The poet considers the role of television in shaping, reflecting, and failing to reflect American society. The ubiquity of television, even in low income households, confers enormous power on the images and narratives it presents, especially perhaps, on the young. There is irony in being forced to watch only the dominant culture, which marginal groups in our society are expected to emulate and often wish to emulate, even as these groups are hindered from achieving--for a variety of complex reasons--the comfortable lives being represented.

Soto has written movingly and humorously elsewhere of the role that television played in the life of his laboring class Chicano family. See for example, "Looking for Work" in the essay collection, Living up the Street (annotated in this database). The gap between representation and reality continues to be an important source of social dissatisfaction and unrest. From a medical humanities perspective, the poem forces consideration of the communication gap that may exist between health-care professionals, and their patients or co-workers, based on differences in socioeconomic background.