Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz is a collection of short stories piled into one cohesive novel. Throughout the novel, Diaz reinforces his characters through describing them and where they came from, while creating the reader a colorful picture of their actions by the usage of the Spanish language and of descriptive words. The Spanish language augments the conditions that the main characters of each story must endure either with their significant others, or at their place of work. Likewise, this highlights how, even though the story is set in the United States, the characters still have strong ties to their old life in the Dominican Republic. The use of Spanish words also emphasizes the character’s individual stories and the events that

For example, on page 71 in Otravida, Otravez, Yasmin says “We will live in his house and I will cook for him and when he leaves food out on the counter I will call him a zangano.” Diaz’s use of Spanish at this instance highlights the intense craving that Yasmin has to live a normal life with Ramon. Moreover, she wants to be able to live in his house with him and do whatever she wants without being judged by any roommates. The reader can somewhat figure out what the word means from the English words that came before it. While the word is kind of a derogatory term, it is not that harsh. This matters because it shows that Yasmin is being playful but also scolding him like a wife would. Also, the word affects the story because it shows everything that Yasmin has been dreaming about for her life in the United States and where she sees her relationship with Ramon going. Conversely, the reader needs to understand the context of the passage to be able to fully know how Diaz is using the world in that place. From reading the whole passage leading up to this point, the reader will be able to understand the context of the quote and can apply their knowledge to make clearer sense of the use of the word. Other than the reader knowing the Spanish language, this would be the best way to comprehend the