Gary Soto-The Afterlife

Summary

A boy named Chuy was at the bathroom in a club called Club Estrella. He was getting ready for his date to the dance. Her name was Rachel. When Chuy was in the bathroom, a boy with yellow shoes came into the bathroom and stabbed Chuy with a knife for no apparent reason. Chuy could feel the ghost of his body being lifted up from his dead body. Chuy remembered his killer as Yellow Shoes. Chuy thought about how his parents would be affected by his death.

Chuy decided to visit his parents. Chuy realized that he had some powers because he was a ghost. Chuy could walk through walls, and walk much faster than ordinary steps. There were many downsides though. Chuy was carried by the wind. He couldn't talk to people and people couldn't’t see him. When Chuy visited his parents, they were very sad. Chuy realized that his body was vanishing. One day, a hobo was about to die and Chuy decided to help him but he couldn’t. The hobo died and surprisingly, his ghost was able to communicate with Chuy. The hobo did Chuy a favor and tormented Yellow Shoes by going into his body and controlling him. Chuy met a girl named Crystal and she died of an overdose of drugs. She was the star cheerleader and had two boyfriends. She killed herself because she was confused about what to do. Chuy and Crystal fell in love with each other and they both lived life as a ghost as they slowly vanished into thin air.

Lesson

My lesson is that always take your challneges head on and overcome your challenges.

Quotes

Chuy thinks that nobody cares about him. After he dies, he sees that people actually do care about him. Chuy says to himself, "My parents, followed by Uncle Richard and my mom's comadre, Carmen, entered with their faces lowered. They had stoped crying but their eyes were red"(56). Here, Chuy realizes that people actually do care about him and that people actually were sad that he was gone.

Chuy's mom wants Chuy's best friend, Eddy, to kill Yellow Shoes so that they can avenge Chuy's death. Here, Eddy and Chuy's mom are having a conversation. "I want you to do it. Eddy looked away. Come on mi'jo you can do it. I can't. It's wrong"(59). Here Eddy is facing one of his problems by deciding not to kill Yellow Shoes because he knows that Chuy wouldn't want that to happen and it is wrong to take revenge.

Chuy feels lonely that he cannot communicate with anyone. People cannot see him as well. Chuy is getting frustrated when he cannot say goodbye to his "girl", Rachel. Chuy says to himself, "I looked down at the mirror on the floor. I couldn't see myself, only a crack in the ceiling. I wante Rachel to be my girl. My lonliness was as deep at that mirror"(46). Here, Chuy realizes that he cannot communicate with people and they cannot see him. However, he can make people sense him by getting close to them.

Here, Chut has a problem walking against the wind. The wind blows him in the direction of the wind. Chuy says to himself, "From the Section Eight apartment, I drifted toward Angel's house, or tried to drift, because the October wind blew me westward to Chinatown, where the bars were now open"(27). Chuy solves this problem later in the book where he learns to look like he is doing a curl up so that he can stay in place until the wind stops.

When Chuy and Crystal are going to live life together because they love each other, Chuy says to himself, “I received a portion of that dream and felt grateful for it. I loved her like no other. She flew at my side, southward toward what, I now knew, it is called the afterlife” (158). Here, Crystal and Chuy are running away and they are going to live the “afterlife”.