Blog Post 3/11/14

In Drown, This is How You Lose Her, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Yunior’s attitude toward women is consistently misogynistic. For the majority of the three novels, he considers them to be sex objects created simply for his use. He affirms this belief in “How to Date a Brown girl”, creating a guide to dating women based on their skin color. He states, “if the girl is white you’ll at least get a handjob” (Drown 144). Yunior treats different races of women as if they are different brands that come with manuals. Yunior continues this misogyny in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, constantly referring to women as “pussy” or “bitches”.  In addition, Yunior is consistently willing to cheat on the women he dates, a continuation of the culture he was raised in. Yunior goes on to state “I couldn’t not get ass, even when I tried” (196). Yunior’s attitude toward women is again revealed through his word choice, crudely referring to women based on physical attributes and rarely describing their personality or his emotions toward them.

Yunior undergoes a shift in attitudes during This is How You Lose Her, becoming more self aware of how he is treating women, and what he truly wants from women. He follows the traditional pattern of cheating on his girlfriend. When Magda, his girlfriend, finds out that he has cheated, he begins putting in more effort than he ever has before. He states “Magda’s my heart” (6).  Yunior openly recognizes that he has feelings for Magda, and goes out of his way to keep her, a major difference from the Yunior in the other novels. Previously, Yunior would simply accept the end of his relationship and continue with other girls. With Magda, he begs for her back and makes legitimate changes in an attempt to continue dating her. He realizes that he is looking for something beyond the physical act of sex, and knows that he has found it in Magda.

Even after his relationship ends, Yunior does not break the pattern of infidelity with future girlfriends. He does not recognize why the cheating is wrong, and in this way is the same Yuinor as in previous novels. What separates Yunior in This is How You Lose Her is the knowledge that he does not want to lose the woman he is losing.