Compare And Contrast Essay On Junior Diaz

The Lost Path of an Aspiring Individual
One who seeks “The American Dream” strives to better their ways to accommodate their hope of undergoing Americanization to reach “the American Dream.” During the process of Americanization, one may lose sight of their individuality by family struggles, differential living, and over pleasing.
Junior Diaz and Oscar Wao are described in Junior Diaz’s writing as to have complex family relationships. Junior grew up around a female surrounding which is shown in How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie) when his brother, sister, and mother are going to go visit their tia. From that text, one can infer his father is not present in his life, which causes many problems for Junior. Since Junior

didn’t have any familiarity with a male role model while growing up he lacks many skills when it comes to defending himself or standing up for himself. Junior faces intimidation by male authoritative figures such as the principal, police officer, a guy with a big neck, and the type of guy who looks like he never has to watch his back. Junior also faces intimidation when it comes to Howie the all-around tough guy in the neighborhood who he may run into with his date. This example of the lack of a male role model in How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie) alludes to the authors personal life also lacking a male role model. Oscar also lacks a male role model, he lives with his mother and sister. The lack of a male role model for Oscar is troubling because he gets depressed striking out with girls so he finds leisure sitting on the couch on days end.
Both Junior and Oscar come from ghettos, where living conditions can be rough and difficult, which brings them discontentment of who they are. In Juniors case the “government cheese,” cheese provided by the United States government to poor people, serves as a symbol reflecting his poorness it also alludes to his way of living impacting his self-esteem because he aspires to have a lifestyle that is fully Americanized. Junior would hide the government cheese and pictures from his humble childhood such as the picture of the half-naked children dragging a goat on a rope at the campo and one of himself with an Afro. He also tries to make the bathroom presentable by cleaning up the waste basket even though he may be embarrassed about having to have waste basket there’s not much he can do about it since it is a plumbing issue not a status issue. Oscar is described to be a very nerdy boy who mostly sits on the couch watching Star Wars or superhero movies as his lifestyle. From Oscar’s last name, Wao, one can assume he is from Asian descent. His Asian descent may bother him because it stands in his way from becoming Americanized. Since Oscar lives in a U.S. ghetto he may feel more pressure to be fully emerged in American culture.
Both characters feel the need to over please society as their way of fully fitting in as they deem to.

During the process of trying to win a girl, Junior tries to change his way of being to attract the girl he desires. He thinks out ways to act for different types of girls. When he was writing out directions he tried to use his best handwriting but handwriting does not determine an educational status since most guys have messy handwriting it is not viewed as being poorly educated. He really wants to get with a white girl because that will signify to him that he has reached his aspirations towards “The American Dream.” To culturize into America he thinks about how he should try to do everything like a white boy would such as run his hand through his hair. He would also use his busted-up Spanish to impress the girl and if the girl was Latina he would let her correct him but if she was black he could amaze her since she probably wouldn’t know Spanish. If the girl was a Halfie he would keep her interested with an interesting conversation. The Halfie is like him since they’re both looking for ways to be fully Americanized. As a way not having to worry so much about himself he plans on giving his date some Bermudez to sway her to more easily succumb to his true intentions. Oscar also tries to change his ways from being a geek most girls wouldn’t be interested in to someone they would want to

date.
The characters Junior Diaz and Oscar Wao as Junot Diaz describes in his writing are young boys who strive to fit in. On their path to fitting in they are easily susceptible to conforming to what society views as the perfect American. They lose sight of their individuality by trying to change who they were raised to be and where they were raised all because they want to attain the perfect American lifestyle as their way of reaching “The American Dream.”