The Relationships of the Characters to their Countries

            The characters in Drown by Junot Díaz have complex relationships with their country of origin, the Dominican Republic, and with the country they inhabit, the United States. This relationship is first suggested in the epigraph by Gustavo Pérez Firmat.  The second sentence in the epigraph is “My subject: how to explain to you that I don’t belong to English though I belong nowhere else.” Here, “English” represents America. This identifies that the characters, who have migrated to America, do not believe they truly belong there, although they also don’t feel that they belong in the Dominican Republic. Their inability to feel like they belong in America could be partially due to the fact that the traditions and customs that they practiced in the Dominican Republic are still very present in their lives in the United States. This is evident in “Fiesta, 1980” when Yunior states “About two hours later the women laid out the food and like always nobody but the kids thanked them. It must some Dominican tradition or something,” (36). That the men do not thanks the women for making dinner is identified as something that occurs primarily because they are all Dominicans. Yunior seems to believe that it separates them from others in America. Other evidence that the Dominican-American cling to their Dominican customs can be found in “Drown” when Yunior mentions “She has prepared dinner – rice and beans, fried cheese, tostones,” (106). Yunior’s mother still primarily cooks traditional Dominican meals when Yunior is quite a bit older, after they have been in the United States for a while. These instances where the Dominican-Americans in Drown hold on to their traditions from the Dominican Republic identify that they separate themselves from the rest of Americans, which would lead to the idea that they do not believe they truly belong in America.

            Although it is clear that the characters do not believe they belong in the United States, it is also evident that they do not feel they belong in the Dominican Republic. It is suggested that most of the people who lives in the Dominican Republic want to leave, specifically to migrate to America. This idea is presented in “Aguatando” when Yunior says “…and when Abuelo was around (and awake) he talked to me about the good old days, when a man could still make a living from his finca, when the United States wasn't something folks planned on,” (73). Yunior’s Abuelo explains that there was a time in the past when the primary goal of Dominicans was not to move to America. That it is currently the primary goal of most people suggests that they do not truly feel that they belong in the Dominican Republic anymore. At that point in Drown, even Yunior and his family are waiting for his father to return so they can go to the United States.  

Dominican Toughness and Masculinity

Throughout Drown, Yunior often talks about his father and the way he treated his sons. Never a warm and affectionate type of father, he often fought with his sons and smacked them around. At one point, Yunior mentions that he once wrote an essay for school called “My Father the Torturer” (30) because of his “imaginative” (30) punishments. Yunior is frightened of his father and his punishments, which does not seem like a healthy father-son relationship. It can be argued that Papi punishes his sons in these harsh ways in order to try to make them tough. It is made obvious in Drown that Dominican men are supposed to be tough; we see men hitting their children and even their girlfriends and wives, and all of them just take it like it is a normal, expected behavior. The men in this book act tough in order to secure their masculinity.

Papi even won Mami’s heart by being tough and masculine; in the chapter “Aguatando,” a man comes onto Mami at the beach, and she is unimpressed with his small talk, stating “Your father came at me better than that…Your father asked me if I wanted a cigarette and then he gave me the whole pack to show me that he was a big man” (87), which demonstrates that masculinity is a very important part of Dominican culture. In the chapter “Ysrael,” Rafa scolds Yunior for crying, saying “you have to get tougher. Crying all the time. Do you think our papi’s crying?” (14), which shows that weakness is looked down upon. In the chapter “Fiesta, 1980,” Yunior talks about the only time he and Papi ever did anything together-when Papi took Yunior on car trips to try to get him to stop throwing up in the van. Yunior states, “when we were alone he treated me much better, like maybe I was his son or something” (35). Perhaps Papi feels that he has to act tough and harsh towards his sons in front of other people in order to prove his masculinity and to teach his sons the ways they should act in different situation. When he is alone with his sons, it is acceptable for him to act kinder because he does not have to prove himself. Papi is not all bad all the time; he does care about his sons at least somewhat. Although Papi proves in other ways during the novel that he is not a good husband or father, hitting and “torturing” his sons may have been the only way he knew how to toughen them up, which was an important part the lives of Dominican men.

            

Dante's Relationship With God

In Inferno, Dante is sent to Hell by God because he has “strayed from his path” and given Virgil as a guide. Yet in “Dante’s Inferno”, Dante wakes up in an alley and is found by Virgil. It is unknown how he ended up in Hell, but the reason why is clear. He’s downloaded Metallica, been divorced more than once, and has a drinking problem. As Dante goes through the levels of Hell, he relies on Virgil to take care of him, as in the original. But the scene where an angel allows them safe passage is taken out entirely. Instead Virgil pulls out a gun and shoots the monster that is pursuing them. In the whole movie, God is not needed to save the travelers at any point.

                In the middle of the movie, Dante asks the question, “Who decides?” As in, who decides who goes to Hell and what their punishment is? It is interestingly implied that we, not God, are the ones who decide who go to Hell. This is in stark contrast to Inferno, where Dante marvels at God’s power by saying in Canto XXIV, “Oh, how severe it is, the power of God that, at its vengeance, showers down such blows!” In the poem, God’s choices are always just and absolute, and to doubt them earns Dante a rebuke from Virgil. But in the movie, we see Hitler sent to Hell for consulting astrologers, which Dante expresses confusion over. Virgil replies that “sometimes, you can only catch the really bad guys on a technicality.” Dante also believes Mr. Latini is in Hell because of “anti-gay legislation” and expresses more sympathy for him than in the book. Clearly, in the movie, an omnipotent being is not the one sending people to Hell if the system has to rely on technicalities and outdated laws like the American legal system (which was probably the intended criticism of the filmmakers).

                Hell in the movie doesn’t seem to be much of a Christian place. As with in the poem, many Christian religious figures are sent there, but the movie seeks to make fun of American religious conservatives. I find this funny since religious conservatives are more likely to believe in Hell than the intended audience of the movie. Overall, the message Dante learns is less of a Christian message, and more of a PSA to get his life back on track.

Fraud in Context

In both the Inferno and Dante’s Inferno, context is vital to understanding the message of the piece. In the Inferno, Dante meets historical Greek figures throughout his journey. Without knowing who the figures are and what kind of sins they committed during their lifetime, it is hard to identify why they are in Hell and what characterizes the level they are on. One example of this is in Canto XXX, when Virgil and Dante come upon Sinon the Greek in the 4^th group of the 10^th pouch of the 8^th circle. Although clues are given as to Sinon’s crime, such as when Adam accuses him, saying “here you speak true; but you were not so true a witness there, when you were asked to tell the truth at Troy,” having a fuller knowledge of Sinon provides further insight into his place in hell. The story of Sinon and Troy is told solely in the Aeneid, written by Virgil, as part of his accusation of the Greeks being shrewd and fraudulent.  The historical background provides insight as to why Virgil’s temper would be especially enraged upon seeing Sinon and why he would not want Dante to waste his time listening to Sinon and Adam bicker.

Comparatively, in Dante’s Inferno, those seen in the circle of fraud specific to money and traitors, a similar scene is portrayed. Dante and Virgil first enter a corporate building where they see money launderers, those who cooked the books and those accused of insider trading, all being punished by the literal nature of their crimes. Dante continues on then to the frozen lake, where he bumps into Lizzie Borden who points out Nikolai Ceausescu and his wife, Quisling and two men fighting. She comments that the one knowing on the other one’s noggin will “chew your ear off” if you ask him his story (Meredith). The two fighting seem similar to me to Sinon and Adam arguing, portrayed more literally though, like the rest who committed fraud. Again here, context is important in understanding why they are in that level. The companies in the building shown include world.com and Credit Lyonnais, and Virgil mentions Halliburton has their own building. Although some context is given about Borden when she corrects Dante in the number of times she stabbed her father and step mother. She then provides some background on Ceausescu and Quisling. She says Quisling is a “household name” but one would probably not understand that it is a noun that means a traitor who collaborates with enemies occupying their country, just from Borden’s description. Similarities can be drawn between the scenes encompassing the lower circles of fraud but it is also important to have the historical background to fully appreciate and understand what is happening.