...Junot Diaz’s Drown short stories exemplify the struggles of a Dominican Republic immigrant in the United States to achieve the American Dream, the concept of racism and the idea of hyper masculinity pushed upon a young boy growing up. Moreno, Marisel. Debunking Myths, Destabilizing Identities: A Reading of Junot Diaz’s "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie." Fall2007, Vol. 26 Issue 2. This article is presented with an essay which analyzes the short story "How to Date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl, or Halfie," by Junot Diaz. It reflects on racial ethics and how one generation can affect another by embedding in our psyche that racism is the fault of our ancestors; as it is something that has been handed down from generation to generation. I chose this article because the racism that the characters faced within Drown is quite similar to the ones faced by immigrants in the United States. There is a racial and ethnic tension among blacks and Hispanics which in some cases turns violent. Examples of this can be found in the short story that gives the name to the novel: Yunior´s mother relates to him of the attacks of African Americans on Hispanics in their neighborhood. Oulahan, Cain W. “The American dream deferred: family separation and immigrant visa adjudications at U.S. consulates abroad”. Marquette Law Review. Summer2011, Vol. 94 Issue 4, p1351-1379. 29p This article expounds...
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...better about yourself.” Although fears are hard to face, it’s often worth the struggle to stand up to fears. In Junot Diaz’s short story collection, Drown, the main character Yunior and his family from the Dominican Republic, often come face to face with their fears in the United States, but can’t take their stand. In “Negocios,” Yunior’s father immigrates to America and struggles to earn enough money to bring his family over, and ends up cheating on Yunior’s mother. Yunior later connects with this woman. In “Fiesta, 1980,” Yunior faces his harsh cheating father while deliberating...
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...Drown Drown, the compilation of ten short stories written by Junot Diaz narrates the experience of Hispanic Latino teenagers with different themes and from one part of life to another. He pictured the world of Drown as a rough, violent, poor and seemingly hopeless experiences. The compilation of stories narrated by Yunior tells his stories from different points of view of life. The events and experiences mentioned in this novel by Diaz are what most Hispanic teenagers go through. As the novel begins with “The fact that I am writing you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you.” (Drown). This epigraph in beginning by Gustavo Perez Firmat gives a clue of focusing Hispanic community. After reading the whole book my question is this book merely story telling or autobiographical? This question came to my mind by relating Diaz’s interview in Colbert’s show. Stephen Colbert, the host of show when asked him how he came to America, Diaz answered that his father first came to New York, settled here and called them over. Diaz also mentioned that he saw his dad the first time as he was away from family and once they landed to America his father took them to New Jersey which was weird according to Diaz. Same scenario was somewhat presented in beginning of Drown but through Yunior- the narrator. Diaz used the specific words and some symbols which the reader can almost feel the story as if it is real. Diaz, who was born in Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic and migrated...
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...Calvin Smith Nicole Smith World Literature II January 9, 2015 Drowning: Metaphor or Reality When people, particularly novelist, begin to write about these events it’s called contemporary world literature. In Junot Diaz’s story “Drown”, contemporary literature is clearly shown through the characters Yunior and his mother. The characters issues and how they deal with or “drowning” in them is a way to see contemporary literature used. In Drown, the characters are drowning in the everyday events of their lives which recur because of their lack of purpose, or direction. “Drown” is a short story about a boy named Yunior who is currently living with his mother in a run-down apartment and who wants to be with Yunior’s father, who left her to be with another woman in Florida. The mother continues to dream fruitlessly of a reunion with her husband, even though she will not risk taking the measures she needs to make it happen. She will neither cut off conversation with him completely and move on, nor accept the invitation he gives her. According to the story, he has told her, "if she moves down there (Florida) he'll leave the woman he's living with" (1246). She remains in limbo, suffocating, instead of moving in one direction or the other. Though she remains home she misses the man, because she would still reach out to him hoping one day he would come back. Even on the phone with him, “she sounds hurt or nervous” (1246). Another thing that made the narrator feel as if he...
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...immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation do immigrants conform to new surroundings. In “Drown,” the title story of his narrative collection, Junot Diaz enumerates the story of a Hispanic youth growing up in New Jersey. Though Diaz explores issues of queerness, shamelessness, and familial relations within this selection, it is his use of language that proves most intriguing. Rather than simply describing the struggles of adapting to a new language or customs, Diaz portrays how, at an early age, he manipulated language as a tool to makes sense of his new hybrid identity. The use of language in Junot Diaz’s Drown is spare and unadorned, often rendered in "Spanglish," an unpredictable mixture of both English and Spanish. Diaz uses Spanish words in the midst of standard English sentences to fortify the differences between Dominican and American cultures. Although, the integration of street slang with Spanish may confound the typical reader, it accurately depicts the taxing experience of new immigrants struggling to make sense of new phenomena in the United States and engages the harsh reality...
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