Yunior's Responsibility

Throughout This is How You Lose Her, Yunior becomes more responsible for his actions and starts to realize that it is his fault the girls keep breaking up with him. The book begins when in a girl finds out Yunior cheated via a letter from the other woman (4). This is the only time when Yunior gets caught because someone else informs his girlfriend, and because of this he does not believe he is to blame when his girlfriend breaks up with him. In “Alma,” Yunior’s girlfriend discovers his cheating because he wrote about it in his journal (49). Here, Yunior first tries to deny that he cheated, by claiming that it was part of his novel. However, he then claims responsibility for the breakup when he says “This is how you lose her” (50).  The final chapter of the book, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love,” begins with an explanation about how a girl he dated for six years found out he had cheated on her with fifty other women because he did not completely delete his emails (179). At this point, Yunior immediately takes responsibility for his actions by trying to fix the situation. He clarifies everything he did to try and make it up to his girlfriend by listing “You write her letters. You drive her to work. You quote Neruda. You compose a mass e-mail disowning all your sucias…” (180). However, even when his attempts are unsuccessful, he still does not blame the girlfriend for leaving him, as he did at the beginning of the book. Later in the same chapter, when Yunior is living with the law student who he believes is pregnant with his baby, he writes about her in his journal and she finds it, after which “She doesn't speak to [Yunior] again for two whole fucking weeks” (202). In this instance, he is not cheating on the girl, he simply writes about how he doesn't like her. Even though they do not get along, he is still trying to take care of her because he is attempting to be responsible in providing for his child. During the course of the book, Yunior becomes a better, more likeable person because he starts taking responsibility for his actions. 

Nerdiness and Superpowers

                In Oscar Wao, social ostracism plays a central role to the development of the characters. Oscar, his sister Lola, and his mother all don’t fit into their societal roles like they feel they are supposed to. While being a misfit is a common theme in many coming of age stories, Junot Diaz uses references from comic books, science fiction, and fantasy novels to illustrate that the characters do not belong. In particular, Oscar is described using these nerd references because of his dedication to genre fiction and nerd culture. When he first starts to doubt his appearance in the mirror, he exclaims, “Jesus Christ, I’m a Morlock” (30). Morlocks are ugly creatures from an H.G. Wells novel who look like underground apes and eat children. In that moment, Oscar doesn’t see himself as “some kind of platano Doc Savage, a supergenius who combined world-class martial artistry with deadly firearms proficiency” (27) anymore, he sees himself as becoming a monster.

                Oscar’s mother Beli is also a misfit, even though she’s never read a comic book in her life. When she finally hits puberty and grows her famous breasts, her status changes, but she is still an outcast. Her new “power” is described as “Telling Beli not to flaunt those curves would have been like asking the persecuted fat kid not to use his recently discovered mutant abilities. With great power comes great responsibility…bullshit” (93). Beli has a new superpower, but like most superpowers it comes with the price of being treated differently. Creepy old men try to take advantage of her, and she is forced to leave the Dominican Republic after being beaten by the Gangster, “no ringwraith, but he wasn’t no orc either” (119). And saddest of all, her superpower turns out to be lethal. At the end of the book, Yunior says “She would live for another ten months, but by then she’d more or less given up” (323).

                Lola, the most well-adjusted of the bunch, still is an outcast. As a child, she is the “tallest, dorkiest girl in the school, the one who dressed up as Wonder Woman every Halloween” (57). Like her mother, she looks for a way to gain power and to escape the cycle of violence that plagues Dominican women, but ultimately succeeds in a way and ends up with Yunior, a sort of reformed Dominican. Besides Wonder Woman, she also seeks power in being seen as a witch. In “Wildwood” she explains that “as long as you’ve been alive, you’ve had bruja ways; even your mother will begrudge you that much. Hija de Liborio she called you after you picked your tia’s winning numbers for her” (53). Though she doesn’t really believe in fuku or zafa, she believes in her dreams and visions of going to a better place.

                

Fuku and Zafa

Yunior begins his story by telling the tale of fuku and zafa and the role they play in Dominican culture. Throughout the second half of the novel Lola, Oscar and Yunior respond to and believe in fuku in different ways. When Yunior moves in with Oscar junior year he mentions that “[Oscar] used to say he was cursed… and if [he’d] really been old-school Dominican [he] would have (a) listened to the idiot, and then (b) run the other way” (Diaz 171). Although Oscar was born in the States, he is a firm believer in fuku. However, whether he is actually cursed, or fulfilling an inevitable self-prophecy believing in the curse, is up to interpretation. Yunior does not believe in fuku himself, but knows how Dominicans feel about it and knows he probably should be more cautious of it.

Although Lola and Oscar come from the same mother and have the same upbringing, her views on the curse are completely opposite Oscar’s. Whereas he blames his unfortunate life on the curse, Lola “[doesn’t] think there are any such things as curses. [She] think[s] there is only life. That’s enough” (205). She represents a much more realistic, American view on life; things happen and that’s life.

Depending on the Dominican, some would look at the lives Beli, Lola and Oscar and say Abelard ruined their family and cursed them for life. Those Dominicans are likely the ones more true to their roots. Lola is a strong disbeliever in the curse. She also fights Dominican norms. Whereas most Dominican women subject themselves to abusive husbands and boyfriends, Lola was not supportive of the Dominican norms. When Oscar asks Lola if she would “allow [her] pubescent daughter to have relations with a twenty-four-year-old male,” she replies with “I’d kill him first” (35). Lola stands up for herself and does not act as a typical Dominican female is expected too.

Oscar, who believes in the curse, shows hyper Dominican masculinity in his obsession with women and porn. Oscar does not abuse women but he knows what is expected of him as a Dominican male. When he asks Yunior if it’s true that no Dominican male has ever died a virgin and Yunior confirms that it’s against the laws of nature Oscar’s response is “that… is what worries me” (174). Oscar’s acknowledgement of what his role is and what is expected of him ties him to his Dominican culture. His connection to his Dominican masculinity can also be seen as what ties him to the curse. There is a clear correlation between Dominican culture and belief in the curse. It ties the characters closer to or further away from their roots depending on what they believe in. 

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.