Amanda Group
Dr. Rogers
English 111 B
Essay 1
You Are Not Fighting Alone

"The Dreamer" by Junot Díaz was first published in a women’s magazine in 2011. In this short essay Díaz writes about how his mother overcame great obstacles and barriers, fought family bonds and held on to a dream that she longed for. "The Dreamer" was initially directed at women, because women would find Díaz’s mother empowering. The audience grew as the story was shared more and more, anyone who has ever had a dream was reading it. This essay gives readers reinforcement that they are not alone overcoming any powerful setbacks they might have in achieving their own dreams.
Díaz told his mother’s story of the struggles of living in a third world country, abuse that restrained her, and fate that opened the doors to a world of opportunity on the path to achieving her dream to become an educated nurse in the Dominican Republic. Díaz’s mother didn’t reach her initial dream, but she didn’t give up until she could present her kids with opportunities to achieve their dreams. The Dominican girl, Díaz’s mother, was never meant to leave the mountain she lived on. She was expected “to work on the family farm until she died or was married off” (Díaz 128). During her work on the farm, she was the one who tended to illness. Her grandmother did not like the idea of education, she insisted that “she stay on the farm, that she stay a mule” (Díaz 129). Díaz’s mother longed for an education more than anything. She wanted out of the life she knew. She wanted it so desperately that “she got down on her knees beside a stagnant puddle of water, put her mouth in it and drank deeply” (Díaz 129). I have learned that pursuing your own dream is important, no one else can tell you what you want. You have to stand up for yourself and make your own destiny and Díaz’s mother did just that. She became sick from the water she drunk, opening up the opportunity to stay back from moving up into the mountains for harvest. That stagnant water gave her a window of opportunity.
Right before the seasonal move Trujillo, the dictator, demanded that all children should be in school and not working in the fields. She enrolled in school, knowing that her mother would not accept this. Díaz’s mother knew she would be beaten, but she went anyways. Her yearn for education outweighed the threat from her mother. Following her enrollment, Díaz’s mothers teacher went to the police and reported Díaz’s grandmother. Some would call this disloyalty, others would say “you have to do what you have to do”. In Díaz’s mothers case, I think she was conflicted with reporting her mother. Having personal experience with “reporting” a family member, the feeling of disloyalty weighs on you. You feel like you did something wrong, and betrayed the person you have loved so much. Díaz’s mother made her decision, putting herself first. She overcame a difficult obstacle in her life, one that would hold her back forever if she didn’t act in that moment. Díaz’s grandmother was handcuffed and taken, right in front of her daughter, to jail. She gave up her own flesh and blood to be one step closer to her dream. Watching her mother being taken away built her endurance. Through out everything Díaz’s mother overcame, there were other forces working in her favor. If the dictator, Trujillo, never changed the rules for children attending school, she would have never drank the water. If the rules were not altered when they were, she would have never had the window of opportunity to stay home instead of traveling up the mountain. When Díaz’s mother arrived at the school, “the teacher should have laughed and sent her poor ass back to the hills to pick coffee. But as it turned out, the teacher was an idealistic young woman from the capital” (Díaz 129). This essay shows that timing is everything, and I believe there is a God out there looking over all of us. I also believe in fate, and everyone has a purpose on this earth. Díaz’s mother was meant to break the family tradition. More so, she was meant to be written about by her son, to prove that anyone can overcome any size of obstacles. That you are not alone. Everything had fallen into place, along with the opportunity she made for herself and endurance she built, fate gave her the strength she needed to overcome the obstacles in her way.
Díaz’s mother never became a nurse, immigration and a language barrier became an obstacle she could not overcome. Even after everything she had already overcome, everything she worked so hard to be, it wasn’t enough. This may discourage some readers, but in the long run, didn’t she achieve an even greater goal? A goal of making it across the border, and building a fertile environment for her kids dreams to grow. She gave them something she never had, and that was encouragement. “The Dreamer” touched a place in my heart. It opened my eyes and made me realize you make your own destiny. You have to put your own interest first, and sometimes that means giving up your own family. The only thing you have ever known. “The Dreamer” being Díaz’s mother, listened to her fate, making me think that some of the greatest opportunities could be right in front of you. You just have to take them. Díaz’s mother got out from the hold her mother had on her and embraced her strength. She got out. This essay gives anyone who has ever had a dream, hope. It allows them to know that they aren’t fighting alone. And they aren’t fighting solely for themselves. Junot Díaz was a product of his mother and without her fight, they wouldn’t be where they are today. Junot Díaz writes after the essay, and tells how he came to be as a writer. He lists struggles and obstacles that almost seem irrelevant after reading what his mother overcame. He is stubborn, and determined, much like his mother. Writing is his dream. In the women's magazine, it seems he is writing a prompt about how he came to be a writer. Díaz says “I think of my mother, of course” and at the end he says “I think of her” (128-130). When Díaz is struggling to stay afloat, and not give up on his dream he thinks of her. She made it through Third World poverty, sustained abuse, and let fate open doors for her. She took opportunity when presented, endured, and became strong. Not for her short term goal of being a nurse, but passing on the opportunity to her children. So they too could have the opportunity she worked so hard for, without a struggle.

Work Cited

Díaz, Junot. "The Dreamer." The Bedford Reader. Ed. X. J. Kennedy et al. 12th ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 128-133. Print.