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When I read the chapter “Aguantando” in Junot Diaz “Drown” I felt sorry for Yunior. He grew up without his father in his critical years. And like every kid they start to imagine what this person would be like. He states” I did not think of him often. He had left for Nueva York when I was four but since I couldn’t remember a single moment with him I excused him from all my years of my life.” Here we see how Yunior is a naive kid. He believes that his father will come back so he just forgives his father as long as it means that he’ll be able to see him. Rafa would not tell his brother the truth that their father has abandoned them and when he sends his letters there all lies. What surprises me is that the mother keeps believing her husband lies. He keeps saying he’s coming back, so she goes way beyond for his return like planning a party, getting her and the kids new clothes, but he never shows up. Through the end of the chapter Rafa, Yunior, his mom and their grandpa go see a movie and they are nicely dressed. Here they meet a man and he starts to have a conversation with his mother. When they finished his mother said that this was the place where she and their father met. Here Yunior starts to imagine the day when his father would return and how it would be an amazing moment for the first time his father would get to meet his youngest son.

The next chapter, “Drown” presents and interesting perspective on homosexuality from Yunior’s perspective. We see that Yunior has a best friend named Beto. He and Beto have a close friendship. It seems that Yunior has more trust in Beto than his father. Yunior and Beto would shoplift and even though his mother never noticed it his dad did and warned him “you have to be careful cause I’m not getting you out of jail.” Even after the warning he would continue to do it. As the relationship continues it seems that it’s taking a different turn that makes Yunior uncomfortable. At a point in the chapter the two are watching a porn movie and in that moment Beto makes a sexual move on Yunior. This causes Yunior to leave the house shocked at what just happened. It seems that Beto continued to make moves on Yunior. Yunior would never tell Beto he wasn’t into that maybe he said no to Beto cause he still wanted to be friends with Beto. When Beto left for college he left a book for Yunior. Yunior threw it out without opening it probably as a symbol of the end of their friendship.

    The chapter “Boyfriend” is told from an unknown narrator but I believe that it might be Yunior at some point in his life because he has talked about past girlfriends. He talks about how a woman that lives in the same apartment building as him. This chapter is his perspective of a woman and her boyfriend’s relationship. The boyfriend tells her he needs space but all he is doing is cheating on her. She tries everything in order for him to stay with her. In the end he never called her or visited her after that. Yunior then decides to invite her to his apartment and all they do is talk. After that they acted like complete strangers only saying hi to each other when they’d pass the hallways.

   

When I first read the chapter, “Aguantando” in Junot Diaz’s “Drown,” I felt a sense of sympathy for Yunior who has never seen his father for most of his life. I would not be able to imagine what my life would have been like if my father was not present in my own life. My father was a person who taught me how to diligently do my academic work and taught me to always persevere and improve my flaws. In Yunior’s case, it’s unfortunate that his father had not returned to the family as promised, as though he was neglecting the family. When I read this portion of the text, I felt convinced that the father was neither a decent father or even a good husband as he had left his wife to expect his return, only to be met with crushing disappointment. In this sense, it is not strange for everyone in the family to feel displeasure when the father sends a letter to them, again promising that he would return to bring them over the United States. Considering the information given to the reader about the father and his relationship to the family in this chapter, it can be said that the father’s absence had such a large influence on the children’s growth that, by the time he actually would bring them to the United States, they had grown to be critical of their father. However, despite their low expectations for their father, they imagine how the father would one day return to their barrio and would revitalize his relationship with the family. This is interesting in the sense that, although the siblings are disappointed by the father’s absence, they still wait and have some sort of respect for him in the hopes that everything will turn out to be ok once he returns.
The next chapter, “Drown,” presents an interesting perspective on homosexuality via Yunior’s narration and his relationship with Beto. In the chapter, Yunior’s relationship with Beto began as a trusting relationship between two friends. It would seem that Yunior gave more credence to Beto than to his own father, who he regarded as “a real asshole.” This was shown when Yunior keeps shoplifting with Beto, ignoring his father’s warning about getting caught and getting tossed away like a “bad piece of meat.” As the relationship continues, it becomes evident that the relationship is gradually changing in ways that Yunior is uncomfortable with. At one point, when the two were watching a porn movie in Beto’s house, Beto had begun to touch Yunior in a sexual manner. This causes Yunior to leave the house in panic as he attempts to understand what just happened. At this point, it’s interesting how despite the fact that he does not want to become pato, or gay, Yunior greatly valued his friendship with Beto and so kept in contact with him despite the incident.
“Boyfriend” is a chapter that presents an unknown narrator. It is likely that the narrator is Rafa, given that both share a history of having relationships with multiple women. However, the narrator could also be Yunior at some point in his life because like this chapter’s narrator, Yunior had also reflected on his past relationship with a woman. A possible reason why the narrator this time is unknown may be that the author wants to draw attention to how the narrator possesses characteristics reminiscent of both Yunior and Rafa. It’s interesting to learn of the possibility that at some point, Yunior or Rafa had a relationship similar to the Boyfriend and Girlfriend described in the story.

In the chapter Aurora introduces a new character named Aurora who is a drug addict who has landed herself in a detention center who was on and off relationships with Yunior who is technically now a teenager around 15 years old living in an area that is basically a bad neighborhood where drugs are being traded at and hanging around with bad friends that influences you the bad way such as his friend Cut who he and Yunior to get high on drugs. Through these harsh times Yunior is going to be able to help Aurora to get her clean.

  In the chapter Aguantando sets back when Yunior was 9 years old in the Dominican Republic of how the first chapter started out but this chapter is now experience living there lives since Yunior’s father was absent since he went to the United States to find wealth and someday bring his family over to the United but hasn’t returned to bring them leaving  their mother had to work long hours with barely any pay and since then Yunior’s family has been living off very poor in the Dominican Republic hoping for their father to return and bring them to the United States.  

The story has short stories that summarizes Yunior’s life as seen in the chapter Drown shows Yunior as a high school student. In this chapter Yunior is mostly seen with his friend Beto who went to the same high school as Yunior and tries to hangout with Yunior before Beto goes to college at which he is a first year majoring in Business. As they are hanging out they recall the days how they shoplift various stores in the mall and that they often jump the fence to have a little swim in the pool. As stated this is a friend who was mostly in criminal activities that influences Yunior to use drugs since his father was absent from most of his life as he was now in Florida with another woman. Later on Yunior and Beto started to develop feelings of sexuality meaning they have fallen with each other in terms coming out of the closet and yet again had these same feelings while Beto and Yunior were watching porn. Once Beto left for college the chapter ends with Yunior watching a movie with his mother. 

After reading the chapters it has a message that reflects on to me based on reading these chapters.In Aurora I reflect on how I must do anything to get a crush to fall for me even though that Yunior is trying to do anything to keep his love for Aurora together even though they have a bad relationship sorta how i wanted a girl to love for me even though it was a relationship but to try hard on doing what you got to do when it comes to love.  In the chapter Aguantando it reflected on me on how during most of my childhood my parents had to work long hours which I was cared for at my grandparents house during the time sorta reflects how Yunior’s mother was working long hours to provide for her family knows what it was like remember how I spent during my childhood years. How I reflect in chapter Drown would most likely be apart of how feelings towards one friend to another could be confusing or to me something worried on whether they have the same feeling towards you sorta but opposite since Yunior is considered “gay” in this particular scene in this chapter. Overall as the story progresses I would reflect on Yunior’s life towards mine as well to know what it was remember my life.

After reading the chapter of Aurora I was surprised to see what yunior and his girl were up to. At that age i wasn’t really expecting Yunior to be involved in drugs but it also made sense due to him trying to survive the real world. With everything going on seeing his friends and his girl gave him that escape from reality and moved him into a place he would be comfortable with. I can compare to Yunior in this aspect because I try not to stress myself out with what is going on in my life such and school or work by going out with friends or even my cousins in order to clear my mind and enjoy the moment. In the chapter we get to that Yunior is involved with drugs as he takes them as well as sells them and Aurora plays a big role when it comes to drugs. We get to see that Yunior gives heroin and cigarettes to Aurora every time they see each other and in a way they both use each other in a way that Yunior uses her for his pleasure while Aurora uses him for the drugs and cigarettes. After reading the chapter we can interpret that their relationship is toxic but yet they both still have love for each other.

 

Aguantando gave us a sense of how Yunior spent his childhood with his brother and mother in Dominican Republic. Yunior would spend time playing with his friend Wilfredo or even climbing trees. He even gets sent to his aunt’s place for about twenty days and talks about his stay such as trying new foods and her awkwardly staring at him while eating.The mother gets played by the father many times as we get to hear from Rafa, he sends letters saying he is coming back from New York but eventually ends up going out of radar and being “lost” due to no one knowing about him. She recently got a letter from him again and suddenly disappeared for five weeks to recollect herself. After reading I felt sympathetic towards the mother because she works non stop as mentioned by Yunior and also it was a joy for her to see that her husband might come back but he ends up ditching her over and over again. It seems like Rafa has already gotten used to it and it doesn’t hit him as hard as it hits their mother.

 

Drown is one of the chapters that really surprised me because it was totally unexpected. Yunior gets informed that his old pal came back to town but he doesn’t seem that excited about the news. The mother talks about how close they were and that they should really link up again but Yunior doesn’t seem to give him the time at all. We get a backstory of Yunior and Beto and their time as friends, we get to see the wild stuff they did such as stealing and getting caught as well as sneaking into a pool but it was common as many kids did the same. The chapter was pretty normal and that is when the problem showed up and it was that Beto started to get closer to Yunior. He would be all up on Yunior and this left Yunior in a completely frozen because he didn’t know what to do. After this occasion, this started happening constantly every time they would meet and this caused Yunior to hesitate meeting up with Beto. Like I said before, I was really surprised because it came out of nowhere and I was expecting Yunior to do something like he did in the first chapter but instead he was frozen and didn’t know what to do. I am intrigued to see what would happen next if Beto and Yunior stumble upon each other once again, whether to see if Yunior takes a different course of action or not.

Destiny DeSilva

ENG 1121

 

Reflection #2

Reading along chapters 1-3 we see that Yunior went through a tough time growing up as a kid. He went through verbal and some physical abuse from his father, watching his father cheat on his mother, his brother being very mean to him, growing up poor with his mother and brother, having girlfriend problems, hormones flowing, and not having his father with him growing up. Growing up for him was not easy and he managed with them as he got older was a good way to go about with life. Selling drugs, doing drugs, having sex with his girlfriend and feeling confused about the love he has for her, and the relationship with his brother not well balanced. Yunior’s life has made a huge turn throughout the next 3 chapters.

In Boyfriend, it talks about Yunior’s different girlfriends and he speaks in 3rd person throughout the entire chapter. In the chapter it states “Boyfriend got himself to the hallway I was already in the apartment. Girlfriend would not stop crying. Twice she stopped, she must have heard me moving around right about her and both times I held my breath until she started up again.”  Yunior explains how his girlfriend would consistently do things to get his attention. All his girlfriends impacted him differently throughout his life and none of them spoke Spanish, which was really shocking to him. He learned something with every woman he was with. But as time passes by, Yunior meets other people along the way

In the chapter of Edison, New Jersey Yunior has a work friend named Wayne. They both work as delivery men and they both sell drugs. They work as partners to sell drugs and they both  talk about their experiences on the new job they have. They talk about who and where they deliver furniture to, and the type of interactions they have with the customers. As they work during their jobs hours, selling drugs is a side business for them. The type of woman they meet while they’re selling and how Wayne would entertain them. Also, towards the end of the chapter they meet a customer named Pruitt. As they go along to do their jobs, Pruitt’s wife and Yunior starts talking about life in general while they’re on their way to Jersey.

In the chapter of How to date a Brown Skin girl it talks about, in my opinion, a type of routine to trying to get a girl, meeting her parents, the job of being a boyfriend and things you should do and shouldn’t do as a boyfriend and meeting her parents. In the chapter it states “Shower, comb, dress. Sit on the couch and watch TV. If she’s an outsider her father will be bringing her, maybe her mother. Neither of them want her seeing any boys from the Terrace-people get stabbed in the Terrace-but she’s strong-headed and this time will get her way. If she’s a white girl you know you’ll at least  get a hand job.” In my opinion I think men have things hard when it comes to meeting the girl’s parents and these high expectations that are needed to be exceeded as a boyfriend. The same goes for women, she needs to know how to cook, clean, dress well and know how to take care of a man, however men’s expectations are very high.

Destiny DeSilva
ENG 1121- D420

Reflection
Throughout life we face obstacles and we learn how to face them and overcome them. Life is always described as sunshine and rainbows on a very sunny day as the birds sing along. Life isn’t always like sunshine and rainbows and singing birds. Drown by Junot Diaz is a perfect example of how life can really be. Chapters 1-3 reveal phases of the life of the young people. Chapter 1 is with young Yunior, Rafa, and Ysrael. Yunior and Rafa, his older brother, do not have a great relationship with him. Rafa is always teasing and picking on Yunior. Yunior growing up is learning new things and he’s trying to figure things out with his life along with dealing with the craziness of his brother. Also, not having their father around as much as they want him to. While Ysrael, on the other hand, is being aside and teased by the whole town of Ocoa because of his appearance. His face was eaten by a pig and he walks around with a handmade mask to hide his face. In chapter 2, his father was cheating on his mother and he struggled mentally with that, his father being very abusive towards him, his brother and his mother, and he explains how much a loving woman his mother is. In chapter 3, Yunior and his friend Cut are selling drugs and experiencing girlfriend problems. Situations like these are examples of a young adults life, and as a young adult I am, I can definitely relate to it.
In chapters 1 & 2 Yunior experiences family problems and a friend being picked on by the town. Growing up as a kid I’ve been picked on because of my race and my appearance. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, however it helped me grow and develop a mentality and a person that I am today. Growing up for Yunior and Ysrael was not easy. Having people or even your close friends pick or discourage you because of your appearance. People’s opinion should not matter to any of us because their opinion does not shape us as a person, especially if it’s a lie. As life goes on we experience obstacles on the way and those obstacles help us grow as a person and become a better version of ourselves. In chapter 3, things get worse. Yunior and his friend Cut start selling drugs and also experience relationship problems of their own. As a young adult, I experience relationship problems even with adults as well. However, drugs are not the best idea to take the pain away or feel numb for the moment. Drugs are a temporary solution and it will not fix the situation itself. We have to solve it and be adults and either accept the consequences or the outcome of the situation.
In conclusion, Yunior went through tough times as a kid. He learned new things and he experiences new things everyday. And he takes as a learning lesson through his path of life. Life wasn’t easy for him but he surely made it through. Having an abusive father and an older brother that does not show love to you is very difficult to bear with. Especially when you have questions and you need a male point of view, depending on what it is. As a young adult, I made it through life and I am here today to share my story and relating to the characters in the book.