Baseball in April and Other Stories

“Two Dreamers,” focuses on the aspirations of Luis Molina. Although Hector is called “dreamy,” he does not share his grandfather’s fantasy of owning the pink house. Why does the title indicate that there are “two dreamers” rather than one?

The short stories in a collection often share a common tone: the overarching attitude that a writer expresses through word choice and structure. How would you describe the tone of Soto’s collection? What diction and narrative elements contribute to this tone?

In literature, there are internal conflicts—when a character struggles within themselves—and external conflicts—when people, things, or circumstances create problems for someone else. Examine one story that contains an internal conflict and one that contains an external conflict. Then compare how the characters overcome their problems.