Vulgarity and Aggression's Effect on Childhood in Drown

            At the beginning of Drown, Yunior describes his behavior towards his father as “strange or contradictory” (27). Yunior’s home life is full of aggression and vulgarity. Because of this, he does not seem to have a childhood or healthy development. Yunior is forced to be an “adult.” The real problem is that his role models, his father and Rafa, do not treat Yunior as a child or set a real example for him. In result, Yunior's love, initially in the form of his affection for his father, seems "strange and contradictory" because he has never been taught the proper way to connect to other human beings. 

We are first introduced to Papi, Yunior’s father, when he returns home from seeing his mistress. Rather than help his son properly develop, Papi damages his son’s evaluation of himself. In the incident in which Mami feeds Yunior before a car trip, Yunior says, “I should have reminded her… but I wasn’t that sort of son” (25). He feels guilty for eating a meal because his nausea will inconvenience his father. This affects his view of himself as a son. When Yunior makes a mistake, Rafa backs away in claim of “collateral damage.” Instead of breaking a cycle of violence and aggression, everyone seems to back away and sweep outbursts under the rug. How is Yunior supposed to have a real childhood if he is forced to assume the same victim position as his mother and siblings do? Rather than live in a nurturing environment and play with the local children like he wants, Yunior struggles for his father’s affection. When Papi is not aggressive, Yunior attributes his demeanor to thoughts of the “Puerto Rican woman.” Thus, in Yunior’s mind, the only time his father is peaceful is when he is being somewhat vulgar with thoughts of his mistress Because of his father’s demeanor, Yunior lacks a real understanding of a family dynamic. This initial grasp at affection is a common theme that will affect Yunior’s behavior in the rest of the story. If the basis of love is not learned as a child, then how can Yunior develop into an adult male who can love others?

Not only are the males he is surrounded with aggressive, but they are vulgar. We have seen Papi’s inappropriate behavior in seeing the other woman, but the words of Rafa and Papi reveal a lack of respect for women. It is common in these characters’ dialect to use vulgar language to describe females, and there is no value for the act of sex as well. Papi stares at the Puerto Rican woman like “she is the last piece of chicken on earth” (36). He is lustful, not loving. So, once again, Yunior’s development is impeded by a lack of understanding of love. In describing Rafa, Yunior says less about his personality and more about his aggressive acts and taste for women’s physiques. This is how he initially describes those closest to him. Thus, this is what Yunior knows about development and becoming a man. In such an environment, how can a child properly develop the ability to connect to others? Thus far, Yunior has learned nothing about how to love another human being properly because all of his male role models display vulgarity and aggression.