Blog Post Five

While Yunior treats women marginally better than the average Dominican male, he still displays many of the distinctive characteristics of Dominican male behavior. However, unlike most Dominican men encountered in the books, Yunior is able to realize how cruel his behavior has been. Despite helping a poor young Dominican girl escape her boss in Drown, Yunior generally does not treat women with much respect or care. He was nicer to this girl he had just met than most of the women he dated. Throughout the books, Yunior has cheated on Magda (Her 4), Alma (Her 49), “the ex” (Her 179), Lola (Wao 324), Paloma (Her 163), and Suriyan (Wao 198)—and those are just the girls he named—he was sleeping with plenty of other women. He even cheated on “the ex” with over fifty different women. (Her 179) The only woman he slept with that he actually treated well was the law student, but that was only because she was pregnant with what he believed was his child. He took her to her doctor appointments, payed for her medicine, let her move in with him, and gave up his bed for her. (Her 199-205) He did treat the law student well, but only because he wanted what was in the best interest of the child. Yunior does not seem to care about the law student much at all, saying that living with her was “hell.” (Her 203.) He is capable of treating women with kindness and respect, but he does so with only two girls out of the dozens (or possibly hundreds) that he sleeps with. Yunior does treat women a little better than most other Dominican men do—he does not assault women (unlike his brother Rafa does to Nilda and Tammy) and he does feel bad when he cheats on them. Yunior also develops to be much like his fathe— while neither were physically abusive towards their women, both often cheated and were incapable of building and sustaining a monogamous relationship. Yunior recognizes that he is turning out like his father when he says “both [my] father and [my] brother were Sucios…Sucios of the worst kind. And now it’s official: [I am] one, too.” (Her 165) He figures this out in high school, but is not until the end of This is How you Lose Her that Yunior actually understands what he has done and how cruel he was. He admits that his ex “did the right thing,” by leaving him because he was a deceitful “chicken-shit coward,” after reading The Doomsday Book. (Her 216) He eventually changes his behavior, settles down with a wife and “[doesn’t] run around after girls anymore.” (Wao 326) Yunior’s transformation from Sucio to loving husband shows that despite having “a heart like [his], that never got any kind of affection growing up, [which] is terrible above all things,” a person can learn to rise above the circumstances of their upbringing and behave in a kind and constructive manner. (Wao 185)