Buried Onions

Buried Onions by Gary Soto is about a nineteen-year-old Mexican American named Eddie. He lives in Fresno in a run-down apartment by himself, attempting to make money doing various honest jobs that do not pay very much.  He paints addresses on curbs, does yard work, and roams through white neighborhoods where he can get paid a few dollars. Mr. Siles, a white, middle-aged man, gives him a job to dig a hole for a tree he wants to plant. When Mr. Siles gives Eddie his truck to dump some trash in a junkyard, the truck gets stolen and Mr. Siles blames Eddie. A few days later, Eddie sees the truck in his neighborhood, and his friend Jose attempts to help him take it back. However, Jose gets stabbed, and Eddie feels responsible. Eddie’s cousin, Jesus, has also been stabbed, and Jesus’s mother and friend, Angel, want Eddie to avenge his death. Although Eddie is trying to avoid this life of poverty, violence, and crime, he cannot escape it. He drops out of college, gets accused of attacking an old man in a Laundromat, and eventually attacks Angel, because he thinks he killed Jesus. The novel ends with Eddie joining the Navy, in order to get his life back together. However, the last chapter concludes ambiguously, with him crying in the middle of nowhere, because he realizes his life of pain and struggle has followed him even into the Navy.

            I think this book would be a good choice for a multicultural classroom. The sentence structure is a little bit difficult, and there is not much dialogue, just a lot of long descriptions. In addition, the main character has already graduated high school, so he may not be relatable to some middle school students. Therefore, I think it should be taught in an eighth grade or early high school class. The main character is also a boy, and the novel seems to deal with a lot of male characters and struggles. I think it might be hard for a girl to relate. While I am not sure it would be a good choice to teach the whole class, it might be a good choice for an independent or group read. There were a lot of Spanish words used, and it would be really cool for native Spanish speakers to help teach the class a lesson on the Spanish vocabulary. It would definitely be a different learning and teaching experience for most students.  Overall, it was very entertaining and action packed. I think any middle school boy could really get into this novel.

Soto, Gary. Buried Onions. Harcourt Brace & Company: San Diego, 1997