74 pages • 2 hours read
Gary SotoA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Soto briefly introduces his spouse and discusses his life as it regards to his finances: “My wife, Carolyn, married me for my savings: Not the double digit figures but the strange three or four dollar withdrawals and deposits. The first time she saw my passbook she laughed until her eyes became moist and then hugged me as she called ‘Poor baby.’ And there was truth to what she was saying: Poor” (138).
In this story, Soto talks about how his “savings book is a testimony to [his] fear of poverty—that by saving a dollar here, another there, it would be kept at bay” (140). Soto says his fear stems from the difficult financial times during his child: “The time Mother was picking grapes and my brother ate our entire lunch while my sister and I played under the vines. For us there was nothing to eat that day” (141).
By Gary Soto