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35 pages 1 hour read

Gary Soto

Taking Sides

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1991

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Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 7 Summary

Lincoln wakes on Sunday morning to an argument with his mother. She is upset with how late he came in last night. Lincoln responds in a way she finds disrespectful. As she leaves the room, she yells, “Who do you think you are?” (65). This prompts Lincoln to ponder why “people keep asking [him] that” as he goes back to bed (65). Waking at 12:15 pm, Lincoln walks outside to find James, who invites him into his house. He meets the Kaehlers just after they have finished a buffet-style lunch, which they invite him to enjoy, and he does. Mrs. Kaehler is warm and kind, and Mr. Kaehler talks to Lincoln about basketball. Lincoln feels comfortable and appreciates how the family eat snacks together and watch the 49ers play. Lincoln and James discuss Coach Yesutis while playing Nintendo. James believes Yesutis is making the team strong, while Lincoln says he doesn’t believe Yesutis always knows what he’s doing and shouldn’t treat the team the way he does.

Chapter 8 Summary

Later on Sunday, Lincoln walks to Cornell Elementary for his basketball date with Monica. As he considers what to say to her, she asks, “Did you go to church today?” (77). Lincoln lies that he always goes to eight o’clock mass but struggles to come up with the name of the church he supposedly goes to. They start to play, and Monica beats him at Around the World, while he easily wins Horse. The pair get physical in a game of Twenty-one. They are enjoying themselves and each other when Monica jumps to shoot and accidentally hits her head against his chin. Lincoln lands on his back, and she helps him up; Lincoln is more than glad to hold her hand, which he lets her know.

Lincoln arrives home with his knee swollen from his fall. Roy is there. When Lincoln’s mother goes to get ice for his knee, Roy reveals that he used to play basketball for Franklin. The news shocks Lincoln. Roy says he played against Coach Yesutis, who played for Columbus at the time. Lincoln later thinks he has had Roy wrong all along.

Chapter 9 Summary

Lincoln’s knee is so swollen and painful the next morning that he asks his mother to write him an excuse from morning classes. However, he says he needs to go to school in the afternoon so that he can go to practice. He wants to be there because the following day is the Franklin game and he doesn’t want Yesutis to think he’s unwilling to face his old team. Lincoln hobbles to his room and calls Monica to tell her the news. He confesses about not going to church. She is not upset and says she’ll see him during lunch.

Resting before he goes to school, Lincoln hears sounds, including a voice, coming from the kitchen. He goes to explore and finds a man with a screwdriver in his hand. The man sees him and runs. Lincoln is scared: “What had sent them away from the Mission District had caught up with them in Sycamore—a break-in” (95).

Chapters 7-9 Analysis

Chapters 7-9 constitute the novel’s rising action and focus especially on Lincoln’s confused thoughts and feelings about who he is. The narrative events in this trio of chapters provide many opportunities for Lincoln to confront himself. Many of these also alert the reader to the fact that Lincoln is on a quest for who he is, yet some of the scenarios in which Lincoln finds himself seem to reinforce Lincoln’s own oversimplified view of identity. The impending game between Columbus and Franklin is an example. Because there are only two teams, it appears that the only possible options are to choose a team or not to play in the game at all.

Walking away from Tony—and thus the Mission District—suggests a definitive choice of “sides”; it also leaves Lincoln with few people to lean on. His mother is not “in the know” about Lincoln’s feelings, so he can’t turn to her about how to find himself amidst his culture shock. Nevertheless, she unwittingly instigates and highlights a significant point in his arc. When she yells, “Who do you think you are?” (64), Lincoln doesn’t brush this off as a rhetorical question. Rather, he reflects on its literal meaning: “Why do people keep asking me that? Lincoln thought. First Coach Yesutis, now Mom” (65). So far, Lincoln has conceived of his internal conflict mostly in terms of friendship and loyalty, in part because the question of who he was seemed obvious. The experience at the thrift store has shaken his certainty that he is “really” a Mission District inhabitant who just happens to be living somewhere else, so his mother’s question prompts him to begin thinking about his identity.

Lincoln’s experiences with James and Roy also encourage him to reflect on Identity as Multifaceted. Lincoln finds himself inside James Kaehler’s house shortly after his mother yells her question. He has never been in a white family’s house, let alone the house of a white Sycamore family; that he goes in at all indicates that he trusts James to some degree. James’s parents are not what he expects; Lincoln’s perception of white, Sycamore residents has always been that they are stiff and arrogant, but Lincoln’s takeaway from the experience is that the Kaehlers are “nice folks.” Lincoln repeats the phrase when he passes James’s house on his way to Cornell Elementary to meet Monica for their basketball date. He sees the Kaehlers differently because they subverted his expectations in a positive way, and this has ramifications for how he understands his own place in Sycamore.

Roy also subverts Lincoln’s expectations when he reveals new information about his childhood: “You know, I didn’t tell you earlier, but I played for Franklin” (83). Lincoln is shocked and listens to Roy talk about being the only white player on the 1970 Franklin squad when they beat Columbus—the inverse of Roy’s situation on the Columbus team. While Lincoln does not remark upon this parallel, he does think to himself, “[M]aybe he’d been wrong about Roy” (85). The moment points to a possible positive resolution, especially coupled with Lincoln’s new feelings after visiting the Kaehlers.

Lincoln’s growing confidence in his opinions also signals that he is on his way to understanding who he is. When James remarks that Yesutis is “makin’ [players] strong” by treating them harshly (70), Lincoln disagrees: “You don’t coach by callin’ players names. And sometimes I don’t think he knows what he’s doing. His plays are stupid. Wait until we run up against a black team. You’ll see” (70). Lincoln is beginning to express how he feels and why. That he trusts James not to say anything about his criticism to Yesutis or the team also speaks to his growing ease with their friendship and with Sycamore broadly.

Nevertheless, Lincoln’s character arc isn’t complete. When Monica questions whether he went to church, he replies, “Yes, eight o’clock Mass […] I always go” (77). This is the second time Lincoln has said what he thinks Monica wants to hear instead of being honest about who he is, not trusting her to like the real him.

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