This Is How You Lose Her By Junot Diaz Essay

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely” (Unknown). People change and grow because of the challenges and conflicts they have in life. A person I know that has changed and grown a lot from a conflict is my mom because a couple years ago she ripped a tendon in her back, and she had to get many surgeries and wasn’t able to walk for a while. She grew a lot from that experience and now she can walk and is still getting better. In “The Street” by Richard Wright the young boy narrator has to overcome his fears and fight some thugs in order to buy his mom groceries. He faces an incredible challenge that makes him have to change extremely quickly. In “First Love” by Judith Ortiz Cofer the girl narrator has a crush on a boy that is a couple

Aubrey’s mum turned up and told Aubrey that she didn’t come because some days are too hard

The theme of education is strong in all the past readings and research throughout the class. Institutionalized learning versus self-learning and the fact that education through institutions can sometimes fail the individual in the sense of systematic learning compared to academic knowledge. In Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro, the institution of Hailsham helps shelter the clones, yet inhibits them. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Creature learns languages from his neighbors. The lack of an academic system causes a form of self-teaching. While self-learning is a form of self-realization as mentioned in Walter Kirn’s article “Lost In Meritocracy” Kirn learns from his experiences, Ellison from Invisible Man learns “street smarts” similar to the clones in Never Let Me Go in which the clones are also self-taught. In Frankenstein, the Creature learns from Victor, who is a selfish man who never loves the Creature. A cultured education is stemming from a higher self of education, which is self-experience enlightenment, instead of academic institution whose instructors do not know how to convey the information correctly in the example in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, the guardians not being able to teach the clones of their origins or properly educate them to be human. Consequently, producing the clones have a wrapped sense of information and education which makes them unnatural in mannerisms.

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.

Lust is having a self-indulgent sexual desire. Susan Minot portrayed the mind of a promiscuous high school female perfectly. Lust is powerful and seductive, but it's inherently selfish and opposed to love. For many girls who are having sex with different boys they can identify with the desire to be needed. The characters in "Lust" are written in a way to highlight the dysfunction and disconnection of everyone involved. The narrator herself is nameless and faceless, making the reader believe that she has already somehow disappeared, just as the men in her life have made her disappear after having sex. Similarly, the men are listed in a brief and are identified only by their sexual acts or by other, easily objectified characteristics. What

There were several short stories to choose from but the number one story that stood out to me was How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Hafie. This is a very interesting story that caught my attention from the title. This short story is written by Junot Diaz and he is a detailed author that gives visual understanding for the reader. This story is mainly about this young Hispanic man who is giving his point of view of each girl when dating them. He explains the ethnic differences of each girl and explains each characteristic and personality trait and gives advice on how to approach and view each girl. His judgments and personal experience of each girl gives specific stereotypes of girls who fall under the ethnic category. He is entitled to view these girls as the common stereotypes he believes fits them because of how other people and himself views them.

When I was a child my parents pushed me toward physical activities such as football and other sports, while on the other hand my sister was pushed toward things like music and arts. Whenever I would hurt myself my parents would laugh it off, but they were quick to aid my sister in the event she was hurt. As most people know, women and men are treated differently in how they should act. Men cannot show their emptions, while women are expected to be emotional. Society has strict guidelines on what it means to be a man and a woman, and these guidelines can have negative effects on both genders.

The story is narrated in the first person by Yunior, the story's main protagonist.Thus far, we have been discussing the inner

Throughout her childhood, Jeannette is faced with instability. Her parents had a very unique style that could be classified as “hands off” parenting. For example, Rose tells Jeanette that “If you don’t want to sink you better learn to swim… That’s one lesson that every parent needs to teach their child” (Walls 137). Instead of growing up in a traditional house, Jeannette and her family constantly moved from town to town. When her mother got bored, or her father got in too many bar fights, Jeannette was forced to pick up her life and move to another small desert town. Due to her nomadic lifestyle, Jeannette refrained from establishing deep friendships amongst her school and

Having grown up fatherless in a household full of insolent men who are besieging his mother and consuming his inheritance, he feels totally powerless.

At times, one can wonder what drives a person not to want more from life. Yunior is an unmotivated young man, who appears to not have much going for him. He does not have people who encourage him to work hard, or do something better with his life. The people he surrounds himself with are not of good influence on him. “Me and Beto used to steal like mad from these places, two, three hundred dollars of shit in an outing.” (Drown). Only knowing a life of wrong doings.

Yunior’s lack of motivation to move upward is due the fact that he acknowledges that he is stuck. If there is one thing that the States have taught him it is that he is destined to fail. Recalling a memory about the shuttle launches Yunior’s teacher compares him and his peers to the shuttles. “A few of you are going to make it. Those are the orbiters. But the majority of you

feel protected and loved tending to get “stuck” in the relationship where their needs were not met

Some ethno-cultural factors that could have impacted Ennis is the fact his father immigrated from Eastern Europe and due to culture, doesn't speak about his feelings for his son often. Lastly, many decisions could have led to Ennis' situation. His mother has a history of depression and anxiety. She also committed suicide. Those who have parents with mental illnesses or addictions are predisposed to these illnesses. The breakdown of the family unit along with Ennis' lack of support in school could have put stress on him triggering his predisposed anxiety/depression. In conclusion I think Ennis felt very lonely after facing multiple cases of rejection. His parents divorced, his father couldn't be around and his mother committed suicide. Along with this he had no friends at a new school and no support or push to continue his education. This is why Ennis ended up in a situation like

Sharon Olds’ poem “Sex Without Love” wonders at the ability for two people to have sex and not involve emotions or pretenses of love. The poem argues that it is better to have sex without love under the premise that love is a false savior for people, and everyone is all alone anyhow. In other words, the claim is that personal interactions do not serve a purpose other than being a distraction, and they will inevitably end. However, the notion that attachment and love are false hopes for people and each person is all alone does not account for the inevitability of human interactions and the underlying importance of relationships. While the poem does not give its definition of being alone, complete isolation is virtually impossible and leads