As one of the first biblical tales, the story of Adam and Eve showcases humanity’s eventual fall from grace and the inevitability of sin. It is this same capacity for crimes that plagues civilization today. And as the severity of iniquity has been watered down overtime, and as society has grown widely accustomed to most basic sins--it forgives them readily. Gary Soto evokes this sense of new understanding in his autobiographical narrative; his exemplification of rhetorical devices demonstrating that shedding an innocent, black and white mentality when viewing the harsh nature of sin brings forth the ability to form new, complex and insightful assessments of life’s grayscale.
Soto begins the narrative by setting up the background. Describing…show more content… One of the first ways he builds this is through personification, as by describing the pie tin as it “glared” at him, he is establishing an empty reminder of his short-lasting sin to add to his guilt. Soto then describes his face as being “sticky with guilt,” a metaphor that paints an image of disgust and realization as Soto begins to understand the depth of his crime. He also uses a similar structure amongst his sentences to list the people around him, repeatedly insisting that they all “knew,” despite not being there to witness his crime, which heaps together his fears of being caught. His next line incorporates a simile to further develop his anxiety, as his Frisbee’s “shadow [becomes] like the shadow of an angel fleeing bad deeds,” such as the one he has just committed; this is a direct juxtaposition to the earlier description of the angels he saw, as before he gave into sin, “the shadows of angels [simply flopped] on the backyard grass.” This further shows how the sin has shaped him after falling from glory, as it has corrupted his view of the world and mentally isolated him from the angels—as they now flee from…show more content… And for many children, that is what a committing their first sin is to them, as well. Children generally possess an innocent, black and white mentality of the world to start, and as Soto was raised to believe all sins were a horrible crime—they were, plain and simple. And to a child, something so treacherous must be completely bad, down to the feeling committing the crime brings. But upon committing his first crime, he finds that is not necessarily true. Soto derives great pleasure in his sin at first, but grows to regret it as he gleans a new insight into life’s grayscale and realizes that not everything is black and white. Sins, although being horrible crimes, can feel good. All people will realize that at one point or another, as is natural. It is the duty of humans to decide how this shift into a new mindset will affect them, however, as awareness does not necessarily mean developing an intolerance or even a lax policy with sin. Instead, it may even encourage people to relax, as sin is a natural, inevitable element of life that is up to the sinner to repent or to
