Drown By Junot Diaz

I still wanted him to love me, something that never seemed strange or contradictory until years later, when he was out of our lives” but that seems like too much to ask. His father does not only treat him like crap at home but in public too. At the party, Papi humiliates Yunior in front of everyone when he tells him “If you eat anything, I am going to beat you. ¿Entiendes? I nodded. And if your brother gives you any food, I will beat him too. Right here in

It is not just the language of the Dominican culture that we find characters struggling to hold onto in Díaz’s Drown. We also find that the characters walk a fine line of defining themselves as newly Dominican American, and it seems they feel pressured to leave behind their old ways and traditions to join their new society. In the short story “Fiesta, 1980,” we find many examples of the family being torn between their Dominican customs and assimilating to their new American life. This story begins with the explanation of Papi’s most prized possession: a brand-new, lime-green, Volkswagen van. Much to Yunior’s chagrin (due to the fact that he gets sick every time he rides in the vehicle), this van means a lot to Papi, because to him, it represents an American family. According to John Riofrio (2008), “it[the van] is the embracing of the American way which has reenabled Papi’s masculinity,” (p. 33). After arriving at their Tia and Tio’s home for the party, Yunior sneers at his relatives’ apartment stating, “the place had been furnished in Contemporary Dominican Tacky” (p. 32). It seems as though Yunior, after only a short period in America, is already feeling embarrassed by his culture’s traditions. This chapter of the book also discusses the betrayal of Yunior’s father to his family, by having an affair with a Puerto Rican woman, whom

Here we are revealed more about human nature. Just like any society that instills fear into its followers or citizens that is exactly what the father does with his family. The father is the figure of power of this family and instead of leading with love and kindness he demonstrates his power through fear and dominance. We are able to see that the family in itself is a whole and loves each other, yet there is this rift between each family member that is threatening to tear it apart. For example, when Yunior gets in trouble with his father and his brother is around instead of standing with Yunior and speaking up Rafa backs away and avoids any confrontation with their father in order to avoid his wrath. This makes Yunior look down on his brother in a sense that Rafa doesn’t have his back at times when he needs him most, so he truly can’t trust him (Shreve & Nguyen, 2006). This is just the small part of the family for there are even parts of the whole family that act in a similar fashion.

His survival is heavily influenced by every choice he makes, from ignoring the exhortations to escape impending danger to choosing to stay with his father in spite of difficulties. His experience with the Holocaust directly shapes his role as a frontline fighter for recognition of Holocaust victims. In moving to Canada, I also shaped my role in society. My skills, such as playing sports; hobbies, such as reading; and characteristics, such as persistence and studious attitude have all developed due to my moving to Canada. My exposure to a life so plentiful in opportunities has also caused me to take many things for granted. Events in people’s lives shape who they become. Some of these circumstances are brought about by the decisions of others, while the majority of occurrences are caused by deliberate choices. These decisions can shape destiny in a life-or-death situation or a can be like a small, yet equally profound, choice to smile at a stranger. While some decisions are out of one’s hands, a conscious effort to have a positive outlook on life can still influence destiny. Like a rudder, daily decisions made with a positive mentality can steer people to a prosperous life. It does not do well to dwell on what may have happened, but rather on how the life one creates can be consequential in further extending the development of

"The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you."(Diaz)

As children grow up in a dysfunctional family, they experience trauma and pain from their parent’s actions, words, and attitudes. With this trauma experienced, they grew up changed; different from other children. The parent’s behavior affects them and whether they like it or not, sometimes it can influence them, and they can react against it or can repeat it. In Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta, 1980”, is presented this theme of the dysfunctional family. The author presents a story of an adolescent Latin boy called Junior, who narrates the chronicles of his dysfunctional family, a family of immigrants from the Dominican Republic driving to a party in the Bronx, New York City. “Papi had been with

Everyday our environmental factors continue to influence our individual personality development. It is important note that even though a group of people share an environment each person can have different experiences. Our environmental influences consist of any outside influences and conditions that affect of life and development. Some examples of environmental influences that shape who we become are authority figures, family members, communities, and our peers.

Growing up poor in the Dominican Republic strongly influenced the choices Yunior makes later in his life. In “Aguantando” Yunior recalls about how poverty was a part of his life. Díaz writes, “We were poor. The only way we could have been

To practice machismo, also known as masculinity in a Dominican culture, males have to hide their flaws and act a certain way. If men express their un-masculine nature, they will be seen as expressing their weakness. In Drown written by Junot Díaz, contains many stories about Dominican Republic male struggles as an immigrant in America. One of the struggles Díaz expresses in his text is appearing masculine in society’s eyes. From the story “Drown”, the unnamed narrator expresses what it means to be masculine. “Boyfriend” is a story about another unnamed narrator observing his neighbor’s relationship, and comparing it to his own past. Yunior, the narrator of the story “Negocios”, explains the history of his father Papi, also known as Ramón. Society creates many definitions for what it means to be masculine, leading the narrator from “Drown”, the narrator from “Boyfriend”, and Ramón struggling to choose between doing what they want for themselves, or do what society wants to see.

The only way to keep a close connection with family is to love one another. As a kid, Yunior feels like he can’t leave his family or else he will lose them. Yuniors Tía has noticed that he isn’t acting normal. She feels like something is bothering Yunior and that something is happening. When she asks how his home life is and if anything

An anonymous person once said, “Who gossips with you will gossip of you”. This quote is saying that whoever shares gossip with an individual about someone or something will not hesitate when talking about the same person with another individual. Gossip is in no way a new idea, since many people at one point in their lives have taken part in a conversation about another individual’s personal business. Every day, especially in modern day society, many men and women are susceptible to gossip and its consequences. One major consequence includes false information being spread around, which causes people to become misled; this may eventually cause loss of a person’s reputation. The way gossip can affect many different things is presented in a plethora of scenarios in life and literature. An analysis of literary terms and techniques in Leonardo Sciascia’s novel To Each His Own demonstrates the idea that gossip in small towns may sometimes be extremely virulent since it is spreading false information and can affect one’s reputation through the vilification of that person.

Finding what we think that we are worth can be a hard thing to do. Many of us think of ourselves as someone or something that is not worth anything; we constantly put ourselves down in comparison to other people. By doing this, we are evaluating ourselves on what we think we should be like, which is called self-definition; self- definition is basically us grading ourselves based on our social skills. This story, Marina, written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is a story of two people, one person specifically, who thinks less of himself than he should.

Lola is a girl how during the time she take care by herself and his brother. She work hard for herself because she hasn't the stereotype of typical Dominican woman like her mom. She had so many problems with her mom; she feel stressed and insufficient to do things alone and needed someone who could help or try to understand her situation. But her friend [Yunior] felt comfortable to help her because she support her each time that he need it. This friendship create in both something more than that: “ [Yunior] I had-all my great wonderful friends- only Lola came fuking through… Lola, who actually cried when she saw the state I was in. She was the one who took care of my sorry ass.” (Diaz 168) He is telling all the moments that Lola is there to take care for him and suggests thinks a bit of his life. Not matter what happens or the circumstance that she had, she supports him every time that he

Raffi reported when his parents were together both parents took care of him. The child stated during those years he cannot remember any nice things he did with his father. He has not had any nice experiences with his father. Raffi reported that his mother allowed his father to be this way. Raffi stated that his mother would try to “cheer him up” and be supportive of him.

Our mental health is just as essential as our physical health. When our body is damaged, we seek treatment and more often than not the road to recovery is straightforward. When our brain becomes damaged however, the answer to treatment is not always clear and what may work for one person isn’t guaranteed to work for the next. Advancements in scientific research have forged a new path for possible methods of treatment, though we are still left not fully understanding why our brains react the way they do. Free the Mind by Phie Ambo follows Dr. Richard Davidson, Emma Seppald and a handful of their research patients, as well as a young boy named Will. In the film, Davidson expresses that he believes meditation could play a key role in improving the mental health in both veterans suffering from PTSD and children facing disorders like ADHD. Phie Ambo’s film Free the Mind (2012) persuades the viewer to choose meditation for the improvement of mental health by providing emotional triggers and scientific research.