The Importance Of Familial Influence In Junot Diaz's Drown?

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Familial influence can have a great impact on a protagonists’ life decisions and future, whether it be a lack of paternal guidance or cultural expectations. This can be seen in the life of Yunior, the protagonist in Junot Diaz’s Drown. Yunior immigrated to the USA from the Dominican Republic when he was little shortly after, his dad left the family and went to live with another woman. This lead to Yunior’s mom becoming a single mother and the breadwinner of the house. The focus of this essay will be on the chapter in the book called “Drown”. In the chapter Yunior remembers his adolescence with his friend Beto and their life in their Dominican dominated neighborhood. The chapter showcases the financial struggles of Yunior and his family along …show more content…

The lack of paternal figures along with cultural expectations and stereotypes influenced the life and decisions made by Yunior, the protagonist in Junot Diaz’s Drown.
As mentioned in the book Yunior’s family immigrated from the Dominican Republic, this affected Yunior’s future because of the many cultural expectations along with societal judgement. In the Dominican culture men are expected to be “masculine and the breadwinners” (Kevane 76) for the household but this is not the situation in Yunior’s family. Before abandoning the family, Yunior’s father helps them move to the USA, which forced them to chase after the American Dream. The family immigrated to escape poverty, but they still lived under the poverty line in the USA. But, “government funds to the Dominican” (Tores-Saillant) helped the family be better off, than they were in the Dominican. Despite …show more content…

Without the guidance of a father figure Yunior had to make his own life decisions. In contrast Beto who did have a father figure in his life stayed in school and can also be considered a foil character of Yunior. Both Beto and Yunior had similar lives when they were younger, they are both Dominican living in the same neighborhood with roughly the same income levels. The one difference between the two characters is their family dynamic. As seen at the start of the story Beto “hated everything about the neighborhood” (Diaz 504) which is why he was excited to go to college whereas Yunior believes he “wasn’t like [Beto]” (Diaz 504) and wanted to stay. Beto had a dad who is the breadwinner of his family whereas in Yunior’s family his mother is the breadwinner as their father left them. Diaz may be highlighting the importance of a father figure in this story as the two characters, Yunior and Beto, have vastly different futures. In their adolescence both character lead similar lifestyles of being trouble makers and committing petty crimes, the one difference being that Beto cared about school while Yunior did not. This may be due to Beto’s father suggesting that he should get a good education is he wants to be successful in the future. But Yunior not having a father figure and lacking maternal guidance which will be discussed later in the essay, does not care about his future and education instead he

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