In Diaz’s Drown, he shows a vast amount of Yunior’s relationships. And how his connection and and view of them shapes the person he becomes later in life. For instance, Yuniors’s relationship with his mother is very different from the one he has with his father and brother. Yunior and his mother are very close him. Yunior’s mother thought the course of the reading try to protect Yunior from his father aggressive ways, for example in the chapter “Fiesta”, When Yunior knows he is not allowed to eat before getting in to a car because he gets car sick and throws up, and the father proceeds to grab him up and yell at him the mother jumps in almost as if it second nature to try protect or shield Yunior from his fathers wrath and try to take some of the blame. Yunior also trys to be protective of his mother, specifically of her feeling. When Papi takes Yunior and Rafa to meet his”Puerto Rican mistress” and latter that day when his mom asks what wrong he does not tell her about the mistress because he does not know how his mom will take the new but more importantly because there is no right way to bring up something like that and not tear apart whats left of his family as well as his moms happiness. Even though Yunior and his mother are close there mother-son relationship changes depending on the situation or setting. When they are at the Tia’s house in Fiesta and when Wilquins, the mute boy he was hanging with decides to bed and Rafa and the other kids start to go off and do their own thing and somewhat exclude him, he almost immediately turn to his mom to try and take away his loneliness but when he realize that she is hanging with the other adults so he just decided to sit on the side. Yunior growing up with his mom’s carried more of her behaviors and values then his brother, Rafa, who showcased a lot of the father’s behaviors and values
Yunior relationship of his father and brother is more as a model opposed to a suport system like his mom. His Father and brother both display this masculine role and Yunior values them even though throughout the reading they both don’t treat him well. Growing up with Rafa as his “older” male role model, was always try to have his brother approval. In “Ysreal”, He tells of wanting to hang with him and his friend and be seen as an equal even Rafa barely speaks to them when they are home. In “Ysreal” Rafa treats Yunior nice and lets him hang around him more even telling him story. Yunior hangs on to every word of Rafa’s story even though he does not understand what Rafa is telling him as if the story as some secret life lesson in it that Yunior will need to know for later on in life. Yuniors father was absent for a large part of his early childhood as well as very aggressive with Yunior even so Yunior care about what his father thinks about him and does not want to disappoint him.His Father and brother constantly thought the book pick on Yunior. They belittle his behavior and try to make him feel less about his self.They only treat him nice when they are trying to show off.To Yunior these were his examples of how a male should act or showcase to the world. And later on as the book goes on you can see that Yunior begins to showcase more of his father and brothers aggressive behavior then of his mom soft and loving behavior.
