ipl-logo

Comparing How To Date A Browngirl, By Junot Diaz And Sherman Alexie

1173 Words5 Pages

Native American literature and Latin American literature are like two pieces of the same pie, they may be different in appearance, but deep down, they share similar roots and characteristics. Both Junot Diaz and Sherman Alexie come from a modest minority family but have used their intelligence and knack for writing to make it and live a life in the United States, thriving. “How to Date a Browngirl,” by Junot Diaz is told in second person point of view, as a list for the reader on how to handle a date with a girl. The speaker provides many tips and steps on how to have a good time and look good for a girl as the story progresses. In “How to Fight Monsters,” by Sherman Alexie, Junior faces a whole different set of problems, instead of having …show more content…

In “How to Date a Browngirl” the speaker is faced with the challenge of getting sexual acts from a girl and in “How to Fight Monsters” he has to deal with the bullies and kids at his school who bully him because of his Native American heritage. Comments such as “Hey, Chief” clearly frustrate Junior and make it hard for him to come to school on a daily basis. The characters also are both marginalized and stereotyped based on purely their race. In Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl,” the girl that is with the speaker assumes he is full on Spanish “She'll say, I like Spanish guys, and even though you've never been to Spain, say, I like you. You'll sound smooth,” even though he has never been to Spain is not well immersed in its culture. In “How to Fight Monsters,” Junior also has to deal with people poking fun at his race and stereotyping him around school. The two characters also both come from minority backgrounds and grew up in unusual circumstances, relative to most kids. Growing up on an Indian reservation and in a rundown city apartment with no father will lead to different views and takes on life for the two main characters. Overall, both short stories feature characters that share challenges, racial stereotyping, and unusual …show more content…

In “How to Date a Browngirl,” the speaker is going over the steps to score with a girl but is clearly clueless. He offers lots of advice for sex and how to get with a girl but is obviously inexperienced. When the speaker says “If she's not from around the way, Wendy's will do,” the speaker is obviously inexperienced and not well informed on how to handle a girl. If he wanted to be in a relationship he would treat the girls better and does not know how to handle the situation. In “How to Fight Monsters,” the speaker has to stand up to his bullies. He eventually does fight the bully but when he does, the reaction is not positive. The boy, Roger, says “you’re an animal,” to Junior and clearly is shocked that he really wants to fight. In “How to Date a Browngirl,” the speaker is not shocked when the girls do not want to do sexual things with him when in reality, the way he acts, he should not expect anything at all. Junior in “How to Fight Monsters” is a notorious loser of fights on the reservation and has even been made to beat himself up but ironically, looks like a vicious predator for trying to fight at the school off the reservation. The title “How to Date a Browngirl” is ironic in itself because the short story is not about dating, the prevailing goal of the speaker is to have sex with a girl and then nothing else. He does not have any intentions

Show More
Related
331 Words | 2 Pages

On his journey to the New World, Bartolome de Las Casas encounters the “Indians” of the New World, in which he describes as an innocent, undeveloped, people. As a first observation, Las Casas pays close attention to the Indians social appearance and clothing. He notices, “as to their dress, they are generally naked,” usually with minimal clothing worn and, instead of traditional European customs , “ they have no beds, but sleep on a kind of matting or else in a kind of suspended net called hamacas.” Specifically within this quote is the emphasis of the rhetorical device pathos. Las Casas’ diction is written in such a way that portrays the feeling of empathy toward the reader, and because an individual is more likely to help another individual

Read More
774 Words | 4 Pages

When I was small, I didn't understand English, and you kept flunking me and flunking me instead of teaching me (Valdez, 78). The message behind Francisco’s statement is disappointing in that white people have the power to teach immigrants their ways if they want to learn, and help them understand without hostility, but more times than not, they will choose to just yell and be rude instead. Now in college, Moctezuma and Florence, a white woman, are in an interracial relationship and live together. There was a situation in “No Saco Nada De La Escuela” where Florence used a stereotype of Latinxs when talking to Monty, saying: FLORENCE:

Read More
1348 Words | 6 Pages

Jovita Gonzalez & Eve Raleigh’s Caballero: A Historical Novel, took place during the Mexican American War. While military officials from the United States were occupying Texas, Mexican men such as Don Santiago de Mendoza y Soria resisted the presence of the Americano. The novel focuses on the many injustices that occur within the Mexican population. One main problem that is presented is the social viewing of race and class. Mexican people with Spanish ancestry were more likely to be respected or accepted, while those whose blood was mixed were perceived as inferior.

Read More
797 Words | 4 Pages

Everyday people are judging and being judged by others with unique criteria that we, as inhabitants of Earth deem necessary checkmarks to be met to afford and be afforded tokens of civility. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman” the memoir is brimming with personal accounts of fetishiztation and discrimination the author experiences as a Latin woman that have vast influence on her life. Throughout the text Cofer conveys the significance of how deep the status “exotic” to describe Latina women is held inside the minds of people which the author alludes to on page 879, “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early,” [1] after being given a sudden, non-consensual kiss at a dance by her date. The author expresses the cultural dissonance between

Read More
1069 Words | 5 Pages

In both John Updike’s “A&P” and Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl, or Halfie” the main narration of the stories comes from the perspective of two teenage boys, who also happened to be the stories main characters. The similarities in their subjective viewpoints is quite clear at times, and clearly influences their narration. The similarities of being too young man who are coming-of-age, unreliable at times, in the midst of puberty and developing sexually, and while trying to work against the norm when it comes to their expected behaviors. Both narrators are coming-of-age, young adult men in the midst of evolving into full adulthood. What makes them subjective and unreliable as narrators is the fact that the story is being told through a filter of their perspectives as young men in the world.

Read More
1103 Words | 5 Pages

Anzaldúa was a Mexican American who was a well-known writer and had a major impact on the fields of queer, feminist, and cultural theory. Her most famous work is Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza which includes poems, essays, and short stories. Anzaldúa was no stranger to the use of literary theories in her writing, which is evident in her short story “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Here, the author uses a combination of feminist, reader-response, and psychoanalytic theory to show the struggle of being oneself when they’re Mexican-American. Through the use of feminist theory, she explains how a female is labeled as an “habladora” when she tries to voice out her opinion about something; reader-response theory provides the reader with an understanding of the struggles of self-identity, which they are able to relate to, especially Mexican-Americans; and lastly, psychoanalytic theory illuminates on her childhood experiences, which could explain why Anzaldúa believes in what she does, such as the idea that Anglo people have tried to tame her tongue—in other words, her language.

Read More
571 Words | 3 Pages

Writer Sherman Alexie has a knack of intertwining his own problematic biographical experience with his unique stories and no more than “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” demonstrates that. Alexie laced a story about an Indian man living in Spokane who reflects back on his struggles in life from a previous relationship, alcoholism, racism and even the isolation he’s dealt with by living off the reservation. Alexie has the ability to use symbolism throughout his tale by associating the title’s infamy of two different ethnic characters and interlinking it with the narrator experience between trying to fit into a more society apart from his own cultural background. However, within the words themselves, Alexie has created themes that surround despair around his character however he illuminates on resilience and alcoholism throughout this tale.

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

Women in the United States has come a long bumpy ride to get the equal rights as their counter partner, the men. One particular accomplishment was recognizing American female authors, in specific, Mexican-American female authors. The richness of Mexican literature expands to novels, memoirs, short essays, poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and so much more. Mexican literature includes many genres, but a distinct theme that focuses on the personal aspects of Mexican-Americans are genres that centers around the culture. The Distance Between Us, is a 2012 memoir of the iconic contemporary female Mexican-American author Reyna Grande.

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

Faced with many obstacles from poverty to racial stereotypes, Junior must override them if he is to make his life better than that of fellow Indians. Interestingly, rather than letting the obstacles hold him back Junior understands that his destiny is in his own hands and he must celebrate who he is even if it means fighting. In the end, we see a boy who have managed to overcome all hardships to get to the top, even if it means making tough choices such as changing schools, therefore is could be seen that race and stereotypes only made Junior

Read More
899 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout “The Mexican in Fact, Fiction, and Folkore” examines the term “Mexican” as it is applied in Southwest literature and argues the Anglo society has made a conscious effort to misrepresent Mexicans (Rios 60). He states the people of Mexican descent are viewed as un-American because they are perceived as filthy, lazy, and dumb. Ricatelli adds to the conversation of Mexican stereotypes by examining the literary expressions of Chicanas and Mexicanas in the literature of both the United States and Mexico. In “The Sexual Stereotypes of The Chicana in Literature” Ricatelli explains how in Yankee literature, the Chicana is referred to as the “fat breeder, who is a baby factory” meanwhile the Mexican is described as an “amoral, lusty hot tamale” (Ricatelli 51). He makes note of these stereotypes in order to highlight the ethnocentric and nativist points of view that dominated Anglo literature.

Read More
506 Words | 3 Pages

Junior throughout the novel experiences many instances of violence, whether it be direct or indirect, one of these instances of violence that Junior has received could be the racism he experienced in Riordan. As for the violence that Junior has indirectly experienced, there are many instances, most prominent of these would be the death of his dad's friend Eugene, as well as the violence that comes from the alcoholism on the reservation. These experiences are some of the significant factors that have played a role in growing Junior's

Read More
1045 Words | 5 Pages

Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.

Read More
1388 Words | 6 Pages

Culture and Women In “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid and “ How to date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl or Halfie “ by Junot Diaz, both authors elaborate on culture and how it shapes outlook on women. In Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” a mother enforces her culture’s strong beliefs on her daughter. As the result, she displays her parental authority with a sequence of short commands influenced by her culture. A sense of judgment can be seen in the young girl, after questioning her mothers’ request.

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

Garcia Girls Essay Rough Draft For the Garcia girls, like many children of first-generation immigrants to the United States, sexuality is a complicated and far-reaching issue involving tradition, family, class, and identity. The Garcia Girls are coming of age in the United States during a period in which classic American values are constantly being called into question by American youth; this is the 1960s, a time that will stand witness to the blossoming of the sexual revolution. The traditional ideas about sex and independence found in their Dominican homeland come under repeated assault, as the family begins the assimilation process in their new homeland of New York City.

Read More
739 Words | 3 Pages

Despite having such important topics the book is band by many schools because of how freely sexuaity and rascim is written which it should not be. Sexulaity is something ever teen learns to deal with and racism is something every teen should be educated on. One of the main topics explored in this book like stated before is managing misery with humor. Junior deals with bullying on his reservation and then again at his new school.

Read More

More about Comparing How To Date A Browngirl, By Junot Diaz And Sherman Alexie

Related Topics

Open Document