Yunior already states that he needs Rafa, but Rafa never admits to that. The story that stood out to me the most is “Aurora.” I was fascinated by the ambivalent relationship between the speaker and Aurora, but I also felt sick about the decisions both her and the speaker made. Junot Diaz always delves deeper than that. Yunior’s mother mentions that his old friend, Beto is coming to town. Israel with the deformed face hides under his mask as a result. The mother plays the submissive wife role well by not standing up for her children or herself. Although the stories work together in unison, one that stands out as its own separate entity is “Drown”. In fact, it is a complete fiasco. ( Log Out /  The title, “Drown”, could refer to the overwhelming-ness of this transition. The theme of this story is “in order to move on, you must be powerful and let the past go.” The narrator and Girlfriend discover this theme during their coffee meet. Yunior observes the entire situation between Boyfriend and Girlfriend, and finds connections to his own break up with Loretta. The two are away from home and all they have is each other, which is why the two don’t physically fight. It is very ironic that the mask is supposed to make him more acceptable by the society, but indeed it points out Ysrael’s difference from others, creating the border between him and the entire society. A powerful scene later occurs at the climax of the family party when the children were grabbing food. To me this illustrated the need for personal, face-to-face, eye-contact interaction in order to truly know and understand someone. She said she wanted to feel strong and that is how she coped with boyfriend leaving her. Therefore, individuals are forced to hide behind masks. When the father arrived home from work he didn’t acknowledge anybody. A coming-of-age story of unparalleled power, Drown introduced the world to Junot Díaz's exhilarating talents. Even Aurora’s name shows the discrepancy between what they want things to be and what they are. I believe that our society has the tendency to create the border between the majority and the minority, and force people to become the majority so that they can be generally accepted. This is significant as often times, our society picks on an individual and analyzes and speculates every inch of their individuality. One part of the story that really stands out to me is when the narrator explains how when Loretta finds a new man, she says he is “hardworking.” What makes this so interesting to me is that you can tell the narrator does not have much going for him, but what he does have to give is his love. His throwing up epitomizes the story, for he is punished (not allowed to eat) for something he cannot control. Physically they were close enough for the speaker to follow their every movement and argument throughout the apartment below. This book should be studied by any reader, whose life like many others’, grew up without the attention and affection of a father. Rafa having bunch of friends rarely talked to the narrator. Those borders, both physical and mental, are established through the characteristics of the story such as names of the characters and the setting. Yunior struggles with finding acceptance from his family and trying to find his identity. This was definitely not the love Aurora wanted. The border between perspectives, between idealism and realism, between optimism and pessimism, is no clearer than it is with No Face’s plight. Yunior struggles with showing his feelings because then he would look weak by doing so. In the novel Drown, we witness Yunior go through various problems that range for gay relationships to girlfriend problems. Although this lifestyle was poor, he never spoke of living in the Dominican Republic in a very negative way, if anything he disliked the Bronx more, where he never felt safe and was mugged on the subway multiple times. Despite the fact that the narrator, Yunior, was the protagonist, a significant character was his father. My dad stresses the fact that his parents worked 24/7 to make ends meet and provide for him and his brothers. Sometimes love can be insane. There also exists a border between the brothers, Yunior and Rata. This mask should keep him away from being mocked and insulted, but it only does worse. Another anecdote of selection to detail is his observations about his family behavior, ranging from his father’s dominating, angry voice, to his older brother’s lack of empathy when it comes to being in trouble. Girlfriend goes against the social norms to demonstrate that she will no be a submissive woman that conforms to men’s wishes. Although the father was abusive and overall a huge jerk, he allowed for the protagonist to reveal a more emotional side for himself. Ramon’s dream was to own his own business and provide for his family, which he achieves to a certain degree. Through this prominent, recurring motif, Díaz intricately layers his depiction of nascent masculinity. Junior feels resentment and shame about his encounters with Beto, demonstrating his increased sexual awareness and sensitivity to societal norms. Yunior was also the narrator in Diaz's first novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2007. In the short story “Ysrael” Junot Diaz writes about two boys with a quest to see a young boy who had his face destroyed by a pig when he was a small child. (Not that he had anything on him but a strand of cat’s cradle string.) Unlike Yunior in “Drown” the narrator in the poem What Work Is by Philip Levine depicts the struggles men and women face when trying to obtain honest work. I know exactly how Yunior feels when he says “good”- a response partly motivated by fear, lack of emotional connection, and not wanting to open up to his draconian father. My mother always raised me to be weary of mob culture – she warned that even the most independent-minded and intelligent were susceptible to it. Masculinity Complexes in Junot Diaz’s “Drown” May 16, 2019 by Essay Writer Boldly forthright and bitterly candid, Junot Diaz’s “Drown” forges a sense of community culture that propels the development of several of the work’s major themes, foremost among them the retention of historically accepted implications of masculinity. Which means when Mami works shes away from her children. The main character often compares his relationship to that of the couple downstairs by comparing the way the talk to each other. Notably, “Aurora” also means the dawn or sunrise. It is especially interesting to see his thoughts regarding his father, which contrasts from their strained relationship depicted in the second story, since he seems to be hopeful that his relationship with his father will be good. However, when she comes back, she realizes that she can never have that with the way they’re living and the way their relationship is. Yunior and his family are first generation immigrants into the United States, where his father is more concerned about his new green van rather than his son’s well-being. No Face’s identity becomes one that is forever contained and limited by his injury. Though they share a distant and abusive relationship, there’s something that keeps the narrator from telling his mother about the Puerto Rican woman. Knowing that she’s addicted to drugs and probably prostituting herself out for money, he still cannot bring himself to cut ties with this woman. While living in the capitol. Although they both have different relationships, they are similar in the way that they are suffering through some sort of loss where they are inferior to their significant others. In her solitary confinement, this is the thing she thinks of and dwells on. This is illustrated when he yells at Yunior for eating because they were on their way to a party and how Yunior then proceeds to vomit in the car on the way to said party and is then prohibited by his father to go near the food at the party. Junot Diaz’s short story “Drown” December 7, 2015 Uncategorized drown, friends, helpless, poverty Annie Wu In Junot Diaz’s short story “Drown,” we meet Yunior, a high school drug dealer who lives in poverty with his mother in a Housing Authority Apartment. Loretta is dating a richer, more powerful man, making the narrator inferior while Girlfriend is submissive and powerless because of her love for Boyfriend. Through this event, there was an obvious shift in the tone where everything became a lot more serious. Yunior discusses the moment that made his relationship with his mother deteriorate, and even though he quarreled with his brother, he was consoled by the fact that his brother was still there fro him. The two aforementioned arguments have well supported the thesis. Diaz illustrates through this that people’s situations throughout life are more similar than most people think. As Machiavelli states “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” This is especially true of the father who uses fear instead of love establish his role as the head of the family. He was just sad that he could not feel that void in his life that came from Loretta leaving him. While Ysrael is a more formidable opponent than Yunior could pose to be, Ysrael is alone, completely alone. People do not know what he exactly looks like so everyone seems to have their own opinion of what the damage looks like. Rafa is handsome, well liked, and has support behind him. The story also explores Junior’s sexuality, and his complicated relationship with his friend Beto. The title of the story shows how life’s circumstances keep pushing him down. – Sarahi De La Torre. The mentioning of the narrator’s father being in the United States and sending clothing “from the States last Christmas” (page 6) is one way Diaz draws attention to the border existing between being in the Dominican Republic while family members have left to work in the United States. Although there are other short stories that have titles in Spanish the word aguantando caught my attention the most, and even though it translates to tolerating I do not think the translation does it justice. Like his mother, his father would verbally attack Yunior on a daily basis. 1996. Oh dang, I did the wrong story! Skip to main content.ca. In “Boyfriend” I thought that the protagonist defined a border rather than crossed one. The solitude and lack of societal structure seems to have diminished the borders that Rafa created between him and his brother. The way that Junot Diaz wove together metaphorical symbolism in Aurora struck me as a very interesting aspect of the short story. The narrator, Yunior, in the story Drown by Junot Diaz is a drug dealer and does not want anyone to recognize him so that he may uphold a positive image. Despite the abusive relationship the protagonist shares with Aurora, he expresses that he truly loves her. Yunior could also be affected by Mami because while Papi wasn’t in their lives Mami had to do everything possible so Yunior and his brother would have everything needed for example food,clothes and water etc. Ok, well, here’s my response to another story that caught my interest: “Boyfriend”. Junot Diaz’s “Fiesta, 1980,” portrayed the existing borders within relationships in families and how these borders placed a strain and distance amongst it characters. "Drown" is set when Yunior is fresh out of high school, when he is living alone with his mother. Most of the time, Yunior’s dad is distant and unsympathetic towards Yunior. Eventually, there develops a cultural gap that may not be bridged. In this way, the story is about growing up. However, he prevents himself from wholeheartedly pursuing a life with her and wears a mask of Dominican bravado or “machismo”. Summary “Drown” begins with Yunior’s mother announcing that Beto, an old friend of Yunior’s, is home. The narrator is a small time drug dealer and his friend Beto is one who has plans and ambitions for his life and he is gay. It was clear to me right away that the speaker of “Boyfriend” is still in love with his ex-girlfriend Loretta. Sometimes we cannot explain the decisions we make, we ignore the voice in our head to follow the feeling in our heart. Yunior seems to resent moving countries because of the way his family dynamic has altered as a result of it. Junot Diaz’s “Aurora” again discusses the idea of borders within characters. Yunior’s role as a drug dealer is intrinsically symbolic of his relationship to Aurora; an irony in the sense that he’s serving addiction to others the same way Aurora is serving addiction to him. When the boys attack him, notice how the text emphasizes “STRENGTH” as he knocks them away, much like a comic book panel. Our father’s there too!” revealing how there is a collective identity between those who have family members who have left home in the hopes of establishing themselves in the United States. “Aurora” was the Roman goddess of the dawn, and Aurora in the story is perhaps the opposite of that: a junkie who does things so scandalous that they are only suited for the night when no one can see. He could purposefully let her have everything in the pocket because he felt bad for her. In the captioned analysis, there argues Junot Diaz’s Drown portrays the idea of fragmented masculinity. “Tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more … He is often frustrated by how hard he works with little return and little wealth to show for it. The most prominent border is the emotional border between the narrator and his papi. Metaphorically, it can be compared to the withdrawal symptoms of drug addicts. The stories are narrated through the perspective of an adult Yunior, touching on themes related to patriarchal abandonment, homosexuality, immigrant poverty and migration from the Dominican Republic for the United States. These names create a sense of detachment, it’s almost as if the main character doesn’t want to become emotionally involved with the couple because of his sensitivity towards his past relationship with Loretta. The book Drown, by Junot Diaz is a book that involves many trouble, and drama in Yunior’s life. Every time Yunior is in the ostentatious vehicle, he begins feeling sick and eventually throws up. From the start of the story the readers are given a sense of authority through the father as his stern disposition makes the reader believe he is the man of the house and takes that role very serious. He refers to these people as “boyfriend” and “girlfriend,” we never find out their names, although we do find out the narrator’s ex-girlfriend’s name, a character, who is frequently referenced throughout the story. While Yunior discusses all of his family’s issues, he does not seem to explicitly complain about the conditions he is facing. Diaz, in the beginning of the story, introduces Yunior’s role as some dealer of sorts (smoke, weed, what you will). Yunior was also the narrator in Diaz's first novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in 2007. In the short story “Boyfriend,” the narrator identifies two types of borders between Boyfriend, Girlfriend, and himself. One major difference between Yunior’s experience and my dad’s is that my dad received nothing but love and care from his parents. However, there may be something in Rafa that is naturally combative, which may explain why he decides to pick on Ysrael. Boldly forthright and bitterly candid, Junot Diaz’s “Drown” forges a sense of community culture that propels the development of several of the work’s major themes, foremost among them the retention of historically accepted implications of masculinity. At the beginning of the story “Boyfriend” the narrator wakes up in the hallway hearing his downstairs neighbors fighting. “Not since she put some scratches on my arm. Her smoking in the bathroom and me dealing to the groom.” In addition, he physically abuses Aurora and others, in an attempt to mask his true pain. Aurora by Junot Diaz Summary Pages: 5 (1121 words) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz – A Literary Analysis Pages: 5 (1087 words) The Oedipal Conflict in Junot Díaz, “Fiesta, 1980” Pages: 4 (940 words) Experience of Youth in Junot Diaz’s Story Pages: 5 (1041 words) The things Yunior is aguantando are also never explicitly mentioned, and we can only imply them from what he describes. One of the interesting aspects of this story is how he goes back to discussing his childhood in the Dominican Republic after two stories that seemed to fast forward to his life in the U.S. One important aspect of this story is the relationship between Yunior and Rafa. Instead of having a good time with friends and family, Yunior just watches people have a good time. Therefore, vomiting is the only way Yunior can release his emotions. He states that Yunior was the subject of a short story that was used as his piece to get into Cornell University. The title of the story is also indicative of this inner exploration, for it is not so literal as the others. They will mock him because he has this unaccepted face, and continue to do so because he used to have it.