Gary Soto Buried Onions

In the story Buried Onions, Gary Soto uses the end of the story to reveal his purpose for writing his story. On the final page of the story Soto writes “‘Hey, man I seen you before.’” One of them grinned, the one from Cuca’s restaurant. My god, I thought. My wounds hurt, my lungs were on fire.I was overwhelmed with sorrow. I realized I had trudged over onions, acrs of buried onions.” This is said when our main character Eddie decides to join the military to get away from his impoverished life in Fresno California. This is the man who showed kindness to the main earlier in the story on page 64 to the man who was selling potatoes to support him and his family. On the last page aswell Eddie also meets again the man who he and Jose bought onions …show more content…
I believe that this is Eddie's change and what the author wanted to push onto us. Eddie now realizes that other people are going to the military to escape their horrible lives and become a start of something new and that if you do try you can change your life. But, even he knows that not everyone can come to this realization like him, which is why he thinks back to Angel and his cousin. He knows that there was no pursuit for him and they could never achieve “The American Dream.” Eddies “primo” couldn't achieve this because he was in gangs and was too deep into the violence of Fresno, explained when Angel, the main antagonist, says that “‘Some dude iced, mi carnal.’” Mi carnal has a very strong meaning in spanish you use it for people you are related to and that you love or that you're in a club/gang with. And we know Angel is indeed a gangbanger so it would make sense for Jesus to be one with him. This is also the reason Angel can never achieve the American Dream. A poor hispanic was already one of the reasons he might have not achieved it but he sealed his face with murder theft and other