Oranges

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1985

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Oranges” consists of 56 unrhymed lines and is divided into two stanzas. Each line is short, often fewer than six words. The lines do not have a consistent meter—there is no arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables—though the similar length of the lines gives the poem a consistency of pace. In Soto’s own words: “I depend upon rhythm, not rhyme and meter, for a poetry cadence that will attract the musically conscious reader” (Interview with Gary Soto. TeachingBooks.net).

"Oranges" is a narrative poem, a genre that uses plot and characters much like a short story would. Soto’s poem has a distinct plot, with a beginning (boy picks up girl for walk), middle (boy buys girl candy at store), and end (girl eats candy, boy feels hope). These sections are marked by deliberate changes in setting: The kids spend the first part walking through town; enter the drugstore in Line 21, exactly midway through the first stanza; and end the poem by going outside following a stanza break in Line 43. The poem also contains three characters: the male adolescent speaker (the boy), his preteen crush (the girl), and the sales clerk sympathetic to the boy’s concerns.

This narrative poem also contains elements of lyric poetry: vivid imagery in lines like “fog hanging like old / Coats between the trees” (Lines 45-46), and poetic metaphors such as “Someone might have thought / I was making a fire in my hands” (Lines 55-56).

Imagery

Poets use descriptions to convey real and vivid sensation or to capture temperature and motion—all in the service of getting the reader to feel in the moment with the poem's speaker or subject. Soto’s poem uses many different types of imagery to make the speaker’s walk with the girl relatable.

Many of the descriptive images appeal to the reader's senses. Some evoke sounds: the “frost cracking” (Line 5), “a dog barked” (Line 12), and “cars hissing past” (Line 44). Others focus on touch: The boy “touched [the girl’s] shoulder” (Line 16), “fingered the nickel” (Line 31), and “peeled” the orange (Line 51), actions that are easy for a reader to connect with. Soto also paints a picture of what the speaker sees. The girl’s “face [is] bright / With rouge” (Lines 14-15) as they pass “a used car lot and a line / Of newly planted trees” (Lines 18-19). Later, the orange is “bright against / The gray of December” (Lines 52-53). Smell and taste are more implied than described by the kids' enjoyment of chocolate and orange slices, which have very distinct aromas and flavors.

“Oranges” is also filled with images of movement that add to the physical action. The speaker notes the girl “pulling / At her gloves” (Lines 13-14). Later, he pays attention to how she “lifted a chocolate” (Line 32) and how he must “set [the orange and nickel] quietly on / The counter” (Line 36). Images of temperature highlight the winter weather which is so “cold” (Line 3) that the boy’s “breath” (Line 6) is “Before me, then gone” (Line 7).

Enjambment

Enjambment is a poetic technique that continues a thought from one line to the next without using end-line punctuation to indicate a pause—the more typical way to end a line of poetry. Enjambment has many uses, from creating double meaning, to adding a sense of curiosity for the reader. In “Oranges,” Soto uses the technique to play with our understanding of the concerns of its narrator. During the boy’s walk to his beloved's house, he is described as “[c]old and weighted down” (Line 3). The phrase "weighted down" here seems to imply an emotional burden—the reader assumes that has to do with the weather or with the boy's romantic failure. However, the next line clarifies that what weighs down the boy are “two oranges” (Line 4)—a funny and surprising turn of events.

Another strong use of Soto’s technique happens later, when the salesclerk, makes eye contact with the boy over his attempt at payment:

The lady’s eyes met mine

And held them, knowing

Very well what it was all

About (Lines 39-40)

Ending the line with “knowing” piques the reader’s interest. What does the woman know? How is she assessing the boy and his payment? The enjambment builds suspense and tension, until we learn the resolution of the encounter a few lines later.