Buried Onions

I enjoyed the way the author wrote this book. Soto has more poetic imagery than other books I've read recently. The young man seemed like a good guy who was kind of trapped in bad circumstances. This book made me feel a little trapped also. I would use this book in a classroom for high school students in the hopes that this story would make them want to go to college and finish.

this book is about a boy name eddie that was from el barrio he works on painting curbs and planting trees he made 30 dollars a day he drop out of city college and he eats ramen jello and raisins.
eddie had alot of family members that were murdered it was his cousin and his aunt and uncle so then heFor Eddie there isn’t much to do in his rundown neighborhood but eat, sleep, watch out for drive-bys, and just try to get through each day. His father, two uncles, and his best friend are all dead, and it’s a struggle not to end up the same way.
The violence makes Fresno wallow in tears, as if a huge onion with its ubiquitous vapors were buried beneath the city. Making an effort to walk a straight line despite constant temptations and show more frustrations, Eddie searches for answers after the death of his cousin and discovers that his closest friends may be his worst enemiesEddie tries to escape from the poverty and gang society that surrounds him by taking vocational classes and staying away from his old "cholos," (gang friends). But when his cousin is killed, his aunt urges him to seek out and punish the murderer. To avoid the pressure building in his neighborhood, Eddie takes a landscaping job in an affluent suburb. show less

Book Review

David C. Hall
EDCI 4120/5120
Soto, G. (1997) Buried onions. New York: Harper Collins.
Grade Levels: 9-12
Category: Realistic fiction
Read-Alouds: pp. 2-12 (Chapter 1); 35-43 (Chapter 3); 105-120 (Chapter 7); 139-146 (Chapter 9)
Summary: Eddie is nineteen and is out on his own for the first time. He has graduated from high school, and has tried attending the local City College in Fresno. The death of his cousin, his primo, weighs on him, and the already difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood is complicated by this traumatic event, poverty and Eddie’s limited job prospects. Eddie struggles to search for his own version of the American Dream amid an atmosphere of relentless poverty, crime and the stifling heat of summer show more in the barrio. In spite of living a life that always seems to be slipping out of his grasp, Eddie finds ways to confront the illusion of adult life often held by adolescents, and emerges as a survivor.
Themes: The dominant theme of Buried Onions is the illusion of the American Dream for urban Latinos, and the depressing nature of life in the barrio. References to race in the novel are subtle, as they often are in real life; Eddie confronts a subtle form or racism, and the “one strike and you are out” culture many Latinos perceive they live with. In Eddie, author Soto presents a protagonist who survives because of his character—in spite of almost incomprehensible bad luck and the attempted influence of individuals from his past, Eddie demonstrates that strength of character and hard work can offer a way out, if not the illusory “American Dream”.
Discussion Questions:
What is the result of Eddie’s decision to quit school? How does this decision affect his immediate future within the context of the novel?
How does Eddie define what is often called “The American Dream”? What does that phrase mean to Eddie? What does it mean to you?
What do you think is the meaning of the novel’s title, Buried Onions, based on your reading? How does the author use buried onions within the plot of the novel?

Reader Response: I found Soto’s novel to be extremely provocative and thought-provoking, especially considering that I came to the novel from a very “white-bread”, almost “Happy Days”
high school experience. Buried Onions describes an alternate-universe for those of us who grew up in two-parent, white middle class families, and the novel offers an uncompromising look at post-high school life very different from the experience of most Wyoming high school students (for example).
The inspiration of Eddie’s strength of character, and his realistic (but not perfect) way of dealing with the problems of beginning adulthood makes the novel a valuable reading experience for high school students—perhaps most valuable in ninth or tenth grade, when it might help influence their own decisions about their individual transitions to adulthood and responsibility. show less

Eddie is a nineteen-year-old Hispanic city college dropout trying to make good on his own in Fresno, California. Eddie's father, two uncles, and best friend are all dead, and it's a struggle for him not to end up the same way. He sees the city he lives in as being built over a huge onion, “that remarkable bulb of sadness’ that makes strong men like him cry. Making an effort to walk a straight line despite constant temptations and frustrations, Eddie searches for answers--and discovers that his closest friends may actually be his worst enemies.

Eddie lives in a hopeless sad town of Fresno. Eddies uses many metaphors about onions being buried under the city which is why people cry so much. Eddie tries to escape from the poverty and gang society that surrounds him by taking vocational classes and staying away from his old gang friends. But when his cousin is killed, his aunt urges him to seek out and punish the murderer. To get away from it all he takes a landscaping job in the suburbs. But this too goes awry when his boss's truck is stolen while in his care. In the end, with his money gone and a dangerous gang member stalking him, Eddie's only choice is to join the military and hope that they can give him a better future than the one Fresno seems to offer.

This book is about a young boy, Eddie, who lives in a horrible neighborhood where his cousin was killed. He strives to be better and one day get out of the town, but he has many struggles on the way. He tries to occupy his time with jobs, so that he doesn't get in trouble, but has a hard time finding a job and on top of that has horrible luck. I think this is a great book for all students to read. It describes the struggles and trials a young teen faces when they are set up to fail. I think is is a wonderful book also because it brings some Spanish culture into the classroom as well. This is a book that I will have in my classroom.

I read this book my junior year in HS with a student teacher. It was the most awful book I had probably EVER read. I would suggest you do NOT read this book if you want to keep your sanity