Yunior The Womanizer

In This Is How You Lose Her, we are reintroduced to Yunior in his college years. Long gone are the days of his junkie girlfriend Aurora from Drown as we see Yunior carrying on his ways from The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Regardless, women are still ever present in Yunior’s life with as much influence on him as ever.

This Is How You Lose Her starts with Yunior recounting his experience with his girlfriend at the time, Magda. As somebody already brought up there are many parallels between his girlfriend Lola and Magda. However rather than comparing the similarities between his girlfriends it is important to notice the differences and how they change over time. As we move from Aurora to Lola and later to Magda and beyond they all have their own personalities and they adapt as he does.

Over time as Yunior has changed he goes from a young boy who has trust and relationship issues to a true womanizer. He originally was with his girl Aurora in Drown who was similar to him at the time, damaged and scared. This was a period in his life when he was selling drugs pretty much full time where that was what he did. It is appropriate to see that his girlfriend at the time was similarly involved in drugs. It isn’t like his drug use stopped in The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao but he has become a functioning member of society going to university rather than just selling drugs and working odd jobs.

Lola is what could be considered not only Yunior’s first true love but also his first real relationship. She isn’t a junkie and while she still has her quirks she is very similar to Yunior at the time much like how Aurora was similar to Yunior at least in terms of the lives they led. As we move on from her and into This Is How You Lose Her we see a different type of girl emerge. First we see Magda of course whom Yunior cheats on and recounts in the earliest part of the novel. As the novel progresses however we see many more different girls.

These girls while they are all unique and different all share the same commonality that they are very similar to Yunior and his struggles at the time. As Yunior struggles with infidelity he sees his relationships grow strained particularly we see this with Alma. One of the most memorable moments in the novel comes from this time. At the end of the section he ends with the line that is the title of the book, “This is how you lose her.” (Diaz, 48) This line really summarizes his struggles with women not only up to this point but also as they would continue on throughout the rest of the novel.