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.
I think it’s interesting that your quotes about characters identifying with the Dominican Republic vs. the United States mostly have to do with food. In Drown, food seems to be a central theme in the stories about Yunior not fitting in. In the chapter “Fiesta, 1980,” Yunior’s father tells him, “If you eat anything, I’m going to beat you” (37). That Yunior’s father telling him not to eat is accepted by the rest of the family relates to your quote about only the children thanking the women for making the food, and it being accepted as sort of a Dominican tradition.
ReplyDeleteIn “Drown,” I saw Yunior’s mother still making him the same Dominican food as a way of her trying to preserve their past family dynamic. Even though Yunior’s father is gone, and Yunior has taken to selling drugs and shoplifting with his friend Beto, she still cooks Yunior the same food, and Yunior returns the favor by taking her to the mall and buying her things, even if they are bought with drug money. Yunior recounts, “When we arrive at the mall I give her fifty dollars. Buy something, I say, hating the image I have of her” (96).