76 pages 2 hours read

Gary Soto

Buried Onions

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1997

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Answer Key

Chapters 1-2

Reading Check

1. They are from “a huge onion buried under the city.” (Chapter 1)

2. He quit after his cousin Jesús was killed. (Chapter 1)

3. He paints the numbers of houses on the curbs. (Chapter 1)

4. “He was anything but an angel.” (Chapter 2)

5. A gun (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. Lupe and Angel want Eddie to help them seek revenge on Jesús’s murderer. Eddie does not want any part of the plan, and he refuses to help. (Chapter 1)

2. North Fresno primarily consists of “white”/ Asian, and usually wealthy, populations. He notices that the man and his wife drink alcohol, and how they did not escape the sadness of the “onion.” (Chapter 1)

3. He helps Mr. Stiles with landscaping work. As he digs a hole for a tree from New England, he wonders “what this tree was doing in Fresno.” (Chapter 2)

4. Mr. Stiles sends Eddie to the dump in his truck. At the dump, he finds a refrigerator that he takes back to his apartment before returning the truck.