“The Pie” Essay Sin can take over someone’s life and can change their perspective of things. Those who succumb to sin will regret it later in life. In an excerpt from his autobiographical narrative, A Summer Life, Gary Soto describes his first memory of sinning and the guilt associated with the sin through the use of a light tone and biblical allusion, repetition, and imagery. Soto begins his story by detailing the event of stealing a pie at the age of six. He uses biblical allusion and imagery to highlight his struggle with sin. At the beginning, the image of, “the shadow of angels…” depicts a sense of ignorance because the reader sees that Soto forgot about angels and his religion as he thought about which pie to steal. This is significant …show more content…
Soto uses repetition and imagery to convey this feeling of remorse for his actions. At first, the image of, “the pie tin [glaring] at me,” depicts a sense of an uneasy feeling because the reader sees that the word glare conveys a guilty feeling. This is significant because as Soto sat on the curb looking at the empty pie tin, he realizes what he did and stars to feel guilty and remorseful. Additionally, the repetition of Soto saying everyone knew functions to describe his paranoid feeling after eating the pie. This structure supports the author’s purpose to show that he felt guilty for stealing and eating the pie. Lastly, the image of, “listening to the howling sound of plumbing,” depicts a sense of eeriness because the reader sees that Soto thinks the howling is God judging him for what he did. This is significant because it shows the extent of how guilty Soto is for eating the stolen pie. The imagery and repetition Soto uses serves the purpose of showing his guilt and remorse. Through this excerpt of Gary Soto’s narrative, he used biblical allusion, imagery, and repetition to describe an early memory of sinning by stealing a pie and how he regretted it later. Adult Soto realized his sin and by using a light tone he shares his story of greed, guilt, and struggles he had with