The narrator is attracted in the kind of family life on TV because he sees the luxury and comfort that it portrays towards others. Moreover, it gives him an idea that various things are possible and for them it can also be applied. This is because he thinks that his family is depriving him of various things including television time, good food and the ability to enjoy the luxuries of life. However, his desires have little impact in the family because of his status and him being a child. More often than not, it is the parents who can dictate what is supposed to happen.
The narrator first went looking for work for him to get the opportunity to swim with his friends. In the end however, we see a transition of the meaning of work as the narrator begins to realize that there are more important things in life that need to be done. It means that from a childlike understanding, it evolved into a more mature role towards the realization of the need for sustenance.
In Soto’s point of view, the family should be able to provide sufficiently towards its members. He feels the inadequacy of her dad providing, so he takes up the effort to look for the job himself. This can be argued by the quotation, “we all gleamed like cellophane, wiping the sweat from our brows with the backs of our hands as we talked about the day” (Soto, p.27). Though his realizations seem to hold ground, he still does not yet realize the difficulty of life. He only realized it at the end of the story when he went back to the large flower bed to do his chores.
My own reading style revolves around immersing myself in the text two or three times for me to fully understand the concepts. On the other hand, when it comes to note-taking, I usually point out the main idea and write it together with the shortened version of their relative arguments. These ideas are important because when we seek to impart to others about the relevance of an idea towards others, we must be able to convey the message straightforward. Moreover, it is one way of promoting increase of knowledge. By familiarizing oneself to these techniques, better and efficient works and outputs can be made which can contribute to deeper understanding of the concepts.
