Saturday At The Canal by Gary Soto

I was hoping to be happy by seventeen.
School was a sharp check mark in the roll book,
An obnoxious tuba playing at noon because our team
Was going to win at night. The teachers were
Too close to dying to understand. The hallways
Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair. Thus,
A friend and I sat watching the water on Saturday,
Neither of us talking much, just warming ourselves
By hurling large rocks at the dusty ground
And feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard
On a bedroom wall. We wanted to go there, 
Hitchhike under the last migrating birds
And be with people who knew more than three chords
On a guitar. We didn't drink or smoke,
But our hair was shoulder length, wild when
The wind picked up and the shadows of
This loneliness gripped loose dirt. By bus or car,
By the sway of train over a long bridge,
We wanted to get out. The years froze
As we sat on the bank. Our eyes followed the water,
White-tipped but dark underneath, racing out of town.

Analysis
Gary Soto addresses a real life experience to question his teenage years. He's with how his life has turned out so far because being seventeen was not how he imagined it. Soto uses imagery and his point of view to help convey the message of being able to experience the good things even if they are negatives in way.

Soto uses a lot of imagery in the beginning of the poem to describe high school. A tuba is playing loudly because the school was confident that their team was going to win their game. He says the teachers are too old to understand their excitement for winning later that night. One way to interpret the line, "The hallways
Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair," is that the students don't care much for their own grades or hygiene. This line also helps see that the students' lives are too boring for them to care which can also explain their excitement for the game.

When Soto talks about what happens at the canal, we feel sorry for them. They wanted to go to San Francisco to experience new things but for some reason they couldn't. Soto says, "We wanted to go there, / Hitchhike under the last migrating birds / And be with people who knew more than three chords / On a guitar." He wants to see new things and see people who know more. 

 He says that they don't drink or smoke but they look like troublemakers by hanging out by the canal and from their shoulder length hair. This can also draw sympathy because they aren't doing anything wrong but their appearance makes them seem like they are.

Gary Soto uses the first person point of view to show convey his message. By writing the poem in the first person point of view and also the point of view of a student, we can easily relate to him. High school students can relate with wanting to get out of their hometown and experiencing more but they just can't. They're stuck in their hometown until either they go to college or a better opportunity comes along.

sincerely yours,

the breakfast club basketcase