In “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”, Junot Díaz presents a story about love that goes sour after the primary character, Yunior’s infidelity is discovered. But beyond just an emotionally bleak story, Díaz also uses the background of a love story gone bad to explore issues of race through Yunior’s narrative style, second-person point of view, and the characterization of the various women Yunior meets. One of Díaz’s greatest gifts in storytelling is the intimacy of his voice through the use of second-person point of view. Throughout the entire story, the reader is placed in the position of Yunior. “You write her letters. You drive her to work. You quote Neruda.” (p. 2) But even though second-person point of view is usually used to include readers of all types and all races, in this story, it is clear that the “you” that Díaz uses does not encompass all readers. This is apparent as soon as page two of the story when Yunior (Díaz) writes, “For some Negroes that wouldn’t mean shit. But you ain’t that kind of Negro.” Through this sentence, it is clear that the “you” refers to a person of color. Yunior is openly angry and while most of his ire is directed at the women in his life and his failing body, as he gets more and more depressed, some of it starts to get directed at white people as well. White people scream at him at traffic lights, white kids throw soda cans at him, drunk white guys try to pick fights with him, and even though he’s a tenured professor, he is unable to step
It is said that culture defines beauty of someone of another social class. Every young male must begin his journey with women and dating. Narrator instruct Yunior to mask his social class by hiding the “government cheese” in the refrigerator (Diaz). According to Fraud sexuality is part of a sexual desire an inborn life affirming drive, or Eros (Tyson24). Yunior tries to act
The phrase “bankrupt General Motors,” which we expect to hear uttered on Monday, leaves Americans my age in economic shock. The words are as melodramatic as “Mom’s nude photos.” And, indeed, if we want to understand what doomed the American automobile, we should give up on economics and turn to melodrama.
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz explores the cost cheating had on Yunior’s life. Yunior is a flawed character who serves as the narrator of the story. While he explains how he loses the woman he loves, Magda, he details discrimination in the world he lives in. He also reveals himself to be a misogynist character. The flawed characters of Junot Diaz’s book expose the effect of discrimination and stereotypes that is still socially relevant to modern America.
Love between two genders is one of the most common themes in writing. In literature, love is often praised, appreciated and cherished. Another common theme in writing is the looming specter of inequality between men and women, which has been strongly depicted throughout history and is still worryingly present in the world today. It is extremely interesting to realize that though love is treasured and valued, in most cases, it takes both genders to create love, and those genders are often separated by inequality. Both these themes coincide well together; the clash of love and gender inequality is interestingly captivating. In John Updikes A&P and Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, both stories send a conclusive message to the reader that equality between both sexes in love and attraction is almost impossible; one gender will always be more powerful than the other.
As a child, his father was never quite satisfied with Yunior’s outward appearance, everything from his shoelaces up to his hair was subject to scrutiny, or as Yunior puts it: “even my hair still had enough of the African to condemn me” (Diaz 130). Exhibiting the loving qualities we know he possesses, Yunior’s father eventually forces Yunior shave his head; upon returning home he is greeted with a laughing brother and an astonished mother exclaiming “why did you do that to him” (Diaz 133). At this point in his life, Yunior was beginning to get a sense that he was inadequate, and even after altering his appearance to gain approval and affection from his father, he was subjected to ridicule further fostering his self-doubt. Serving as a catalyst for his budding insecurity, Yunior overheard his father tell his mother “look at your children. Me da verguenza (I am ashamed)” (Diaz 143). Thereafter, Yunior was subjected to daily inspections and physically hidden from his father if any discrepancies were found (Diaz 143). These events would leave their mark on Yunior, who when older would make self-deprecating remarks such as “I wasn't good-looking but I...had muscles in my arms” (Diaz 38). One should note that Yunior does admit to being a “steroid-addicted block”, signifying
In the short story, “Aurora” by Junot Diaz, the narrator, who stays nameless throughout the whole story lets us in on his complicated relationship with Aurora; Aurora is a seventeen year old girl who only six months ago was released from juvenile hall. Diaz does an absorbing job at revealing the real and raw truth of relationships. Through the two characters in the story, Diaz reveals the complex status that a relationship can sometimes have, such as being defined by polar traits, such as, love and hate.
The methods in which men and women communicate are eminently different. This being so, their external state is an indicator of their inner state, but men and women have different external states to express themselves. This is especially evident among children and individuals in relationships, and altered between a couple who tries to adjust their behavior. Deborah Tannen, the author of “Sex, Lies, and Conversation,” argues that boys are girls are taught to have a differ inner state, that males and females usually have the same inner state but express them differently when communicating, and that individuals in romantic relationships can alter the way they present their outer state to represent their inner state in a way their partner can relate to.
In this writing assignment I will be giving a detailed interpretation on Robert Nozick’s writing, “Love’s Bond”. First I will give an explanation on Nozick’s account of the nature of love. Secondly, I will explain why Robert Nozick believes that in love there is no desire to trade up to another partner. Lastly, I will also explain why he says that it is incoherent to ask what the value of love is to an individual person.
This novel does not only makes allusion to poverty but also to race. The lover depicts a love story between a poor, white French girl, and a rich, Chinese man that must battle against the intolerance of society towards different races and economic statuses. The story portrays how strong and fix the racial hierarchy was at that time, as well as, how factors such as race and class prevents lovers to end up
Junot Diaz, the author of “A Cheaters Guide to Love” writes his short story with many different references to anti-feminism. He writes about women in different ways to show them as powerless, and un-superior to the main character in the short story. From this short story, Diaz conveys the main characters ways when he shows the him talking about, the girl he calls to have sex with, the women at the yoga class, and the files read at the end of the story that show the fifty girls he cheated on his fiancé with. Diaz creates his main character and puts him in the second person to relate to the reader, but show his anti-feministic signs.
In the story, Oscar goes through difficult situations to want to interpret the role of the Dominican man. During the story, Oscar seeks a woman who gives him love and makes him feel like a man, but does not have the masculine qualities necessary to achieve his purpose. While his friend Yunior is the opposite, that is, his role in history is a man that women are always behind him by his charms, to the point that he cannot maintain a relationship with a woman because he cannot be faithful.
Every red-blooded American male reaches a zenith in his life when he has finally joined the company of men, and been deemed worthy to receive a lifetime of collected wisdom and tutelage from his elder “packmates”. This knowledge comes in both lewd and often brutally honest sentiments that can induce feelings of excitement and unabashed shame, but regardless of the emotions evoked, it is a necessary rite of passage signifying a young man’s entrance into the world of his peers. This transformation and the hesitance involved is masterfully scripted in Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”. The dialogue
A powerful quote said by pre-socratic philosopher named Democritus says “Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul”. In other words, happiness does not come from materialism but instead from the things money can’t buy. In the article The Secret of Happiness the author David Myers writes directly to Americans about how he believes we need to obtain a new “American Dream” that emphasizes personal happiness instead of materialistic happiness. Myers also believes happiness resides in the soul and he says people that think money is the key to happiness are actually less content with themselves and he uses various ways to prove this point. With that being said materialistic happiness vs personal happiness is an important issue, and Myers made a strong use of Logos by showing surveys and studies, Ethos by showing credibility in his argument but he could have used more Pathos by using more emotion and enthusiasm in his argument.
Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, written by Olivia Judson, mimics a Dear Abby column in a newspaper, in which her audience, ranges from a honeybee to spotted hyena, write-in and ask for help with their sex lives. She covers a slew of different sex topics, some more pleasant than others, such as incest, cannibalism, promiscuousness, and asexual reproduction. The book is truly a witty yet entertaining excursion of the natural history and the evolutionary biology of sex. Judson’s objective is to teach her audience about biology, specifically sexual biology.
Andrew's eyes flicked up, catching sight of her face. He swallowed, forcing his heart to not fully pound straight out of his chest. He shoved his chair back, kicking off with his feet. Standing up his eyes, a bright blue caught between a clear gray based blue and a weirdly vibrant electric blue, found her face. And that wall, that steel strong wall he'd built around his heart and emotion came tumbling down. Crashing in a haze of love, hate and anger. Years of work, undone in seconds just by looking at her.