Class and gender/sexuality are complicated in “Drown” by Junot Díaz. Yunior and Beto are ex-best friends who are separated through the complications. Their relationship tenses up when Beto decides to better his life through education. At first glimpse, Yunior’s struggle with class and sexuality could be based within his homophobic fear. The typical understanding that Yunior’s unmotivated attitude stems from fear is flawed because it fails to recognize his stance to not change who he believes he is and where he is meant to be. When examined more closely, this assumption completely overlooks Díaz’s emphasis on different perspectives when it comes to coming of age. Although Yunior is younger than Beto, he challenges expectations, and instead of moving on with his life, he sticks to what he knows. Rather than conforming to the typical understanding, Yunior challenges this role by proving he has already grown up just in a different period than Beto. …show more content…
Stealing did not have much of an affect over him in either the positive or negative direction. However, he worries that his other desires will lead him to “end up abnormal” (1248). Yunior cannot control his sexuality, yet he spends the most time obsessing over his homosexual thoughts and activities. Where his focus lies reveals his level of immaturity along with his constant need to fit in. He has been the man of the house since his father left, but when it comes to himself he only does what is expected. Because he was forced to step up at such a young age, he is never able to develop crucial skills as a child. His coming of age story was rushed and forced. Through his subconscious, his morals become unclear and he bases class off of what he believes is expected of him. Yunior does not want to be anything other than poor and therefore only acts poor. He attempts to better his mom’s life but never his
Reader Response for Ysrael and Fiesta 1980 Ysrael is a tragic story of a boy who has to wear a mask because when he was a baby, his face got eaten by a pig, but survived. Ysrael is described as a monster, and the kids in the village seems to make fun of him because they are disgusted by his disfigured face. Ysrael is lonely kid as no one wants to be friends with him. The other characters are Yunior, and Rafa ; they are brothers that live in the Dominican Republic with their uncle and aunt.
Formation of Gender Expectations Starting at the core development of our society, roles such as gender, race and class have formed into our perception of ourselves and others throughout several aspects of life. In the novel Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead analyzes the importance of these roles and portrays how they structure our society. Benji, the main character of this novel is a teengager who is striving to fit in and trying to find his place in society. Benji has faced difficult times trying to fit in, as he is an affluent African American boy who goes to an all white school and lives in an all white neighborhood on the Upper East Side.
In “The Art of Drowning” by Billy Collins, he inquires the thought of life flashing before your eyes when you are reaching an imminent death. When the character leaps underneath the surface to his aqueous grave, a fast depiction of a long life is rotated through his mind. Mr. Collins explains how weird it is that time crushed into such a short film in the final seconds of life. Collins reverie of an ultimate instant when all corners of the existence resided come together for an impressive production, a sit down gathering where all moments are commended in great detail and discussion. Appalled by the moment, is as quick as the time it takes for the oxygen to exhaust in a moribund, drowning man.
The stories of Junot Diaz feature various elements of social and personal issues that are highly prevalent in young Latinx men, primarily the compulsion and adverse effect of machismo, the poignancy of being an outcast in one’s community, and the lack of a father figure in a boy’s life. The first set of short stories prominently feature Ysrael, a Dominican boy whose face was disfigured by a pig when he was an infant. In “Ysrael”, he is the object of Yunior’s fascination, and the victim or Rafa’s (Yunior’s brother) torment.
“Fiesta 1980” father and son. Junot Diaz story “Fiesta 1980” is a story about an immigrant family that came to the US in the hunt for better opportunities. The story includes a myriad number of culturalisms to show that Yunior’s family is still new and that they still conserve their traditions. Nevertheless, Yunior’s family is not so different from many other Hispanic families in the US; a great amount of Hispanics families can be represented by “Fiesta 1980”.
(p.3) In the book, This is How You Lose Her the reader is presented with the journey of a young boy turning into a man in a series of flashbacks as he grows to discover his true inner self. The author Junot Diaz conveys the message of masculinity and race, as he wants the reader to understand the development of a relationship given these two variables. To further reflect upon this notion, one must ask what do these two articles have in common? The author sheds light on Yunior’s race
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.
Junot Diaz's collection of short stories, Drown, provides a poignant and heartbreaking look at the lives of young Dominican men living in poverty in the United States. The stories explore themes of identity, masculinity, race, and immigration, as Diaz vividly portrays the struggles and challenges faced by his characters. One of the recurring themes in Drown is the struggle for identity. The characters in the stories are often caught between two cultures, the Dominican culture of their parents and the American culture they are growing up in.
What would you do if your dreams were shattered by the weight of societal expectations? Within the pages of the captivating novel, “Love Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed”, a profound exploration of identity, love, and personal agency unfolds. At the heart of this novel stand two interesting characters, Maya Aziz and Phil Hernandez. Maya is a courageous Muslim girl, with Indian heritage, who finds herself residing in a predominately white community, where her parent's traditional values clash with her inside-burning desire for self-independence and self-expression. Similarly, Phil Hernandez, a young man of white descent has his own internal struggles, attempting to do his personal ambitions without publicity, to avoid humiliation or embarrassment.
Can social classes affect the character of a person? In his story “Monstro,” Junot Diaz Describes how an infection took over many people in the Dominican Republic, more specifically the Haitians in poverty. He also gives us insight in the conflict the narrator is facing of liking a girl called Mysty who is of a different social status than he is, and of a wealthy guy called Alex and his desire to be a photographer at any risk. Diaz focuses on how an infection can affect people of different social status. He discusses how immune the wealthy are comparing to the poor to the infected, when compared to the blacks who are more at risk of the disease.
“Class” by Sherman Alexie is a story about a man, Edgar Joseph, on a journey to self-identification. While on this journey he experiences many different tribulations and encounters a multitude of women. The encounters with these women will reveal to the reader his selfless, barbaric, and lost personality. However, the experiences he had with women of his own descent provided a transformative experience that shows what he is looking for and what he truly values. Edgar’s selflessness can be seen through his mother.
It takes time, experiences and lessons until the concept can be grasped. Although it is a simple “who are you?” question, the answer is not given until one can meet their fullest potential and then have it handed to them. Antonio Marez is brought into the novel as the protagonist who seems to have trouble with obtaining the answers he is in search for, concerning his destined future as well his beliefs. Although his parents did not seem to realize it, their conflicting views made it difficult for him to accept either of their frequently expressed belief systems.
In her ethnography account Women without Class, Julie Bettie explores the relationship that class along with race and gender work to shape the experiences of both Mexican American girls and white working class students. In her work, Bettie finds that class cannot only intersect to impact the school experiences of both working class and middle class girls, but also their transition to adulthood and their future outcomes. Thus, Bettie explores how working class girls are able to deal with their class differences by performing symbolic boundaries on their styles, rejecting the school peer hierarchy and by performing whiteness to be upwardly mobile. In women without class, Bettie describes the symbolic boundaries that both las chicas and the preps
From the reading, I understand that in today’s culture that there are still race relations. Even though both groups of boys came from the same educational background and the same impoverished living conditions. I believe his study and findings are still prevalent in today’s society. In this essay, I will be breaking down the parts and discussing social conditions, poverty, self-esteem and motivation between two “groups’’, the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers.
This novel follows the life of a recent college graduate, Marian MacAlpin, through her career and emotional maturation in a somewhat unnatural, if not threatening world. The queer concept of this world is branded by a spectrum of moral viewpoints of gender politics that manifest themselves and surround Marian. The political and cultural values and practices of a male dominated and sex driven society depicted in the novel are so strong that they seem to devour Marian physically and emotionally. She rebels against this cannibalistic, patriarchal society through a comestible mode and the end, reclaims her identity crisis by restoring her relationship with