In the short story Seventh Grade by Gary Soto, the theme is don’t try to be someone your are not. Victor pretends he knows French in his French class so he can impress Teresa.
Victor is in seventh grade. When he arrives on the first day of school, he is excited to see Teresa because he has a crush on her. After saying something he thinks is stupid, he is too scared to talk to her. During lunch, Teresa sees Victor and smiles at him. Victor goes to French class only because Teresa is also going to French class. In French class he raises his hand when the teacher asks who knows French in order to impress Teresa. Later, the teacher realizes that Victor doesn’t know French but his teacher keeps his secret. At the end of the day, he likes seventh grade.
The theme is you shouldn’t try to be someone you aren’t. In this case, Victor doesn’t know any French, but pretends so he can impress Teresa. During the day, he makes funny faces and tries to make them laugh. Victor believes that making people laugh is the most important thing. He willing to do anything to get Teresa’s attention, and that results in him lying.
Therefore, this is why I think that the theme of the short story, Seventh Grade is you shouldn’t try to be someone you aren’t
