Behind Grandma’s House by Gary Soto tells the story of a young 10 year old hell raiser. Soto speaks like he was the most ornery kid on the block. Everybody knew that kid; the kid who was tough, the kid who wanted to be tough. This is the same kid who looking back could have been me or you; or possibly the kid who never grew out of it and is now behind bars.
At the end of the poem Soto’s grandmother comes out and offers to help young Soto.
“… ‘Let me help you.’ And punched me between the eyes.”
I am neither glad nor angry that his grandmother hit him. I know that as a child I probably could’ve used a few more punches between the eyes to keep me straight. Although he is being a menace to what seems like the entire neighborhood I am sympathetic to his attempts to be tough. People know the tough kid, people respect the tough kid, people fear the tough kid, and people love the tough kid. I am sure that these are the same thoughts that were going through the mind of little Gary at that time in his life. His grandmother however just saw a bad or misguided little kid. She showed him that he is not as tough as he thought he was. She put a little “fear of god” back into him. That punch spoke volumes: you are not invincible, you are not that tough. You can’t go around doing whatever you want to do without real consequences. I believe that this is an important lesson every child must learn. I do not think that every child should be punched in the face, but I think it needs to be made clear to children that they must respect others and the property of others in order to earn respect.
The reason the grandma hit him is also because it was a different time. Nowadays the grandma would simply go to jail, but pre 90's parents and grandparents had the right to hit their children. The US Supreme Court agreed it necessary to allow parents to hit their child for disciplinary purposes. The main word here is "hit" not "abuse". Times change, even though a boys environment doesn't.
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