Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Mask of The Man

The relationship between men and women in the Dominican culture is one that contradicts all social norms that us Americans are accustomed to. In the eyes of the adulterous, Dominican man, physical abuse is frequently the seen as a solution to any problem within the family. Dominican masculinity, the most common mask worn in Drown, inspires the short story “How To Date a Brown Girl.” Yunior reveals his compelling “masculinity” over women at restaurants when we orders “everything in [his] busted up Spanish. [He lets] her correct him if she’s Latina and amaze her if she’s black” (145). This shows that Dominican men treat women as predictable objects that can be controlled with the right formula.

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao divulges into the meaning of sex between a man and a woman. Sex to a Dominican man is frequently all about the physical benefits, and not about the intimacy, or love. Oscar is portrayed as a contradiction to the typical Dominican man; he develops strong feelings for Ybon. Sex with her exposes what real intimacy can lead to- “The beauty, the beauty!” (335).  Oscar is a crucial character that tells the reader a lot about the fragility of the façade that is put up by typical Dominican men. These men are hiding behind a mask of their masculinity, scared to reveal themselves to women; instead, they smack them around and cheat on them in hopes that they remain true to the Dominican culture of a man.

Yunior is such a complex character in This is How You Lose Her, portrayed as a Dominican man that fits the role only half the time. Yunior is truly a good man at heart- he is not physically abusive, he cannot lie to Magda when she catches him cheating, and he treats women with respect. But still, he is the classic Dominican cheater. And although you want to root for him and his honest ways, he does not stick by them when Alma catches him exclaiming, “Baby, this is part of my novel. This is how you lose her” (50). Alma’s character, sex crazed and dirty, is also a clear indication that Dominican men live behind a mask when it comes to their women. Yunior should be ecstatic that Alma is crazy about him, but instead he is emasculated by her and thus, un-Dominican. This fragility lends truth to the fact that Dominican men carry themselves the way they do because of societal and cultural norms.


Junot Diaz is a brilliant author who divulges into the Dominican man’s psyche, revealing the fragility in his macho image. They treat their wives and mistresses with lack of respect and loyalty because that is what Dominican men know. This three collections of short stories characterize and dissect the Dominican man, exposing his attitudes as a mask, worn only to uphold an image that was created by Dominican men for generations.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Old Habits Die Hard

The character of Yunior in Drown, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and This Is How You Lose Her, while different in some respects, remains relatively constant throughout all of the books. In each case, he is a Dominican man who spent his young life in the Dominican Republic and moved with his family to the United States as a child. Each story, he has an absentee father who shows up later in his life, a mother, and a brother named Rafa. However, it's not just the situations that Yunior is placed in that remain the same; certain aspects of Yunior's character are maintained throughout all three books.

Each Yunior is a distinct person, despite all of the similarities; they lead different lives and have different levels of success and overall happiness, yet some factors remain constant. The most important character trait that Yunior maintains throughout all of the books is his tendency to fall back on his old habits. This is displayed constantly in his inability to stick with anything, no matter how well things are going. Since he was raised with Dominican masculine ideals, Yunior tends to fall back hardest on the habits instilled by this upbringing, particularly cheating on his partners. All three Yuniors cheat excessively on their girlfriends, even the more redeemable Yunior of Oscar Wao. At the end of the novel, he says that he doesn't "run around after girls anymore. Not much anyway", right after describing his wife as a woman "whom I do not deserve" (Diaz 326). Despite his stability and happiness, Yunior is still willing to risk it all to keep up his old habit of cheating. In each book, Yunior cheats on at least one girlfriend, from Aurora in Drown to Magda in This Is How You Lose Her, despite his relative happiness in both relationships; cheating is just a habit that he cannot break.

Yunior also is complicit with cheating in each story. Despite the fact that his conscience knows its wrong, the Yunior in Drown "didn't talk much about the Puerto Rican woman", though his mother and aunt specifically ask him about his father's actions (Diaz 39). He understands how wrong his father's cheating is, yet refuses to bring it up because he was raised to keep silent about such matters, and this willing silence can be seen in all three books.

Finally, in each book, Yunior abuses some sort of substance, typically alcohol or marijuana. He turns to these substances in upsetting situations, such as after a breakup or when Rafa is dying. In This Is How You Lose Her, his depression after breaking up with his fiance is so bad that on Thanksgiving he managed to "drink [himself] into a stupor, spend two days recovering" (Diaz 183). The similar thing about all of the habits that Yunior falls back on is that they are harmful to him; the cheating makes him lose the people he cares about the substance abuse makes him unhappy, and in This Is How You Lose Her, suicidal and very sick. So why does Yunior keep his old, detrimental habits up? Perhaps it is because people always try to go back to what they know and understand. Because he was raised in the way that he was, Yunior seems to understand cheating and heavy drinking as ways to get rid of stress and make it all better. Despite his conscience telling him that his actions are wrong, Yunior cannot quit himself of these tendencies because old habits die hard.

Poor Yunior

Throughout Drown, Oscar Wao, and This Is How You Lose Her, one can see how Yunior’s chances at being a loving man are doused by his environment. Yunior frequently displays characteristics that deviate from the stereotypical Dominican male, however, he has been taught to repress his oddities and act as a macho man. One can only be left feeling that if Yunior had been given a chance with a different environment and culture, he would have been a loving and nurturing young man.
 In Drown, Yunior’s innocence is slowly chipped away by his father and Rafa’s behavior. When Yunior is being interrogated by his aunt, he narrates an internal conflict, “something told me to keep my mouth shut. Maybe it was family loyalty, maybe I just wanted to protect Mami or I was afraid that Papi would find out – it could have been anything really” (Diaz 39). Yunior, while clearly displaying his recognition that his family life was dysfunctional and a small desire to share that information, he has been taught by his surroundings to keep things under wraps. Earlier, Yunior had made the mistake of sharing his opinion of his father with an “outsider”, and Rafa quickly corrected this behavior, “Don’t you say that shit in front of people” (Diaz 38). As a result of these interactions, Yunior is taught to be closed off and reluctant to share any family problems or express his concern to anyone.
In Oscar Wao, Yunior’s true nature and personality is easier to pick up on and analyze throughout his writing. Yunior, deep down, is truly a nerd, just like Oscar. However, he has been taught by his peers that this sort of behavior is unacceptable and undesirable. As a result, he is hateful of that side of himself, shown when he talks about the sign on his and Oscar’s dorm room door, “Do you know what sign fool put up on our dorm door? Speak, friend, and enter. In fucking Elvish! (Please don’t ask me how I knew this. Please)” (Diaz 172). Yunior reveals a deeper side of himself in this narration, by acknowledging the fact he knew the sign was in elvish. However, he also is embarrassed of it, emploring the reader to not think too much on that fact. Yunior hides who he truly is from everyone. His negative reaction towards Oscar’s nerdiness is reinforced by his peers, “Actually, Melvin said, it’s gay-hay-hay” (Diaz 172). Melvin, in response to Oscar’s correction to Yunior, mocks him. This reveals how Yunior’s friends respond to this “outlandish” behavior among Dominicans, and as a desperate attempt to fit in, suppresses it. So, the reader can see the Yunior has been taught to hide his true character through Oscar Wao.

In This Is How You Lose Her, Yunior is becoming more like his father in the way he treats women. He cheats, he lies, but is still expectant of his woman to continue to stay with him. This is especially prevalent when Yunior reflects on himself after the encounter with Miss Lora, “Both your father and your brother were sucios […] sucios of the worst kind and now it’s official: you are one too, too. You had hoped the gene missed you, skipped a generation, but clearly you were kidding yourself” (Diaz 165). Yunior acknowledges that he has become like his father and brother, despite a strong desire to not become them. This shows Yunior’s helplessness in this situation: he clearly does not want to be a cheating scumbag, but he became one anyways. He is a victim of his environment, and his true self will never have a chance to show as a result. Yunior has learned to suppress his quirkiness, hide his true feelings and concerns, developed a lack of trust for confiding in others, and has become a mirror image of his father and brother, despite his deepest wishes. 

Good Yunior v Bad Yunior

Throughout these two collections of short stories and one novel the reader is taken on a journey through the lives of Dominican-Americans. The main narrator, Yunior, is a very dynamic character in that it is difficult to tell whether or not he is truly a good person. Early on in Drown we see that Yunior is raised as a tough, masculine Dominican man. His male role models are first his father and then one that is more involved, his brother Rafa. It is easy to classify Yunior as a typical Dominican player who treats women as objects and does not truly care about them. Throughout all three stories he tells tales of his cheating escapades and his lying and mistreatment of girlfriends. However he also tells of some women that he truly cares about. These women such as Magda, and Lola, Yunior is truly remorseful when he screws up. For this reason I believe that deep down, he is truly a good person. But he works so hard to prove to others that he is what a Dominican man should be that his goodness is smothered. It would be easier to validate Yunior's goodness if he didn't continually do the same thing to his girlfriends. Time and time again Yunior builds up credibilty with women and improves his actions, yet in the end the relationship always ends on a bad note. It's almost as if his upbringing prevents him from ever having a truly healthy relationship, because he simply does not know what one is. Growing up he saw his father mistreat and cheat on his mother, he is constantly seeing his brother take advantage of all his girls and all his friends encourage this behavior as well. When he is upset about Magda his friends implore him to forget about her and find another girl. So even though Yunior really wants to be a good person, it is society that is holding him back. Had he of been born into a different situation, I believe that he would be an upstanding man. It is difficult to say whether he truly is good or not but in my opinion he is a good person that continually makes the same mistakes.

Yunior as a Double-Edged Sword

Throughout Drown, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and This Is How You Lose Her, Yunior vacillates between being a likeable young man caught in the crossfires between his inevitable Dominican masculinity and his revulsion with the world and people he came from. In Drown, Yunior is especially likeable when he talks about how all he wanted was to play with Rafa, but Rafa ignored him during the year until they got to their relative’s house in the summer. Drown’s Yunior seems like a helpless child, between getting abused by his father, ignored by his mother and brother, uncomfortable in front of girls and his extended family, and vomiting every time he enters his father’s car. This more vulnerable Yunior as a young boy makes him a more likeable and complex character than many other men we encounter in Drown. In a similar manner, the Yunior in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao seems quite likeable. Personally, I though Yunior’s shining moment here was when he decides to take Oscar running in an effort to get him in better shape. Now although this was an effort to change someone who didn’t really want it, I thought that in this scene Yunior seemed like he really cared about Oscar and was finally standing up for the both of them, for once. To me, Yunior’s efforts to help Oscar made him an immensely more likeable man than the one we previously knew. In addition, the Yunior of This is How You Lose Her is also more likeable than some other Dominican males we met previously. In this work, Yunior is frightened at Rafa’s sickness, and does everything he can to keep Rafa home and healthy. He always defends Rafa in front of their mother and tries to rescue Rafa at the moments when he cannot save himself. Again, this Yunior, as the vulnerable, scared baby brother, is a more sympathetic character than the other versions of Yunior we have met.
However, Yunior always seems to do something (most often involving women) to mess up his own likeability. In Drown, Yunior’s dalliances with Aurora make him seem like any typical Dominican male: mean, misogynistic, and careless of all other people. His drug dealing and abusive treatment of Aurora are irreconcilable with the boy who vomited in the VW and only craved his father’s love. Furthermore, Yunior in Oscar Wao also has his ugly moments. Yunior always states that his intentions were good, but between his treatment of Lola and his apathy for Oscar after the suicide attempt make this hard to believe. It’s fine for Yunior to say he had good intentions, but his lack of actual action makes him quite unlikeable. Finally, in This is How You Lose Her, Yunior’s last chapter seems to demolish any likeability he had previously constructed. To begin, the chapter is titled “The Cheater’s Guide to Love.” Yunior is still bumbling his way through life, cheats on the girl he loves the most, and then tries to make himself feel better by trying to sleep with everything that walks his way. He acts like a typical Dominican male, with no respect for women, only bemoaning his own fate. Again, this Yunior is immensely unlikeable. In each Diaz work, Yunior is torn between the two edges of his identity, often uncomfortable with his Dominican reputation and culture but never able to escape it, and thus we are torn between liking and sympathizing with Yunior and discarding him as a typical Dominican male.

Diaz's Take on Women



While Diaz frequently contains stories about women, it is rare that these women fall outside of two categories: being involved in an abusive relationship, and having previously left one behind. This is a reflection of the culture he grew up in, and the expectations placed on men, but it is also what women expect from relationships.

In Drown, the primary examples are Yunior’s mother and Aurora. Both are involved in abusive relationships, although different kinds. Where Yunior’s mother often does nothing to stand up to her husband, Aurora fights back: “She tried to jam a pen in my thigh, but that was the night I beat her chest black-and-blue” (Drown 52). However, neither actively tries to get out of the situation. They believe that all men behave in this way. Similar to Yunior, these are the dynamics of every relationship they’ve seen, and they believe it is normal. Despite behaving differently, both women are complicit, displaying the cultural mindset about abuse and its perpetrators.

In Oscar Wao, each woman behaves differently in regards to abuse. La Inca will not beat her daughter; Beli does not acknowledge that the Gangster would ever hurt her even as it’s happening; Lola at one point ends up in a relationship in which she fears for her own safety. Abuse is a part of their lives even if they actively try to avoid it, and once it is there they do not try to stop it. La Inca is afraid and sends Beli away, but does not attempt to stop the Gangster. Beli moves on and lives in fear and despair in America. Lola, in the end, is the only one who seems to finally fight off the abuse in leaving Yunior for good, ending up with a man who presumably respects her. Even then, she cared deeply for Yunior and they remain friends even after he has hurt her, and she does not completely leave those who have hurt her in the past. These three women “embraced the amnesia that was so common throughout the Islands” and forget the abuse they’ve seen or experienced (Wao 359).

In This is How You Lose Her, the female characters all suffer through various forms of abuse, be they emotional or physical. When it comes to Yunior, they walk away and end up with someone else, but in the case of Rafa, all of his girlfriends are loyal to him even after he has hurt them, just as he remains loyal to Pura. Yasmin, the only female narrator, continues to see a man despite knowing that he has a wife and child back in the Dominican Republic. She knows better than to expect something more from him, just as she grew accustomed to stories of rape and abuse from other Dominican women. This behavior is normal and mostly left unaddressed throughout Diaz’s final novel, and the characters are accepting of it, even if they do not agree. This is what they have been raised to accept.

Representation Does Not Equate With Approval

Diaz created a sexist character that lives and grows across his three novels.  Though Yunior, and other characters of his creation exhibit intense sexism in his books, the books as a whole are not sexist.  When a male author introduces female characters in his writing, it is often for purely sexual reasons.  Women are introduced in order to seduce the men.  Their purpose in male-written literature is limited.  Diaz combats this with his stories, and makes his stance on sexism in his culture clear through his writing.
Throughout Yunior’s narratives he is continuously unhappy with the decisions he makes.  In This is How You Lose Her, he cheats on his girlfriend, Magda, and eventually ends up crying over the end of their relationship (pg. 25).  Yunior is saddened at being caught again by another girlfriend, Alma, later in the novel (pg. 47).  He sees the errors in his actions, yet cannot do anything to stop, or does not know how to stop.  Yunior describes women solely on their appearance.  He describes Nilda in This is How You Lose Her by saying, “a chest you wouldn’t believe – I’m talking world-class,” (pg. 29).  His lack of imagination inhibits his ability to think of women as anything more than objects.  Though Diaz writes from this character’s perspective, he is not condemning himself to these views.  He makes it clear that Yunior is unhappy with his decisions and limited by his lack of imagination to exhibit his opinion on his culture.  He means to bring light to the sexism and social situations in his culture and does not mean to approve them.  If good things happened to the men who treated the women badly, then he would be communicating a different message to his audience.  Diaz doesn’t want to make his opinion too clear though; he wants his audience to react on their own to the situations, which is why he leaves it somewhat ambiguous.
Diaz’s stance on sexism is clearer in “Otravida, Otravez” in This is How You Lose Her.  The story is from a woman’s point of view and it allows us to see that she is more than her appearance.  She isn’t romanticized.  She’s sensible and seen as a human being.  And she has empathy for others, which is something that Yunior lacks.  She feels a connection to Samantha, because she reminds her of herself and how she used to live (pg. 73).

Diaz wants to communicate the hardships that have occurred in his culture and are often overlooked.  He wants his audience to form their own opinion on the situations he exhibits.  He also wants to point out to men that don’t think they’re such bad guys, like Yunior in This is How You Lose Her (pg. 3), that they may need to reconsider.  If they do nothing to stray from the entrapment of their culture, then they will fall prey and resemble the characters in some of the stories.  And once a man is trapped in the ways of his culture, he feels like there is nothing he can do to change, and wonders of a time he could have been a different man (pg.85). 

Powerful Women

            In all three of Junot Díaz’s books, he includes characters that epitomize powerful women. These women have a few attributes in common that enable them to become strong and mighty. They possess a support system consisting of friends and family, are able to use their sexuality as a tool of power, and they are brave and they fight back against the forces that try to control them.
            Virta is only powerful when she has a group of people who support her and are available when needed. When Virta moves to the United States for the first time, she is desperately lonely and she “miss[es] her father and her friends, [her] neighbors” (Díaz, This is How you Lose Her, 142). Lacking her support system, she “let[s] [the] father roll over her” (Díaz 142). She is weak in his presence and acquiesces to his will. She finds it impossible to be strong when she is facing adversity alone.  The benefits of a support system are exemplified when Virta is faced with Rafa’s illness and his subsequent impulsive behavior.  The Horsefaces are a constant presence throughout the story and Mami’s strength is shown in her ability to kick out Rafa despite her love for him (Díaz 110). Rafa “looked shitsmacked” (Díaz 110) when he realized that his mother was not going to give in.  She is able to be powerful and mighty when she has people backing her up and encouraging her.  Even though her past habit was to comply with Rafa’s wants, she is brave and sticks to her beliefs.
            In addition to relying on friends and family, powerful women are also courageous and independent. After Papi leaves, Mami takes responsibility and works “ten-, twelve-hour shifts for almost no money at all” (Díaz, Drown, 71). She supports herself financially without a husband. Her ability to recover from the loss and provide for her family is indicative of her inner strength. Other women in the books may have resorted to finding another man as soon as possible or may have succumbed to a downward spiral. Even though “men were drawn to her” (Diaz 73), she chooses to remain alone and be the sole provider for her family.
            Sexuality is used as a tool by many women in the stories in order to get what they want. It does not take long to realize that with the appearance of her new body “she finally had power” (Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, 94). She sees the future that is now possible with her femininity and took advantage. Especially during the Era of Trujillo, women were powerless and were treated as objects by men.  Beli uses what was saw as a burden by relatives (Díaz 94), as a superpower that would lead her to freedom.  She is powerful, not because she is attractive, but because she understands how to use her sexuality to her advantage. She maintains control over herself and does not let others tell her what to do.

The Destructive Power of Dominican Masculinity


Throughout all of his works, Diaz depicts a contradiction in the behavior of Dominican women. The Dominican women surrounding Yunior have seemingly strong personalities, yet they fall victim to the destruction of men. Diaz depicts women who lose themselves because of the actions of men. In This is How You Lose Her, we see this in Magda and Nilda. Both women are far from the hopeless romantic, naïve type. Yet, both women are wrecked by their relations with Yunior and his family. Why is it that men have such strong influence over the fate of women in this novel? It is clear that he is depicting that not only does this sexually aggressive behavior of Dominican men make them masculine, but it also assures their control over the women around them.
Yunior initially describes Magda as “the nerd every librarian knows”(5). She is a “forgiving soul” and is adamant about assuring Yunior of her love (5). Magda dotes on her beau, while Yunior uses much harsher words and talks in a more sexualized way. Magda is a polar opposite to the adult Yunior we have seen in The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Everything she does at the novel’s onset is out of some pure kind of love that is rare for Diaz’s work. However, because of Yunior’s actions, she is changed. Magda “started turning into a different Magda” (6). She “cuts her hair, buys better makeup, rocks new clothes” and starts listening to the opinions of her girlfriends rather than her own feelings. However, after Yunior displays his Dominican masculine behavior of sexual aggression, Magda becomes a different woman altogether. Dominican masculinity is so far-reaching that it changes the essence of who this character is. Magda loses her gentle nature and becomes more abrasive. She does not accept Yunior’s love easily and treats him with the bitterness his betrayal planted in her heart.
Nilda’s chapter opens with “Nilda was my brother’s girlfriend. This is how all these stories begin” (29). By beginning her story with this statement, Yunior is commenting on how the “story” of most Dominican women’s lives unfolds. It always begins with a man. In this case, Rafa is the perpetrator. It is interesting that Yunior recognizes his gender’s blame in the grand scheme of it all. This truly speaks to the novel’s message and helps to explain “how he lost her.” Nilda is initially described as “one of the quietest girls you’d ever meet” (29). However, after Nilda returns home from a group home, she changes. It is not coincidental that these changes occur alongside her sexual relations with “Tono and Nestor and Little Anthony from Parkwood” (30). Nilda conforms to her typical Dominican role as being something to be desired, a sexual being. Having run away from home, Nilda is seemingly desperate for affection and intimacy at this point and in Dominican culture, sex and intimacy seem to go hand in hand. After this sexual awakening, Nilda begins wearing sweatpants and iron maiden t-shirts. Instead of being quiet Nilda that Yunior watched from afar, she becomes someone hopping from man to man trying to find security. Similar to Magda, Nilda dotes on Rafa and longs to have an actual connection with him. She tells him about her dreams, but he simply blows her off. Yunior imagines what Rafa is thinking when the two are intimate and simply says, “Ain’t nothing like a fifteen-year-old with a banging body…” (36). Thus, once again, a woman is denied real affection and settles for sexuality, wrecking her compassionate nature. It is quite clear that Nilda never really moves on after her relationship with Rafa ends. Similar to other female Diaz characters, her growth is stunted by her relations with men.
Thus, through his female characters and this novel as a whole, Diaz is presenting the norm of Dominican masculinity as illogical. Diaz is sympathizing with the Dominican women who have been broken down my the aggression and betrayal of men.