Drown

Drown, the compilation of ten short stories written by Junot Diaz narrates the experience of Hispanic Latino teenagers with different themes and from one part of life to another. He pictured the world of Drown as a rough, violent, poor and seemingly hopeless experiences. The compilation of stories narrated by Yunior tells his stories from different points of view of life. The events and experiences mentioned in this novel by Diaz are what most Hispanic teenagers go through. As the novel begins with “The fact that I am writing you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you.” (Drown). This epigraph in beginning by Gustavo Perez Firmat gives a clue of focusing Hispanic community.
After reading the whole book my question is this book merely story telling or autobiographical? This question came to my mind by relating Diaz’s interview in Colbert’s show. Stephen Colbert, the host of show when asked him how he came to America, Diaz answered that his father first came to New York, settled here and called them over. Diaz also mentioned that he saw his dad the first time as he was away from family and once they landed to America his father took them to New Jersey which was weird according to Diaz. Same scenario was somewhat presented in beginning of Drown but through Yunior- the narrator.
Diaz used the specific words and some symbols which the reader can almost feel the story as if it is real. Diaz, who was born in Santo Domingo in Dominican Republic and migrated to New Jersey when he was six; portrayed the barrios of Dominican Republican and struggling urban communities of New Jersey. Overall, he presented many themes in Drown jumping from one important chapter of life to another. For instance, poverty, cultural difference, hope of living American dream, family issues in respect of absent father and branched to immigration. However legitimacy and authenticity are also important themes shown prominently.
Ysrael, the main character of the opening story of novel showed how Yunior and Rafa are ignorant and see Ysrael with hatred eyes. Ysrael’s face was damaged by an attempt pig eating him when he was little. Earlier, when they both were introduced with Ysrael verbally from a boy they showed the views of ignorance and hatred towards Ysrael. This ignorance developed an urge in Rafa to see his face behind mask for which they travelled to neighboring town. Once they found him Yunior started conversation and invented that they both have same interests. Rafa thought of an ideal chance and realized to snatch his mask while they were discussing the plans to go to America and discovered that both families are in States. During their conversation as Rafa sees the opportunity he smashed Ysrael throwing his mask away as Yunior narrated “The mask twitched I realized he was smiling and my brother brought his arm around and smashed the bottle on top of his head.” (Drown 18). As the mask was removed the discovered totally opposite to expectation as Yuniour’s reaction was “Holy fucking shit” (Drown 18). Diaz captured the unexpected sadness of violence through poetry rules of following same sounds to others. This story presents the casual violence in children and gives message to audience to not underestimate children’s prosperity to be cruel. In respect of story Ysrael, reader is allowed to see Ysrael in the way he sees himself and not simply someone’s observations.
Furthermore, we cannot say that all stories are stick with one theme but the matter of immigration is discussed broadly. The issue of immigration is not only within the Diaz book Drown but Diaz also has feelings and attachment to this issue. Referring to his interview with Stephen in Colbert Show one of the question on illegal students he answered, “Some say illegal but I say undocumented students.” This shows his feelings for them. Moreover, he said “Once the Georgia legislature decided to not provide education to these students, we- some professors, students came up with an idea and formed Freedom University.”

As an immigrant, I believe every individual immigrant has his own stories of pains and joys, fears and victories, in respect to ups and downs of life. This book captures the intensity and separation of Dominican immigrants. Diaz presents the picture of youth swimming in poverty and absent father along with the struggle for immigrants to new culture and world. Due to immigration of Papi, Mami is the only one to bear the burden of whole family and responsible for bringing up children. The issue of immigration was discussed with relation of financial and emotional issues. In story “Aguantando” where Diaz presented the situation of family, Yunior was the part of family where almost everything was damaged with stains of leaking roof even Mami’s Bible. Yet it was clear how Mami saved Papi’s picture in sandwich bag. Poverty was big issue to fight with, as Yunior said “We didn’t eat rocks but we didn’t eat meat or beans, either. Almost everything thing on our plates was boiled: boiled yuca, boiled platano……” (70). Because of these poor conditions Yunior showed how Mami was working long hour shifts. Besides in story “How to date a Browngirl…. ‘clear the government cheese from refrigerator” (143) was also the symbol of poverty not only in Dominican but also in States. The symbol of absent father presented the responsibility of being poor in more than one story. After that Diaz discussed about the obese in America in sense of observing the richness of Americans in comparison to his level of poverty. As an immigrant Diaz showed very accurately the tragedies without being over dramatic or fake and also as a young stranger on strange land, for which my personal opinion about this narrative is that Diaz offered refined and much magnified picture of immigrants which is very accurate due to reality behind it.
Furthermore, I believe it’s compulsory for every writer to deliver the authenticity and to provide the validity of scenario for reader to accept and follow the scenes of reading rather than losing interest. According to this validation and authenticity I concluded these as the major themes of Drown along with immigration and poverty of Hispanic community. As a reader, we observe these themes along all the stories in Drown. The writing style of Diaz makes reader to trust and validate the story in observance of accuracy by readers to comparing their own lives. After reading all stories there should be no doubt that Diaz wanted to inquire more deeply the shades of Dominican life. Hence, stories are shifted again and again between life in Dominican Republic and in slums of New Jersey. Mostly, every story is told in a first person narrative but “No Face” and “Negocios” are presented little differently. “No Face” returned to the Ysrael but this time with third person point of view.
Additionally, Diaz tells stories in different point of views such as “Ysrael” and “No Face” which challenges his authenticity. This is because of wavering of narrator. As some are narrated by Yunior but for some we do not have clear clue regarding narrator. For example, “How to Date a Browngirl…” first person narration to second or to third “No Face”, further distancing the narrator from the reader. Though the story “Negocios” is narrated by Yunior throughout about his family and experiences in United States. This story was related to Yunior by both mother Mami and father Papi because of conflicts denying narrator and reader. “There are two stories about what happened next, one from Papi, one from Mami: either Papi left peacefully with suitcase filled with Eulalio’s best clothes or he beat the man first, and then took a bus and the suitcase to Virginia.” (174)
Moreover, if we talk about the language of Drown some might say poetic, rhythmic or harsh. Writing is essential weapon for every writer of any language to convey message to audience. For Diaz, as he is bilingual writer and his audience is Latin community for which he used Spanish words. Living as an immigrant country where he is not majority, he used his native tongue as a self-identification. In the stories,”Ysrael,” “Aguantando,” and “Fiesta, 1980,” which exposes the early life on narrator in hometown and New Jersey, Diaz squirt Spanish words as hot spices in food. Though the book was written in English, Diaz uses his native language words in rhythmic and poetic way. The best part of using Spanish is that the readers who are not familiar with Spanish are also able to understand the contextual meaning of world. His use of spanish language easily flows with English as shown in story “Ysrael”. “The next morning rosters were screaming. Rafa dumped ponchera in the weeds and then collected our shoes from patio, careful not to step on pile of cacao beans Tia had set out to dry.” (9). Diaz used the Spanish language with English language capturing readers into narrator’s world from native perspective. Spanish language in Drown is varied. In early stories Diaz used more Spanish slang words than in later stories for instance, when Yunior and Wayne work as a delivery boys and when they went to deliver in house where they laid newspapers on the floor, he slipped into Spanish once again. “Carajo, what if we slip.” (122). He also used Spanish to describe his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend as “zangano” and “painfully gringo.”(126)
Drown, is not the compilation of stories of a kid and his life but it’s also an advice to Hispanic community and it also presented the face of elites. In short story criticism, Diaz stated “I’m just a lot more passionate about having a critical dialogue with my communities. Exposing white racism and white arrogance is important, but, if I don’t criticize myself and my peoples, how are we ever going to get better?” (Cespedes and Torres-Saillant 901). In Story “Edison” he explained that when he and Wayne go for delivery, rich customers even give them water in paper glasses which Diaz presented in a stereotypical way against the white people. Poverty showed how the narrator was hoping for tip while the deliver pool tables in rich suburbs but on othe hand he also called them “an asshole customers” (Drown 132). Moreover, the review of Drown by David Gates also elaborated the Diaz’s feelings about the elites of America. As Gates wrote “…Yunior, an unstable compound of demotic Spanish, white teen-speak and black street talk, is exactly right for a kid uncomfortably feeling his way among his several worlds.” This showed how the rich community was living in palaces with silk tops and expensive interiors in comparison to the ones working as a delivery agents and their hype of being tipped.
As I mentioned before that Diaz presented the number of issues- a whole life in one character. The emotional hopes of father coming back to Santa Domingo and Papi’s letters claiming surely that he will come back for which happiness comes to door for a moment but gain the darkness of sadness appears because of his lies. Papi’s relationship to another lady but Rafa and Yunior closed their mouths thus maintaining status quo and for sake of family alliance. Diaz doesn’t condone or justify his actions but tried to understand what made his father behave like the way he did. He answered through Yunior that because he wasn’t able to handle the situations or in which immigrant life give avenues to explore.

To conclude, after reading Drown the picture of experiences of Dominican Americans is not for only Dominican but it covers the life of every immigrant. In beginning Rafa and Yunior living with Tio Minguel in Santa Domingo with everyday experience of play, sex and boredom found in country living with no different than the white kids in American suburbs. “Fiesta, 1980” and “Negocios” showed the beautiful pictures of family relationship, “Aguantando” showed the alienation between parents and children. Furthermore, “Aurora” and “Boyfriend” portrays the awkwardness of emotional relationships and other stories like “No Face” and “Edison New Jersey” which discusses the everyday survival. Works Citied
"The Yale Literary Magazine Interviews Junot Diaz." Yale Literary Magazine Spring 2008: Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Díaz, Junot, and Juleyka Lantigua. "Junot Díaz." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 258. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center., Sept. 2007. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Colbert, Stephen. “The Colbert Report.” Interviews with Junot Diaz. Broadcast: March, 2013. Video.
Colbert, Stephen. “The Colbert Report.” Interviews with Junot Diaz. Broadcast: June, 2008. Video.
Cespedes, Diogenes, and Silvio Torres-Saillant. “Fiction Is the Poor Man’s Cinema: An Interview with Junot Diaz.” Callaloo: A Journal of African-American and African Arts and Letters 23.3(2000):892-907
Gates, David. "Drown." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Sept. 1996. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.