So I re-read "Marisol" by Gary Soto, and I began to analyze it because there are several moments in here that just feel very strange to me. Of course, this is just my opinion, but I would be curious to know if anyone else has had the same thoughts.
So, who is Marisol? Marisol Luna was Girl of the Year 2005, and the first serious Girl of the Year (GOTY). She was the first GOTY to have a full collection and to only be available for one year, because at this point the line was still called "Girl of Today". Gary Soto wrote her book and although. I swear I've seen his name on something else AG, the AG Wiki and Soto's website don't show anything else, so I think this is his only book for American Girl.
Marisol got some outrage because, in the book, her parents explain that they are moving out of their apartment complex in inner-city Chicago because it's dangerous and not safe. In my analysis, I'm going to explain why I think this is simply the product of bad writing, and may not have been intentional by the author.
In addition to that, there are many weird sentences and comments that put Marisol in uncomfortable body situations. Not sexual situations, just uncomfortable body situations. You'll see what I mean.
Starting with those uncomfortable situations. On the second page of the book, Marisol is describing her family and begins to talk about the things her mother noticed that she did as a baby that her let her mother know that Marisol was a dancer. That then segways into the following,
"Later, when I was two years old, I danced standing on my father's shoes. My father is my first and only boyfriend, even though he has eyes for another woman-mom!"(pg.2)
So the point here is that Marisol has a close relationship with her dad, but isn't that a strange way to put it? Like, I get the point sure, but could you not have said something like 'my dad is my best friend' or 'my dad and i are close too' or something that doesn't involve using that metaphor? Now, if this were the only thing in the whole book, I could write it off. But there's many more instances, and combined they leave me wondering who Gary Soto really is.
Now, because I'm going chronologically through the book, I'm going to jump topics for a second to the outcry over Marisol's parents claiming that their neighborhood was "dangerous" and that's why they were moving.
Marisol's mom explains,
"Dad and I think it's time that we get out of this neighborhood," Mom said. She explained that it was no place for me to grow up. It was dangerous, and there was no place for me to play. "I can play in the street" I [Marisol] argued, not too brightly. "Yeah, and get run over" Mom predicted. "You'll be safer there [the new town]" Dad added. ... At that moment, two men outside began yelling at each other. A car door slammed, and we heard the sound of screeching echos between the apartment buildings. Then silence."
My problem with this explanation for why Marisol has to move is that I just read an entire first chapter about how much Marisol loves her neighborhood. How she knows everyone who lives in her apartment complex, how happy she is there. There was absolutely no inclination or any information given that I might even be able to infer that the neighborhood is dangerous. My first instinct is that this is just a lazy plothole, but I have to wonder if, in 2005, Chicago really was experiencing a wave of Latino families moving to the suburbs. Chicago does have a reputation for its violence, but I don't currently have the sociological knowledge to make a call on how "dangerous" Marisol's neighborhood may or may not have been in 2005. Marisol begins the book living in Pilsen, Chicago, about 30 minutes from Des Plaines, the suburb her family moves to, so it's a very inner-city neighborhood. Inner city neighborhoods, unfortunately, do carry stigmas and stereotypes of violence and danger following a long history of suburbanization in the U.S., discussing of which is a completely different topic. If you would like more, however, I encourage you to look at the book "Crabgrass Frontier" by Kenneth T. Jackson, which explains the history of suburbanization in the U.S. and how we got to the state of suburban sprawl and "dirty" or "dangerous" inner cities that we have today.
It is at this point that I feel race should be brought into the discussion. Not as an antagonist of anything, but as a point that should be discussed. Marisol Luna is a Latina girl, and her family is fully Latina. Gary Soto is a white man, although he has a history of interacting with the Latino community. When I went to his website I saw that there are lots more books he has written featuring Latino characters and culture, so he is not simply a white man who is clueless about Latino culture. However, I believe the way that this passage is written shows some implicit bias towards inner-city neighborhoods, and the Latino community has the right to be upset about this passage that perpetuates the stigma of violence surrounding Latino communities. Now, there are other reasons given in the book for why Marisol's family moves, this is not the only one. Marisol's parents want to have a yard and grow tomatoes and chiles for salsa, Marisol's mom will be closer to her work as an accountant, although her dad works for the city, so I'm not quite sure how moving to the suburbs helps there. Like I said earlier, I think this is bad writing. I think this is writing that doesn't have a solid plot, and it doesn't really give us enough information to make it believable that there's any reason that Marisol's family should have to move.
Now, as much as this part of the plot is bad writing, the book is not all bad. I LOVE Marisol's character, she's so happy and full of life (which is usually something people say when someone becomes depressed and is no longer happy and full of life, but that really is the best way to describe Marisol). There are some really good lines in here that made me chuckle, and at one moment I remember reading looking for more moments to put into my analysis and getting drawn into the story. Gary Soto isn't a professional writer for nothing. So, take this section of the book with a grain of salt. It's not perfect, and it's aged pretty badly, but it still is certainly worth reading. I do think, before I move on, that the time this book was written is an important aspect of it. I could say something like 'it was 2005 and things were different, we weren't at the point we are today, etc.' but I'm not going to. I don't think history is really a good excuse as to why things can't be problematic. There are problematic aspects to this book, however, we can't change those things now, and they are a reflection of the time. Additionally, despite the book, Marisol sold really, really well. She sold way better than Lindsey and Kailey, and saved the Girl of the Year Line. I think this is due in part to her fully fleshed out collection and the design of it, but the book played a role too. People loved that Marisol was a dancer (and they would love, or hate, many dancers ofter her lol).
Did you think I had forgotten about the rest of my moments? I didn't, and we're not stopping here. We've barely made it 20 pages in and there's still so much more to go.
So Marisol's parents take her to see their new house. Marisol's mom shows her her bedroom and Marisol is looking around when her mom then calls her into the master bathroom. Marisol explains,
"She [Marisol's mom] led me into the attached bathroom, where Dad was was sitting on the edge of the biggest bathtub in the whole world- or in all the world that I have seen so far in my ten years. "Chihuahua!" I crowed. I pictured the whole neighborhood getting into the bathtub. I pictured myself sitting with a soda on the edge of the tub. Ah, what a life! I thought. "It has six jets" Dad remarked. He was wearing his funny reading glasses and was studying the owner's manual. "That's two for each of us," I remarked. Dad took off his glasses and wiped them as if they were steamed up. "Don't even go there," he warned. Right then I knew that the tub was off-limits. I pictured all of my friends climbing out of the tub, dripping water as they descended the stairs. The party was over."
This scene, doesn't it just read, strange to you? The first thing that jumped out at me was the "whole neighborhood" getting into the bathtub, but I honestly could excuse that because that's what a kid would say. Especially Marisol, who is ten, probably thinks her whole neighborhood is a lot of people, and the point is that this bathtub is really big (and it probably looks super big to a ten year old). But then, her dad mentions that the tub has six jets, and Marisol remarks "two for each of us", at first I thought this was implying that they're all in the bath together, and maybe it does' but maybe it just means that like, oh, that's good that it has a lot of jets. But that last part, That she pictures her friends climbing out of the tub, dripping water... when I pictured this in my head I pictured them naked, because they were all said, in Marisol's imagination, to have just finished a bath and climbing out of the tub. Now maybe, for the sake of PG, they're all wearing swimsuits or something, but that just conjures up a mental image of kids getting out of a tub, doesn't it? Does that feel weird to anyone else? And especially because we've already had the whole neighborhood metaphor. We get it, the tub is big and can hold a lot of people. Granted, this isn't the worst moment, but it combines with the others to form a very strange energy hiding behind the plot of the entire book.
And now, switching topics once again because I'm going chronologically and I don't care to organize these paragraphs, I will introduce a new point. So, there's this kid who lives in Marisol's neighborhood named Victor. And Victor is always shown, eating something? The first time we see him, Marisol sticks her head out the window and he's playing basketball. He asks her if she wants to come play and she objects because she's sad about moving, but she gives him some of the candy she keeps in her trunk because she knows she'll have to get rid of some stuff if she's moving, so he eats the candy. In this scene there's even a sentence "One of the candies- a jawbreaker-landed right in Victor's outstretched palm. Ok, so Victor eats Candy. But a little while later Marisol is on her way out of her apartment and sees Victor crying. She asks him why he's crying and Victor says that his "raspada" is gone. Now, Raspada is a shave ice type treat, but in the book it mentions that there's a popsicle stick on the ground and that Victor had pigged out on a popsicle. I'm not sure if this was just a Soto slip-up or whether the term raspada can be used for both popsicles and shaved ice. Either way, he's eating food and this is the second time we've ever seen him. Then, a little while later, Marisol is coming home from something and sees Victor, again on the steps, with a popsicle stick at his feet, just like last time. This time it's not called a raspada, but Marisol sees this and asks "It's all gone, huh?" and he stares back at her with watery eyes. The third time we've ever seen this character and it's the exact same scenario as the first, and he's always eating something. Eventually, Marisol is trying to convince a character in the book to move to the suburbs with her to start a dance studio there, because there isn't one. the character objects, and Marisol mentions that "I felt what Victor felt when his raspada was all gone-sad." Ok, so maybe all that setup was to build a metaphor, but how many times does Victor have to be shown eating raspada to do that? Later, Marisol is talking about how she'll miss her school and her apartment, and she says " I pictured Victor sitting on the steps of our apartment building eating two Popsicles- one for each sticky hand!" Near the end of that scene, Marisol finishes having a conversation with her teacher and goes outside to play tetherball against Victor. She says "He was using only one hand because he was eating a candy bar." But it's not just eating food that Victor does. Near the end of the book, she starts talking with Victor as they both wait at the office. Victor asks her what kind of pets she has and when she says she doesn't have a dog, Victor is surprised. Marisol says "He had the look of a kid who had just dropped his ice cream cone".
So, that's a lot, but these references between Victor and food are just consistently appearing throughout the book. Now, I get that Victor is a flat character, he's not the one being developed in this story, Marisol is. It makes sense that we don't know much about him, but comparing him to food? Consistently? Marisol mentions occasionally that he plays basketball in the street, why not talk about that? It just becomes really weird. This kid is never illustrated in the book, but is he supposed to be a fat kid? what is the purpose of this? I feel like this is just really weird writing, but WHY is it weird? WHY does it make me so uncomfortable? I haven't quite figured that out, but I think it's because it has a subtle air of fat-shaming. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if that was another implicit bias peeking through Soto's writing.
To jump back to this previous topic, Dad. Marisol's dad is mentioned a lot, she has a great relationship with him. But remember at the beginning of the story when Marisol said that her dad was her "boyfriend"? Well, as Marisol is introducing herself to a girl in her new neighborhood, she sounds out her name and then says,
" I spelled it for her- Marisol, the name of my grandmother, and, I think, the name of one of my Dad's girlfriends before he met Mom."
Ok...? The point here is that Marisol has a suspicion that she was named not only after her grandmother, but also after one of her Dad's former girlfriends. But WHY? On it's own, this line isn't necessarily weird, and it's definitely not the craziest, but combined with everything else, it just adds to those subtle uncomfortable situations.
Speaking of those, this next one simply has to do with description. Marisol is hanging out with Ms. Mendoza, who becomes her mentor essentially. Ms. Mendoza offers her a drink, to which Marisol writes "She asked if I wanted something to drink, but I smacked my lips to asses my thirst. I shook my head. No thanks, I'm fine"
She smacked her lips? I think that's also just a really verbose way to put it, "smacked my lips to asses my thirst" (why not just say I licked my lips to see if I was thirsty? or I wondered if I was thirsty, but decided I wasn't?), but smacked just feels a little off to me. Once again, these things by themselves aren't really a problem, but combined, they just give the book a weird feel.
To add in another topic once again, I apologize if the organization of this blog post is making you question my ability to analyze this book, but I promise it all has a point and it all works out. So Mr.Mendoza, who lives above Marisol in her apartment complex, has this running gag throughout the book about "getting married" to a woman he befriends at the senior center. He's not actually getting married, his wife died a while ago and nothing like that happens in the book, but of course Marisol takes it literally. It's a sweet thing, not at all creepy or weird, but in one scene Marisol has a really intense interest in this possible relationship. Ms.Mendoza, Mr.Mendoza's daughter, mentions that although her father told her he was playing dominos, she thinks he was up to something else. Marisol's mom says "You mean... a lady friend?" and Ms.Mendoza confirms that. Marisol then thinks "Wow, I thought. Her dad's like sixty, or even older, and he has a girlfriend!" This quote is in italics like this in the book. Is Marisol really that intensely interested in her upstairs neighbor who is sixty years old potential girlfriend? I do feel like this relates to the culture of the time, a lot of Disney channel shows I watched as a kid, especially at ten years old, had relationships in them. I was born in 2001 and I spent my childhood watching Disney channel and nickelodeon, and the shows certainly had relationships and such in them, I think it was a 2000s thing. But is Marisol seriously that interested in this guy and that he has a girlfriend? Later in the book, when Marisol is talking with Ms.Mendoza about starting a dance studio, Ms.Mendoza mentions that Mr.Mendoza is"a dreamer and a big flirt, and he is always saying things like that." What? I mean, what does this do for the story? The point is that Mr.Mendoza isn't actually going to get married, but why say that he's a big flirt? Is that just a reference to the 'getting married' thing, or is it something else?
Finally, last moment. At the end of the book, Marisol is talking with her ballet teacher. Her ballet teacher asks her if she's going to continue practicing. Marisol replies "Claro que si" which is "Of Course", to which her ballet teacher echoes "Claro que si". Marisol then mentions that her ballet teacher is learning spanish from her boyfriend. Again, a mention of boyfriends. I mean I don't have a problem with mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends in kids books. 4th grade is when a lot of kids get their first crushes, I know I did in 4th grade, and it's not unusual for kids by the age that Marisol is to grasp the concept of a boy/girlfriend and a romantic relationship. But it shows up in this book SO OFTEN. There's almost a mention of a boy/girlfriend every chapter. It's just... why? What's the point of mentioning significant others so many times?
That was everything I have flagged with sticky notes. Now, why the heck did I spend nearly two hours writing this incredibly long post that I can guarantee less than five people will read? Because, the topics interest me. I'm really interested in exploring the history behind the stigma of inner-cities as "dangerous", and I think that's still a relevant problem for today. I really want to know what is meant by all of these strange situations Marisol is in. I also think it's interesting to look at Marisol as a Girl of the Year character, and to compare her to other characters. I also think her story is just an interesting look into kids writing and early 2000s culture. This book has SO MUCH to analyze and to provoke interest in so many different topics. Now, am I reaching for some of these moments? Probably, yes. Some of this stuff might feel normal to you. But I still think it's worth discussing because Marisol played such an important role in the GOTY line and her story is an important part of 2000s American Girl history.
I do recommend that you read the book. You make the decision on whether or not you let kids read it, though I think these things will probably go over their head, and the kids from 2005 read the book and I don't know of anything terrible that happened to them. But I recommend that you read the book too. It's an example of how children's media isn't separate from our own popular culture. There are real issues connected to these stories, and that's why I still read them as an adult and you should too.
P.S. Gary Soto if you ever manage to read this, can you tell me why you chose these phrasings and these ways to say things? I'd be very interested to speak with you thank you.
