." (Soto 6)
1.4. Motifs:
1.4.1. The Jacket is a symbol of the boy's self consciousness and humility and that all his despair is the cause of wearing the jacket. This is because though the thoughts of him thinking everyone is making fun of him, these thoughts all represent his insecurity. He even said," I wore that thing for three years" and " [a]ll during that time no love came to me..." (Soto 9). The jacket is what brings all the despair to him. Another symbol can be where at the end of the story he says," that green ugly brother who breathed over my shoulder that day and ever since" (Soto 12) The green ugly brother symbolizes the sweater in a way that when you have a younger sibling, they always tend to follow you around and never leave you alone. Just like the jacket the boy is complaining about.
1.5. Author's Use of Language:
1.5.1. The author throughout the story uses first person to tell the story so we can read the story as if we are in the boy's shoes. This helps us get a better view on the character and we don't only see one side of the character.
1.6. Text Connections:
1.6.1. The text is just like the real world because there are some people that feel like they are always judged by the way they dress and they end up feeling very uncomfortable that it affects the way they perform in life.
2. Theme For English B
2.1. Themes:
2.1.1. About accepting who you are and that you are different.
2.2. Characterization:
2.2.1. Throughout the story the speaker displays how he has been put into many different boxes just based on the color of his skin.
2.3. Conflicts:
2.3.1. The speaker reveals how people in this time put him into a category they just judged him just due to his skin color. In the story the speaker mentions something about society and being different. Then he states all the things that he likes. He ends by saying "[t]he same as things other folks like who are other races" (Hughes 26).
2.4. Motifs:
2.5. In the poem the speaker mentions a hill above Harlem and he vividly describes how he gets home from school. In the first couple of lines in the poem, "The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem." (Hughes 11). The point of mentioning this hill and describing how he gets home is to illustrate how there is segregation through the city of Harlem. This hill is representing the division between the two sections of the city. Another symbol in the poem is the professor he is writing the paper for. While in some parts of the poem the professor is the teacher, other parts the professor represents society. The speaker shows this by writing, "Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be apart of me Nor do I often want to be apart of you" (Hughes 34-35). Writing this coveys how society is not accepting of him.
2.6. Author's Use of Language:
2.6.1. Throughout the poem the author uses specific words to convey that the poem has an underlying meaning. As an example of this he uses the word "you" to mean that even though he is told to write the letter and it will be true he knows that it will not be true. He also uses "I" to incorporate the idea that he is trying to identify and accept who he is.
2.7. Text Connections:
2.7.1. This connects to the real world because even in today's society people will judge you just by looking at you. Due to the fact that people are being judged every single day it leaves them to try and be accepting of themselves even though other people are nit accepting if them just like the speaker in the poem.