Drown, By Junot Diaz

Have you ever referred to someone as “high class,” “middle class,” or “low class?” The article “Class In America” is a very educated read and describes the way people are characterized by their “class.” I think that this article informs all types of readers and allows people to see how people are grouped based on themselves. “Class in America” is written to show and prove to society that people do not talk about “class” anymore, because of the way the world looks at it today. Gregory Mantosis is the author of the article, and he uses many facts and data to prove his points.

Mantsios believes that people in the United States do not like to talk about classes, whether it is upper class, middle class, or lower class. He outlines four beliefs that are widely held about class in the United States, and then thoroughly refutes them with statistical evidence. He argues that the class

Another big theme of “This is How You Lose Her” is the self-identity with regard to social, culture and even family background. As a whole, Yunior brings an authentic perspective of Dominican group in American society. However, he is not in every story. In “Otravida, Otravez”, the book tells a story from a female point of view. The narrator is a Dominican woman who makes a living washing sheet in hospital. She struggles with her boyfriend who has a wife and a child back in DR. The man serves as a perfect epitome of a stereotypical Dominican in America. The Dominican men in this book just can’t seem to cut their connection with the DR. Even if they claim to live a brand new life in the States, the DR is like a shadow in their hearts that never

Classism is a term that has been present for many years in American history. Some like to believe that classism does not exist anymore because times have changed. Unfortunately, classism does still exist, and it will likely always be an issue in America. Classism is a used to describe when a person is treated differently based on their perceived social class. Classism has manifested as a valid theory in American history for many years, and it has separated Americans in many ways, because classism has been racialized throughout the years, classism separates the rich from the poor, and classism inhibits cultural awareness. Classism will always exist in America because it has been a way of since the beginning of time.

In the beginning of the novel, Yunior decides to hide behind the stage but sometimes peering through the curtains. Although the exposition of the story uncovers in the prologue, which introduces the main characters, underlying history of the Dominican Republic, and the evil curse fuku; Yunior wasn’t mentioned. Instead, he writes in first-person narration, “As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, I have a fuku story too...It just happens to be the one that’s got its fingers around the throat. I’m not entirely sure Oscar would have liked this designation. Fuku story. He was a hardcore sci-fi and fantasy man, believed that that was the kind of story we were all living in. He’d ask: What more sci-fi than the Santo Domingo? What more fantasy than the Antilles? But now that I know how it all turns out, I have to ask, in turn: what more fuku” (Diaz 6)? Yunior as the primary author, wrote from two separate periods of time and presenting two different voices in the novel. As readers, we didn’t learn about Yunior until chapter four, but along the way, we can find pieces of the puzzle to identify Yunior as the author of Oscar’s story from the clues given. The introduction to the story, as we come to realize later in the novel, is written from the perspective of the more mature Yunior, the teacher and the writer. For example, from the

Although we may be a diverse nation, we are very much segregated because of class. David Brooks asks “How many times have you seen someone renounce a high paying job or pull his child from an elite college on the grounds that these were things were bad for equality?”(232-233). Granted class does help establish a community with common people but it also segregates people from others unlike. Classification only promotes narrow mindedness and generational ignorance over time. “It’s appalling that many of us are so narrow minded that we can’t tolerate a few ideas significantly different from our own” (233).

What drives Sophia? She, unlike many female characters of the Enlightenment Era, is incredibly complex, agentive, and realistic. She contains multitudes, wishing for romance and scorn, loving to love and to manipulate, in a way she herself doesn't quite understand. And that, more than anything, is what she wants: to be understood.

The story is about immigrant Dominican culture. This story has been written with an 80’s language or dialect. The main character Yunior grew up in a dysfunctional family, and as a latino it wasn’t hard for me to step into this boy’s mind while reading the story. Yunior is In a very difficult age where he’s not a man yet but don’t have the inocesense of a child either. I really hated the feeling I got when reading the part where it says that Yunior and his big brother knew about his dad’s affair, because Yunior was too closed to his mother and knowing this and not being able to tell him made him feel guilty.

Classism is real and its effects can be felt in virtually every aspect of society. Public school is not free of its reigns. Wealthier students are significantly more likely to receive a better foundational education than their poorer classmates; students in urban schools frequently have

In Yunior’s case he struggles with his image, and mood. He already shows traits of inferiorty due to his absence, that Yunior is actually unintentionally showing. He says that he is used to crouching over the latrines. He believes now that he will always be poor. He does not make it clear if the father is helping out the mother in anyway, but his representation of his mother describes a woman who is in a lot of pain due having the responsibility of raising two boys in the face of crippling poverty. It is hard to get assistance from the national administration in countries that are still establishing their economy like the Dominican Republic. The mother’s carry the scroce of what the fathers did, and take it out on the children.

He comments that there is a drift that happens between him and his mother. The mother as aresult of the father’s absence has to work in factory that produces chocolate. Yunior take on this is “We could never get Mami to do anything after work, even cook dinner, she didn’t want to hear about our problems,” (Diaz, pp.73, 1996). The family disruption is causing the mother and son have communication issues, which making Yunior have feelings of forlorn. He thinks that his mother is ignoring, when in reality she is does not have the energy to be a mother and worker. This is why the absence of the father is detrimel to Yunior. Rocio G. Davis explains there is irony that the mobility of the father causes the families immobility,” (Davis, pp.175,

In conclusion in each class there is important knowledge you need to know to blend in. The nature of this knowledge directly correlates with its respective class. Someone of a lower class might gain this knowledge by connections or experiences to function in a higher class but one of an upper class might not know the ways of a lower because they did not rise from it or were not born into it depending on how they see themselves. Access to these classes aren’t generally equal in the US because of the flaws in the system we have now like unlivable wages and lack of

American culture has overestimated the opportunity and mobility open to individual achievement. This means we have an absence of class discourse in American culture. Classes are social categories that cannot be understood in terms of individual motives and desires. Americans tend to blame themselves for their failures, or downward mobility. The chances for success are limited not just because of individual failure, but because individuals are engaged in an arena of gender, race and ethnic origins. This is known as “the hidden injuries of class”(Ortner, pg. 171)

Where do you consider yourself to be in the class system? Are you a member of the upper class, middle class, or lower class? If you’re a part of the upper class your associated with being rich or born in to a rich family. Then there is the working middle class also know as the “ white collar workers.” Most people of our society would fit into this category of the class system. Lastly there is the lower class that consists of the homeless, those with low-paying jobs, and other who are struggling to survive. Most people don’t bother to think that these different classes could be leading toward social inequalities. Well, this is reality people are being treated differently because of where they stand on this class scale. Conflict pertaining to these differences occurs in our personal and professional aspects of our life. Many people believe that social class inequalities have been eliminated, however this issue continues to exist within the different classes due to a various number of reasons.

Although class isn’t everything, it is, unfortunately, a perception based solely on appearance that separates individuals from each other and places them in “groups”. People are