The Jacket By Gary Soto

1305 Words3 Pages

Students encounter many complications during their school career. Some students are smart, but just don’t apply themselves, or have similar hardships that are going on in their lives. These can be fixed if one can find motivation and confidence. In the story “Zero,” Paul Logan coasts through high school and college. Logan doesn’t know the tools to succeed in school, which causes his grades to fall. In the story “The Jacket,” Gary Soto explains how the way one dresses can influences how they feel about themself. Which in this case he gets an ugly jacket; which causes him to be depressed and his grades to fall. Albeit Logan and Soto went through similar hardships, they both succeed with motivation and confidence. In “Zero,” Logan wanted to fit in and have friends. He was shy and had acne but was bullied and teased countless times. Following through peer pressure and not having a goal, bad habits, no time management skills, his grades fell tremendously. Logan states ” They shoved and threatened me on the bus, teased me in the halls, and mocked me during lunch time. Nerd. Geek. Loser. These insults were fired at me like bullets. Sometimes they came with fists. I got …show more content…

Many people give up too easily and can’t find the confidence and motivation to grow and overcome these challenges. Logan was an average student and coasted through school and his lack of skills caused him to not succeed in college. Logan had an epiphany and realized that he wants to make something out of his life and started to make goals and succeed in school. Which he changed from zero grade point average (GPA) to a 4.0. Soto was made fun of because of his hideous guacamole jacket. These cause him to be depressed and his low grades. Soto explains how the way one dresses can influence how they feel about themself. They both worked with motivation, confidence, and persistence to overcome these

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