Aurora Summary

The protagonist of the story is an unnamed male whose experiments with alcohol and weed at fifteen years old lead to harder drugs and greater consequences that threaten his safety and security. For example, the narrator says, “Donny said he saw me standing sorta wonky in the back and said I need a hit. Donny was the first to get me high”, he implies that his friend Donny got him high because of how he was standing. The use of drugs did not just stop at marijuana, the narrator also indulged in alcohol, he goes on saying, “The rest of the kids would watch as Mark and I shotgunned Schlitz beneath the bleachers of the stadium”. Which eventually led to him dropping out if school and focusing on his habits and not his well-being. The protagonist constant influences from his friend and associates increased his use and encouraged the damages that were being done to him and his body. His habits started to heighten and the stronger drugs were amongst him,

Jim, a high school all-star basketball player becomes addicted to heroin. He tries to hide his addiction, but it becomes quite prevalent when it begins to overtake his life entirely. To begin with, Jim reflects on his first experiences with heroin and refers to it as a “chippy” habit. He isn’t aware of the addictiveness of this potent drug, which shortly becomes habitual. His addiction leads to him being kicked off the basketball team, out of his own house, and then desperate on the streets of New York City alongside of his friends. This substantially progresses his addiction, resulting in him passing out in the snow one night. Thanks to Jim’s former basketball friend, Jim is forced to withstand from heroin. Jim become extremely agitated from withdrawal and escapes to look for some more. Jim later finds himself in a six-month rehab, which he notes “the

When Oscar is eighteen years old he meets an important girl named Ana in an SAT prep class. He immediately falls in love, but unfortunately also falls “into one of those Let’s-Be-Friends Vortexes” (Díaz 41). While Oscar is just one of her

Psychoanalytic Theory on Junot Diaz’s, "How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl, or halfie)"

When we see that the people that we love have to deal with a horrible situation we try to make it better anyway we can, sometimes giving up the most important part of ourselves. In The Brief Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz argues that there are stronger forces around us. With fuku, the curse in the Dominican Republic, is present in the lives of Oscar and Beli when they both have an encounter with the

Characterization is the strength of Love Medicine. The humorous, but tragic, exploits of eccentric characters are extremely vivid in her story, and force a constant chnage of viewpoint for the reader as more aspects of characters are revealed. The characters in this novel are a woven pattern of intricacy possibly far surpassing the reader's ability, and especially surpassing the characters themselves. This may be by design, as those things unresolved and disjointed by the end of the story can promote an incomplete and unsettled set of emotions

A registered nurse for more than 20 years, Aurora Catral worked her way up at

She charged straight into a world of conflict without anybody to care and love her at a time where she needed it the most. Hope has to live in an environment that you would not necessarily want for a teenager growing up. As Hope realizes the conflict she faces, she states to herself ,"Here I was- my body heading to one place, my heart stuck in another. My mind's got questions and no answers." (Bauer, p.g 11) This quote emphasizes the inner conflict occurring within Hope and the real dilemma she is facing. This quote also shows her three different outlooks on what she desires. The first being her physical self, the second being what her heart desires, and the third being what her thoughts are. Another way that Hope demonstrates her adaptability is when she has to move from state to state to get a job. Hope says ”I'm not going to Atlanta. I screamed at Addie’s back. You can’t make me!” (Bauer, p.g 11) In this quote Hope demonstrates how she has to be able to learn and adapt even when she does not necessarily want to. Although she may not want to change, she ends up doing so because it is what she is required to do inorder to succeed. This quote also shows that Hope was in a way forced to move on and learn to live life even if she is missing a home and the care a teenager needs to grow into a successful

Just as, the story starts, Diaz does not waste time to show the readers that “Papi” is an abusive person. The story starts with the family members getting

In this new story, the daughter is describing facts, whereas the father wants a more complete description, full of details. Following this, we see that the daughter prefers to be optimistic, while the father prefers reality. This is illustrated by the following quotes: “No, Pa, it could really happen that way, it’s a funny world nowadays”, and to this, the father replies “No… Truth first. She will slide back.” Her story describes the life of a mother and her son, and how she becomes a junkie to remain close to her son, who has become a junkie. In the end, the son quits the drugs world, but the mother cannot. Her son leaves her, introducing the element of abandonment in the story. This theme is pursued further, but in between lines. For example, the son left his mother at a critical time, when she needed him most, whereas the narrator stayed with her dad, even in his dying days. The father does not believe that the woman in his daughter’s story is strong enough and that even though she manages to quit doing drugs, she will fall back. I would tend to agree with him, because a lot of substance abusers, who quit, eventually, fall back. Her story is too optimistic, with a sense of denial for the tragedy. As the story ends, the father says “Tragedy! You too. When will you look it in the face?” Again, here we wonder whether the tragedy refers to the

The novel This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz is a group of short stories about Yunior’s struggles growing up in the states. The novel concentrates on his failed relationships with women because of the way he was raised by his family. Coming from a poor home in Santo Domingo, Yunior grows up in America with an absent father, an abusive brother and a distant mother. These stories show how cultural experiences and values are essential elements for helping people grow and succeed in life. This literary analysis of This is How You Lose Her will explain how parenting, death and cultural experiences happen to influence in Yunior’s character and his love life.

In Diaz’s “Aurora,” the main protagonist candidly illustrates his tumultuous relationship with his drug addicted girlfriend. From the first person point of view, he invites readers to witness what it’s like to be a drug dealer, making regretful choices and most of all, being shamefully in love with an addict. He establishes the usage of first person when he recounts an ordeal of buying and smoking weed with his roommate. “Earlier today me and Cut drove down to South River and bought some more smoke…Holy shit, Cut said. I’m drooling all over myself. I looked over at him but the black stubble on his chin and neck was dry. This shit is potent, I said. That’s the word I’m looking for. Potent.”

Once this girl started with the drugs, she could not stop. As soon as she tried the first drug, it lead to all of the other drugs and things that she did. Her first time doing the drug was an accident, and she did not know, but she made the wrong choice in continuing to do them. She said it gave her a feeling of belonging and love that she had never felt before. If her parents or her close friends had paid more attention to her, then some of the events that happened would not have happened. Her heavy drug use lead to her runaway from home to the streets, involvement in crime, her prostitution, and her visit to the insane asylum. She found a "best friend" (Chris) - one that would give her drugs - and they decided to runaway and leave their family and friends to start their own shop in San Francisco. They thought they could not handle their parents telling them what is right and what is wrong, but that is what they needed to hear. They were naive in thinking they could live their lives alone without any rules or any authority.

The decision to go against conformity is the only way to escape the situation that one is in, as shown in Díaz’s novel and Malala’s journey. Oscar, the main protagonist of Díaz’s novel, is frequently told by the people around him who he is and who he must be, sparking a deep conflict within Oscar. “Our hero was not one of those Dominican cat’s everybody’s always going on about ... dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him)” (Díaz, 11). From the beginning of the book, Oscar is pinned as an unfavorable choice for women. He notices this when girls reject him for the way he looks and his family members critique his lack of “improvement”. The Dominican expectation tells men they should be charming and a lothario however Oscar is neither. Oscar has the decision to conform to or reject the expectations. As it is more difficult to push the expectations away, Oscar spends his life chasing women in hopes of sex, which is also

“"It would increase some risks," [Maria] acknowledged, but then turned to me and said, "But it's your life." (20) The trip to Amsterdam had an alarming possibility of taking a big toll on Hazel’s life yet she still decided to go figure out what happens after the ending of the book. In the end, they ended up having a fantastic trip that showed those people who struggle with “limited lives” can also live a meaningful life and have fun when even though time is running out.