The No-Guitar Blues

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.