26 pages • 52 minutes read
Gary SotoThe No-Guitar Blues
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1990A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Fausto
Fausto is a dynamic protagonist whose moral quandary about whether to buy a guitar with stolen money is at the root of the story. The action revolves around Fausto’s desire to become a musician, and the conflict is his internal struggle, resolving in his choice to make the right decision after first making the wrong one. His name is a reference to the character Faust, who appears in works such as Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, and establishes him as an archetypical Faustian character—someone who is tempted to make a deal with the devil to get what he wants. However, Soto subverts the archetype and has Fausto choose his faith and morals over getting a guitar, and he is rewarded for this good behavior.
Fausto is a typical teenager who watches a band playing on TV and dreams about starting his own famous band. He brainstorms about how to earn money for a guitar, and his first attempts characterize him as hardworking—he tries mowing lawns and raking leaves, but it doesn’t work. When he schemes, he chooses a relatively mild lie, saying that he found a dog closer to the freeway to collect a reward. While his ruse plagues him, his choice to pursue this plan rather than something more extreme like stealing characterizes him as a decent kid. He further reinforces this characterization when the $20 bill piques his conscience.
Ultimately, Fausto donating the money to the church (in addition to the money he fairly earned—the grimy quarter) signifies a lesson learned: Nothing is worth compromising one’s principles. He also makes peace with the fact that he may not get a guitar right away, and this demonstrates that Fausto is mature enough to wait for something gotten fairly rather than getting something questionably.
Fausto’s Family
Fausto’s mother, father, sister, and brother, Lawrence, are secondary, static characters. Indeed, Fausto’s father and sister never appear in the story and are only referenced; his father is working hard in the warehouse at Berven Rugs, and his sister has a working bicycle (while Fausto’s has two flat tires). Fausto’s mother appears in scenes that take place in the home, and she is always cooking. This positions his parents as hardworking and caring, values that are likewise demonstrated in Fausto. As such, these minor details indirectly characterize the protagonist. When Fausto decides to attend church on his own, his mother praises him, showing how her Catholic values are manifesting in her child.
Fausto’s family also creates a snapshot of Chicano culture, adding verisimilitude to the story. Fausto describes his parents’ music preference—conjunto music, a type of Mexican/Mexican American folk music, conjuring up the sound of their homes. They blend Spanish into their daily conversations, from food names to terms of affection like hijo. They eat famous Mexican dishes like tortillas, chorizo con huevos, empanadas, and enchiladas. While they are minor characters, Fausto’s family helps build the story’s world.
The Wealthy Couple
The wealthy couple are secondary characters who are also static. The wife’s name is Helen, but the husband is unnamed, and they have a dog named Roger. They have money, which is apparent in details such as the man’s “silky bathrobe and slippers” (Paragraph 19), their nicely decorated home, their well-kept and licensed dog, and their leisurely way of interacting with Fausto. The man and woman are kind to him, as evidenced by the man’s invitation to enter their home, the woman feeding Fausto a snack, and the couple insisting that Fausto take a $20 reward. It is implied that the couple knows that Fausto’s story about finding the dog by the freeway is untrue; however, they want to help him, nonetheless. While they are in a different socioeconomic class than Fausto, their interactions with him show that upper- and lower-class people are not so different after all, symbolized by the turnover looking like an empanada. Fausto concocted his scheme based on a stereotypical idea of rich people, but interacting with the couple proves to him that they’re more alike than not, and he feels guilty about deceiving them.
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By Gary Soto
