Reflection 2

In the novel “Drown” I’ve start to notice that there are more than one themes present throughout the chapters. One of the theme I noticed is Sexuality and Masculinity –As a young man, Yunior learns by example. He often compares himself to both his father and Beto, highlighting the masculine traits of theirs that he most admires and even fears. The lessons he learns from his everyday interactions with these two men show that Yunior has a somewhat inflexible, performative, and often destructive concept of what it means to be a man. Also the theme Victim vs. Doer, this comes in when discussing about the mother and father relationship. Despite the father leaving to the U.S. and starting a new life, leaving behind the mother who is raising two boys on her own, in her home country. In this case, the mother is the victim,  because Yunior’s father is having an affair with another woman, even tho his sons were aware of it. Besides that, the idea of Dominant vs. submissive is very common between each character throughout the chapters. One example Rafa and Yunior have different personalities, which makes Rafa completely dominant because he lacks emotional compassion for Yunior. Another, theme was presented as oppressed vs. oppressive. This theme is shown when it comes to the complicated relationship between Yunior and his father. Yunior’s father is pretty absent in quite the first few years of his son’s life and even when the family reunites in America, it still seems as if they are strangers. Yunior doesn’t receive any type of affection from his father and often gets threatened for eating but never receives any type of confirmation that his father actually cares for him.