Oranges by Gary Soto

http://www.tatteredcoat.com/archives/2005/04/16/national-poetry-month-gary-soto/

This poem has a very light and touching tone. The words are short and simple. Even the sentences are not complex at all. Yet the poem could describe such a vivid picture of what the speaker wanted to share with his readers. The simplicity of the entire poem seems to express something pure and innocent in the relationship of the speaker to the girl and that to his oranges. The speaker walked to the girl’s house with oranges in his pockets. These oranges were brought along for some reason: could it be that the speaker wanted to share those oranges with the girl? When the girl wanted a chocolate that cost more than what the speaker had, the speaker gave up one of his oranges for the chocolate. The relationship of the speaker to his oranges is realized in when the speaker, paying with his nickel and orange, “set them quietly on the counter.” The speaker exchanged his orange for the chocolate that his girl wanted. By taking the orange, the saleslady understood the value of the speaker’s orange. The orange that was left was portrayed in a picture full of life. The orange was “bright against the gray December,” like “a fire in the my hands.” There is entirely different view of the oranges in the last sentence. Although the title of the poem is “Oranges,” the entire poem seemed to make no significance of oranges until the last sentence. The orange glowing in the speaker’s hands could symbolize the warmth the speaker feel having the orange in his hands. Thus there must be a close relationship of the speaker with his oranges. The glowing orange could also be a symbol of love of the speaker to his girlfriend. With his orange, the speaker was able to buy his girlfriend something she wanted. The orange could have been a tie between the speaker and his girl. However, the relationship of the speaker to his oranges is more evident in this poem than his relationship to the girl. The orange was fire in the fog to the speaker - like love, like passion, like something he must have in his life.