Masculinity plays a large role in the life of the Dominican
men portrayed throughout Diaz’s works “Drown”, “Oscar Wao”, and “This is How
You Lose Her” but who defines what makes one a man or not and is this the same to
all members of that culture?
The Dominican man’s “defined goal” is one of power in
society. This power can extend to
control over other people to control over meeting personal desires (sexually). Yunior’s dad and brother are a good example
of this claim to the power of control of other people throughout all of the
books. Yunior’s dad maintains power over
his sons seen specifically in Drown and This is How You Lose Her when he acts
quickly to something he disapproves of in an abusive way – both physically and
mentally. In Drown you see instances
early on such as when his father yells at him for eating before the drive “Coño,
muchacho, why did you eat?” (p 25), and later “If you eat anything, I’m going
to beat you” (p 37). Yunior’s brother is
seen imitating this claim to power seen by Dominican men specifically in a more
physical way early in Drown when he beat Ysrael (p 18).
The power of achieving personal desires is also a repeated
topic throughout all the novels. This
influence of achievement by sleeping with many women in spite of current
relationship terms for personal satisfaction makes an appearance in nearly if
not all chapters of Diaz’s works. This
influence’s presence occurs at such an early age, noticeably seen in Rafa in
the beginning of Drown, and its strongest effects appear in opposition
(throughout Oscar Wao). Despite Oscar’s
resistance, all of his friends, Al and Miggs, and relatives encouraged him to
shape up and get a lady “… you’re going to die a virgin unless you start
changing” (p 31). The characters of
Oscar Wao immediately labeled Oscar’s inability to sleep with girls as a source
of sadness and I believe that this treatment of unnecessary pity actually helped
to spark Oscar’s depression. Unable to
conform Oscar falls deep into sadness.
He even tried to kill himself in the middle of the novel.
However, although the environment in which these characters
are growing may be causing a Dominican masculinity to develop, this masculinity
is challenged. The strongest challenge
to Dominican masculinity I believe occurs in the shortest chapter of This is
How You Lose Her, Alma. It is in this
chapter that Yunior, the protagonist, begins to come to a realization that Dominican
men don’t act like real men: they cheat and then they lie about it.
Yunior’s relationship with Alma emasculated him. Alma seemed to be more sexually driven than
Yunior, “She’s more adventurous in bed than any girl you’ve had” (p 46), but
Yunior still cheats on her. His cheating
may best be explained by Yunior’s attempt to regain power from a woman who is ‘calling
the shots’ in the bedroom. When Alma
confronts Yunior about his cheating he denies it in an effort to postpone Alma’s
demoralizing claims; another attempt for Yunior to maintain power. Here Yunior has an obvious challenge to his
masculinity, and like many Dominican men of Diaz’s books, Yunior fails to face
his problems.
The societies in which the characters live in define
masculinity. It is an unescapable force
like fuku itself. There are cultural members
that try to escape the norms of their upbringings, but poverty and unwanted isolation
force the Dominican group back together and force the societal pressures of
masculinity to thrive. To the Dominicans
there is no other definition of a man because there is no way out of the
group. Yunior’s best description of the plausibility
of actually treating a woman right and being a good guy he desires to be can be
accurately summed up in This is How You Lose Her, “Maybe five thousand years
ago we were together” (p 84). Maybe five
thousand years ago society would not have constructed Yunior the way at which
he is today.
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