In the short story Broken Chains by Gary Soto, the main character is a seventh grade boy named Alfonso. After saving a young boy stuck on a fence, Alfonso meets a girl named Sandra, a young girl with cute pigtails. Sandra and Alfonso end up liking each other. Ernie, his older brother, wants girls to notice him because he got stood up Halloween. Alfonso is very self-conscious about his looks. Alfonso is very concerned about how he is perceived. Throughout the story, Alfonso is always staring at a “mirror”, critiquing his teeth, abs, and hair. He is never satisfied with the way he looks, therefore; pushing himself to the extremes (“pushing his teeth for four hours”). As the author states: Last week he did fifty sit-ups a day, thinking…show more content… As the author states: He [Alfonso] liked what he saw until he smiled and realized for the first time that his teeth were crooked, like a pile of wrecked cars. Throughout the story, Soto points at the fact that Alfonso is going to the extremes to straighten his teeth. When he learns his parents cannot afford braces, this only sets Alfonso back in the slightest way; he is still determined to fix his teeth. Other examples of narrations which prove this point are: Alfonso sat on the porch trying to push his crooked teeth to where he thought they belonged, and After breakfast that Saturday he [Alfonso] went to his room, closed the door quietly, turned the radio on, and pushed for three hours straight. Yet again, Alfonso is not worried about his personality, which girls will more likely be attracted to, rather his appearances. From beginning to end in Broken Chains, by Gary Soto, Alfonso is not pleased with his appearance. Alfonso goes to extremes to make his abs, teeth, and hair “better-looking than average.” Thus far, this point is proven when he does fifty-sit ups a day and he pushes his teeth for hours at a time. If Alfonso’s family had more money, maybe Alfonso wouldn’t be going to these extremes because his braces would fix his teeth. All in all, Alfonso is a very self-conscious
