In the book Drown by Junot Diaz, there was a father that really never settled. Ramon was portrayed as the father figure in the book and it shocked me how he left his family in San Diego, and went to the United States to earn some more money but also did something bad. It 's hard to see when a father with kids cheats on his wife, lies to his father in law in order to secure money and comes to the United states to make more money. It is understandable that when you travel to get a better job and do that in order support a family you would come back to the family and share the earnings. It is cruel what Ramon did because as he arrived to New York and started working but also found someone to have an affair with and forgot about the committed marriage
In “Breathing Underwater.” by Alex Finn. The relationship between Nick and Caitlin was never healthy because of Nick’s aggression towards Caitlin physically, emotionally and selfish, while Caitlin was just being a girlfriend. For some reason Nick's aggression grew when Cailtin wouldn’t listen to him because she had a necklace that her mother gave to her. “I said, take that stupid thing off… I plucked it off and threw it out the window.
In paragraph 27 it states ,”there were still old cronies of the dictator around who would love an excuse to go after my family after my father ,after her ,” the cronies were loyal servants to the dictator even when he was dead so alvarez's mother thought they were still in danger of being captured or killed ,because of the cronies the mother would live in fear unlike alvarez who didn't fully believe they would come after them . Alvarez wrote her novels knowing they may wreak havoc on her family members who were still in the dominican republic and maybe her parents and sisters. In paragraph 29 and 30 it talks about the last novel she wrote about the island and how her mother thought about it ,”I don't care what happens to us i'm so proud of you ,” her mother says ,alvarez wrote the novel at the risk of her family but her mother and her new the story had to be told and the things the people had to go through
Laurie Colwin (1944-1992) was born in Manhattan, New York. She was a prolific writer and her very first works were published in the New Yorker. Her first short story collection was published in 1974. Her stories were written about love, relationships, and being happy in general, however, this story “The Man Who Jumped into the Water” is quite a bit different from the others. Hiding behind a persona to get away from reality can lead someone to a breaking point because a person 's troubles catch up to them.
The Many Themes and Binaries of Drown by Junot Diaz: My Take In Drown by Junot Diaz are many themes and many binaries that Diaz uses to convey a certain message. The message being the harsh reality immigrants go through and the lives of Latinos in U.S. specifically in the East Coast. Particularly in the two short stories that I am choosing are “Edison, New Jersey” and “Negocios”. These two have very similar themes, but for both of them what really stood out was the theme of money.
Junot Diaz’s culmination of short stories, “Drown”, encompasses the essence of growing up as a male in the Dominican Republic. Diaz brilliantly interlaces this theme with the struggles of poverty, adolescence, and social expectations/gender roles. The story of a young Dominican boy growing up in less-than-ideal circumstances brings to light the many social and psychological difficulties associated with finding one’s manhood and identity as a person. Diaz tactfully utilizes two specific figures in the story “Ysrael” to symbolize these social problems. Rafa, Yunior’s older brother is a portrayal of the many “masks” of masculinity or machismo, including traits such as being sexually hyperactive, emotionless, and violent, which are imposed on Yunior
“The Man in the Water” Paragraph In Roger Rosenblatt’s essay “The Man in the Water” his main idea is that humans are not powerful, but actually believe in reverse. The man in the water reminds readers that most people are selfless. To begin with Rosenblatt believes Sputnik's and the man in the water, acts are selfless. Both Sputnik and the man in the water risks their lives to save people. Rosenblatt stated this “is part of the reason this particular tragedy sticks in the mind”(473).
In “No Face”, Ysrael narrates the same events instead of Yunior. Although these two short stories do not directly feature Yunior and Rafa’s father, they are as much about Yunior’s growth and development during his father’s absence as they are about Ysrael. In “Situating Latin American Masculinity: Immigration, Empathy and Emasculation in Junot Diaz’s Drown”, John Riofrio emphasizes that “Ysrael sets the stage for the picture of masculinity which will reveal itself throughout all ten of the stories.” At this point in time, Yunior is only a nine year old boy in the Dominican Republic, at a point in life where he is on
Sadly for Yunior he does not have the best example with Rafa. In “Miss Lora,” Diaz shows how much Rafa plays apart in Yunior’s decisions even when Rafa is dead. “Years later, you would wonder if it hadn’t been for your brother would you have done it?” Yunior is sleeping with his teacher just like Rafa did with “Mrs. Del Orbe”. But this skinny woman was older than him whose toned muscles eliminated any fat from her body.
Hiding the truth behind a fantasy inflicts more harm than good. The conflict of fantasy versus reality occurs in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz demonstrates the struggle of a characters from Oscar, Lola, and Beli as they follow their own fantasy. Oscar is a nerdy overweight boy who pursue girls who don’t have mutual feelings for him. Lola, Oscar’s older sister has a rebellious side to her who also shares a pursuit in love. The next character is Beli and out of all these characters Beli has the worst experience as she is used and get beaten when she encounters her love.
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
The character in the story Drown is about a young Dominican immigrant who is in high school and has a sexual experience twice with a male counterpart while watching an adult film. Moreover, he becomes a round character because of what took place with his best friend and does not know what to do or how to confront the situation between them. The narrator faces many conflicts of men being masculine, women being inferior, and not having any positive influences in his life. On the contrary would argue with his mother and asking her why she still talks to him? Even though the mother continues to talk to the father, the narrator still does what he has to do to take care of the only person who has never doubted him or unfortunately his dad was a weak
In “Wildwood”, Junot Diaz presents a troubled teenager by the name Lola to have distinct conflicting values with her mother. Her mother has controversial Dominican norms and responsibilities. These norms are not what Lola wants to be. Her mother soon gets sick and increases Lola’s feelings to take action on how she wants to live her life. When Lola and her mom continue to carry their abusive conflict, Lola decides to run away to Wildwood.
The story reveals a conflicted family with a son that is in need of affection and a dedicated wife, who is not blind and it’s able to see what the situation is. Diaz uses symbolism to represent the disapproval that Yunior feels for his father’s affair. Among the symbols Diaz uses are the van, the vomiting, the showers Papi takes, and papi starving Yunior. Diaz does not gives a specific age for Yunior but given the clues in the text one can estimate his age to be around ten or eleven.
The swimmer Fear is a common emotion which we all have experienced before, but every person responds to the emotion differently, it´s not unusual that people will be scared the first time they experience fear, it something that usual will test the person identity or be a part of some personal development . The short story The Swimmer by S.J Butler deals with some of these themes. The story’s narrator is a Third person omniscient narrator, which means that the narrator is able to read everyone’s thoughts. The narrator focuses on the protagonist.
