Desperate Times - Blog Post 3

In Junot Díaz's Drown, one of the most prevalent themes is that of poverty.  From the very start of the book, one sees Yunior's Tío saying "That's why I have to find myself some big spenders," referring to his roosters (8).  The only way for Tío to make real money is through cock fighting, just as in "Aurora" the narrator sells drugs for a living.  As the stories progress, Díaz shows how poverty makes that progression as well from the Dominican Republic to the United States.

Yunior also describes in "Fiesta, 1980" his "steel-lined stomach. A third-world childhood could give you that" (29).  Later, he mentions the "annual case of worms" he and his brother got, having to sacrifice dinners in order to get the medicine (71).  Food is an essential part of Yunior's life: at all the gatherings, he describes what food is eaten and whether or not it was normal for the situation.  In "Ysrael," Yunior pesters Rafa to use the Coke refund on food, when Rafa thinks it would be better spent on drinks for thirst (10).  Both boys are trying to determine what would suit their needs best: never does it cross their minds to spend the money on anything except what they need, in this case also to accomplish getting to Ysrael.  Their poverty is what determines their priorities, because they know what it's like to sacrifice food to even have the money for medicine.  They react to their situation as they know best because they have been living in that poverty their entire lives.

The stories "Aurora" and "Drown" further emphasize the nature of poverty for Hispanic--especially Dominican--youth by showing how it changes, but does not go away, in the United States.  For them, money is obtained through selling drugs and theft; in "Aurora," the narrator describes "the regular pickup, enough to last us the rest of the month" (47).  The narrator and Aurora have a habit of going to abandoned buildings to have sex, a process which clearly shows how poor they actually are.  Their ways of thinking are completely different from people with more money.  Díaz is blunt about how things are different between Dominican and American-born children: the former must live by a different set of rules from the start, and are therefore forced into lives harder than anyone else's.