Unknown Story
Storyboard Text
- Setting
- Theme:
- Imagery
- Soto creates a frozen and numbing setting where a young love taking place along a walk across a urban area when he was younger. Things are described as bleak and dull, with any vibrant part connecting to the young lady and his oranges. The scene is set in the beginning of the poem where the poet reminisces about the first time he walked ( or went on a date) with a girl.
- Symbolism
- Soto describes nostalgic happiness, youth and love as his theme. By recalling his first walk ( or date) with a girl in the freezing cold December and adding the vivid image of a bright orange with a fiery comparison to the bleak weather. By using the phrase 'newly planted trees' he refers to the theme of young love that he paints this poem around.
- Speaker
- The key lines of imagery used in this poem , 'frost cracking beneath my steps' and ' porchlight burned yellow, night and day'. This creates a vivid contrast between the dullness and bright very early on in the poem, and continues in Soto's compassion of his fiery orange to the cold winter which beautifully ends the poem.
- Purpose
- This free verse poem uses many points of symbolism, the main one being the oranges themselves. The cold weather does not help the situation very much, so the bright and warmth of the oranges come to save the day, symbolizing luck or love. Symbolism also occurs when the lady accepts a nickel and an orange for payment, inferring that she understood his situation, painting her as a kind person.
- Soto is very selective with the words that he has chosen in his poem to make the reader feel nostalgic even if they haven't have experienced this before. Keeping us engaged until the very end, the speaker makes us feel the cold of the weather and the warmth of the young love which blossoms as the speaker continues.
- The purpose of 'oranges' is to deliver a message of young love, nostalgia and the powerful memory that it burns into people's minds. But if we dig deeper, the purpose behind this could also be to have faith, that even when the days are cold and bitter, you can rely on a bright and sweet orange to keep you going.
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