The Other Ghetto Nerd

It is difficult to dispute the existence of a sci-fi loving, timid, nerdy side of Yunior's personality that comes through in the narration of Diaz's stories.  This partition of his personality is apparent throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, wherein the reader is treated to a heavy helping of Lord of the Rings, Fantastic Four, and Watchmen references interwoven into the context of the book.  In This is How You Lose Her, Yunior speaks freely about his passion for books in stark contrast with his steroid-fueled weight lifting habits and passion for cooking.  Lastly, Drown frequently takes the point of view of a young Yunior, through which the reader is able to more closely examine the origins of Yunior's more alternative and bookish habits.  However, it is not made clear just how Yunior develops these interests, or why they become a more significant part of his writing style in later works.

Diaz’s first work, Drown, illustrates in great detail the harsh and unpleasant realities of adolescence in the Dominican Republic.  Through Yunior’s narration, the reader can tell that his natural inclination towards introversion is tempered by his desire to emulate the more traditional masculinity exhibited by his brother.  "I had an IQ that would have broke you in two, but I would have traded it in for a halfway decent face in a second," (This is How You Lose Her 31). Fear of physical harm and the desire to attract women is what primarily drives Yunior to construct a “tough guy” front to his personality, and he learns to do this from Rafa in the absence of a biological father.  Troublingly, Rafa learns this type of violent and aggressive behavior from the boys he meets while wandering the campo, many of whom likely have abandonment issues of their own.  Once the family is reunited, we see that Yunior’s stories focus on the actions of his father, but his passion for books remains and becomes even more clear in the telling of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  In this story, Yunior incorporates explicit quotations from science fiction works, including an excerpt from Watchmen at the end of the book:

“Veidt says: ‘I did the right thing, didn’t I? It all worked out in the end.’ And Manhattan, before fading from our Universe, replies: ‘In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.’”

At a loss for words concerning the end of Oscar’s life, Yunior turns again to the literature of his childhood.  It provides him with a way of explaining the difficult facts of life, those he faces without much guidance from parental figures.  Yunior is forced to refer to the authors of his beloved fiction for direction in his life, an unfortunate byproduct of a third-world childhood.