Caitlin Flores

English 9H
5/3/17
P.7

Literary Analysis; Oranges by Gary Soto

In the poem Oranges by Gary Soto, imagery plays a large role in demonstrating what

young love looks like. Throughout the poem, Soto continues to go into great detail about the

little things that the twelve year old boy is noticing on his first mini date.

When the boy describes the girl he is walking with, he describes her by saying she has a

light in her eyes,(Soto line 28). From this, the reader can infer that the boy is just another

young lover. This demonstrates the idea of him noticing the little things about her, showing how

young lovers act.

Also, throughout the poem he describes his orange that he has with him. When he

describes the orange he was eating, a good deal of imagery to describe it. He uses the phrase I

peeled my orange That was so bright against The gray of December That, from some distance,

Someone might have thought I was making a fire in my hands. (Soto lines 51-56) This proves

how the boy was so pleased to have his young love with him, that his orange looked so much

better than it did when she wasnt around. By describing something insignificant such as his

orange, he is proving that he is a young lover.

In the beginning of the poem, Soto uses imagery to describe the climate that surrounds

him. The boy says December. Frost cracking Beneath my steps, my breath before me then
gone. (Soto, lines 5-7). This shows that he was in a state of young love. This quote proves this

because he was noticing the little things and everything seemed just right for his first time with

the girl.

These quotes all demonstrate what young love looks like. From describing what she looks

like, to what his orange is like, and then onto describing what the climate was like outside, he is

demonstrating how he is a young lover with the girl he was with. Throughout the poem, imagery

shows what young love looks like.