The Challenge by Gary Soto is a realistic fiction short story about a young boy, Jose’s infatuation with another young girl, Estela. Throughout the story, Jose learns a tough lesson about how love at first sight may not be the best idea, after learning more about Estela’s personality and hobbies. Funny and laughingly realistic, we follow Jose as he stumbles through the steps of first love, doing all kinds of crazy stunts, to get the girl whom he thinks he likes attention. Some of the themes of the story include first crushes, shyness, and a light dash of boyish arrogance.
First crushes is the most prominent theme in the story, as we follow the story of Jose as he develops feelings for the “cute” new girl, Estela. We can tell that he is inexperienced when dealing with girls, as he does and thinks about doing all sorts of embarrassing things. For example, he thinks that flipping his bike off the handlebars was a good idea to make Estela impressed and fall for him, but all it gave him was a bloody nose and a scar that no one, including Estela, cared about. He also thinks that getting grades would impress Estela: it does not. She barely cares about his new and improved grades, and once again, Jose has used the wrong approach to get her attention. It is very obvious that he is not used to talking to girls, and has trouble eliciting an interesting or productive conversation, without any dangerous stunts or awkward conversations
Throughout the story, Jose displayed a lot of immaturity and showed that he was indeed a young boy new to the concepts of love. He tries many dangerous stunts and acts immaturely in order to gain Estela’s attention. He shows his incompetence as he is too scared to communicate with her properly, and lies to her about his abilities in racquetball in order to impress her. He also tries a dangerous stunt, flipping over from the handlebars of his bike, in order to gain her attention. That act only got him a bloody nose and a nasty scar, and Estela didn’t seem to care much. In the real world, mature individuals tend to stop themselves from these immature acts and instead try to communicate and to get to know the people they like. It is always the communication that helps two people to get to know each other, and that makes them more prone to catch feelings. It was very obvious that Jose did not know how to start off a successful relationship, and had a very childish perception of how to woo girls.
Despite his shyness, Jose has a sort of boyish arrogance that could be annoyingly stereotypical. For example, he believes with all his heart that he could beat a girl at any sport, despite the fact that he never played that sport before. It shows his immaturity, which may or may not prove that he is not ready to date yet. He underestimated Estela, and in that process, not only did he make himself look like a fool, he also bruised his ego and brought shame upon himself. His perception that girls are worse at sports than guys is the opinion that many other young boys believe blindly, and that makes it harder for them to find partners. He challenged Estela because he thought he could win and impress her, but all it caused was him to be embarrassed of his nonexistent abilities and to get zero points.
In conclusion, The Challenge, by Gary Soto is a good read for young teenagers approaching their first crushes. It shows the failures of Jose, and could serve as a good reminder to other teens what not to do when asking a girl (or a guy) out. It tells us to be honest with ourselves and others and to find ways to strike a genuine conversation without faking. It teaches us important lessons about life and being a teenager, and how having a correct mindset helps a lot. It can perhaps save a lot of young boys from the embarrassment and shame Jose felt.
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