"Looking for Work" by Gary Soto

            In my perspective this text was both simple and complicatingto understand. I know that is contradicting but in many ways that statement identifies the characters feelings as well. In reading the pre text about the author Gary Soto and what his growing up was like, i quickly identified with his upbringing. I believe that he himself felt a close bond to the main character in his story, the main reason being that they both grew up in the lower class of society. though it was not stated in the pre text that Soto looked up to the wealthy and wanted to be liked by them, everyone wants to be someone special when their growing up so its not impossible to imagine that he felt that very same way.
            This text started very randomly with the young narrator talking about the t.v show he watched while drinking Kool Ade. He was very descriptive even in the manner he had been holding the drink between his knees. He does extremely well in describing every aspect of there environment and how his family lives there lives compared to the t.v families he watched. At first the narrator sounded as though he was embarrassed of who he was, it seemed to me that the author thought getting into a wealthy lifestyle was simple. I quickly realized as i continued to read that this little boy was willing to work for anything to reach his goal, it was superficial of him to think that the perfect life came with wearing shoes at the dinner table or looking like the rich people, but it deffinently wasn't wrong of him to want something better.
            In many ways the narrator proved to be a better person then the people he wanted to be like. money was important to him but when the opportunity came for him to go to the pool with his friend he offered to give him money so they could go. What i found even more surprising was when his sister wanted to go but had no money, he simply told her to come along and he would take care of it. It is hard to find siblings at such a young age that would share especial share money that they worked for. At the rate the narrator was going he would end up spending his hard earned money to help others so they could all have fun together, and that is better then any upper class style of living.
               All in all i think the story had a more simple meaning behind it than an average persons desire to be something more, something he was not. At the end of the story the narrator makes a small note of his neighbor who seems to be living the life he wants and who is also close friends with his older brother. This made me think, maybe the story wasn't about a boy who looked up to people in a far away t.v land, but someone who lived just over the fence, someone who had formed a bond with his brother while he remained on the "side lines" so to speak.