Cultural Stereotypes In The Novel 'This Is How You Lose Her'

Every culture has their own stereotypes. These cultural stereotypes can influence how people perceive each other because some people may only view others by their stereotypes and nothing more. As a result, stereotypes can have a negative impact on people. Since some people do not like to be judged only by their stereotypes, they will fight to prove that they are not the stereotype; however, their efforts are futile because they realize they cannot stop themselves from behaving as the stereotype. This futile struggle of escaping cultural stereotypes is portrayed in the novel “This Is How You Lose Her” by Junot Diaz, a Dominican American writer. This novel is a collection of short stories that focus on infidelity. The stories describe how a Dominican boy, Yunior, is negatively affected by cultural stereotype in regards to his love life. Women only see him as a cultural stereotype that he is a cheater. Since Yunior does not like to be judged as a cheater, he initially denies and fights to break free from the cultural stereotype; however, over time, Yunior realizes his efforts are futile because he cannot escape his cheating nature, which led

At first, Yunior did not want to admit he is his cultural stereotype. He did not want to admit he is a cheater to his girlfriend as he says:
I’m not a bad guy. I know how that sounds – defensive, unscrupulous – but it’s true. I’m like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good. Magdalena disagrees though. She considers me a typical Dominican man: a sucio, an asshole. See, many months ago, when Magda was still my girl, when I didn't have to be careful about almost anything, I cheated on her with this chick who had tons of eighties freestyle hair … Magda only found out because homegirl wrote her a fucking letter” (Diaz