Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” centers on a young boy giving advices about readiness for a date. The boy, Junior, is the only main character of the story. He is trying to win the hearts of the local girls. Social Class and ethnicity are the main factors he considers. Although Junior is very young, has the ability to give advices like an adult. He knows that if he lies, he can get what he wants. The first paragraph opens up with him telling her mother he is sick. Even though her mother knows he is lying, he is stuck with his story until finally she accedes to let him stay at home. Junior is a persistent boy. He is clever. His way of gaining a woman overall, depends on where does she comes …show more content…
from. He is willing to sacrifice his personality, background and ethnicity in order to conquer victory. Junior masks his social class by hiding the “government cheese”: “Clear the government cheese from the refrigerator” (2).Then the girl’s social class will determine how well he has to hide the cheese.
“If the girl’s from Terrace stack the boxes behind the milk. If she’s from the Park or Society Hill hide the cheese in the cabinet above the oven, way up where she’ll never see (2)”. He guides himself basing on motto of one has to act different depending upon the race and social class of the person hi is courting. His abilities to pretend to be someone he is not are advanced. Also, he makes sure that humiliating pictures don’s stand in his way. “Take down any embarrassing photos of your family in the campo… (3)” Junior cares about what those girls think of him. He tries to have everything straight in the house. “Make sure the bathroom is presentable (3)”.H e is all about the image and first impression; even if that means hiding the trash. “Put the basket with all the crapped-on toilet paper under the sink. Spray the bucket with Lysol, then close the cabinet”. He has everything plans out. He pretends knowing their parent’s actions and even the questions they are going to ask. He also determines the girl’s behavior, or at least what the reader should expect of …show more content…
her. Junior enjoys given the impression that he is smart and clever.”The directions were in your best handwriting, so her parents won’t think you are an idiot”.
Junior likes girls but he does not have the courage to talk to the parents on the phone. “Call her house and when her father picks up ask if she’s there. He’ll ask, Who is this? Hang up”. He suggests not to get involve. Everything is about shallowness. Panic is not a problem for Junior. “Look, she’ll say. My mom wants to meet you. She’s got herself all worried about nothing. Don’t panic. Say, Hey, no problem” (8-9). He makes assumptions as if he knows all the men in the world. He assumes he is right and everyone agrees with him. “The white ones are the ones you want the most…” (9). The entire story is constructed by a set of directions supported by objectives truth (If she is this, she will act this way). He acts in certain situations like a coward. He is not always the brave person who has all the answers to all the questions. “Hope that you don’t run into your nemesis…” (11). “Let Him talk. Howie weights about two hundred pounds and could eat you if he wanted” (12). Junior is not always the confident boy we are used to see from the beginning of the story. He confesses he is not good talking to people that he doesn’t know. He also uses acting techniques and knows what to say if a Halfie (one type of girl he talks about) talks about his parents and life. “Put down your hamburger and say, It must have been
hard. At the end of the story, Junior, breaks down and let us explore his true intensions towards the girls. He is not interest in making anything serious. He thinks he has to change himself so that they like him. He then realizes that is not real, is not worth it and then goes back to normal. “Put the government cheese back in its place before your moms kills you” (22). This story is all about racial profiling and materializing women. The narrator talks about them as if they are objects and not persons.
In the essay of Mr.Gary Soto, we learn about his experiences about falling in love with someone of a different race. Ever since he was young, he would be lectured that marrying a Mexican women would be the best option for his life. Gary’s grandmother would always proclaim: “... the virtues of marrying a Mexican girl: first, she could cook,second, she acted like a woman, not a man, in her husband’s home” (pp.219). Being conditioned into the notion that all Mexican woman have been trained to be proper women, Mr. Soto set out on finding his brown eyed girl; however, what love had quite a different plan. This paper will cover three different themes Gary’s essay: The tone, the mindset of the character’s mindsets, and the overall message of the
Junior was very irresponsible and was racing with his friends. This ended up very bad with the Cadillac’s parts all over the place. Lawrence senior got really upset and sent Junior to Stanford University to show him how to grow up and start being responsible with money and life.
If this story was told in a woman’s point of view, the entire story would change since it would be more of the girl’s journey from her home, her thoughts on the boy and the “procedure” she would follow and behavior she would exhibit in front of the boy. He uses casual diction in his story such as: “Wait and after an hour go out to your corner. The neighborhood is full of traffic. Give one of your boys a shout and when he says, Are you still waiting on that bitch? Say, Hell yeah.” He uses this form to express how close he is to his friends as well as the type of language they use with each other. It also depicts that he is from the
In search for his own true identity Junior faces many problems. Junior feels as if he is an outcast on the rez. He has multiple physical impairments, including water on the brain, which causes him to have poor eyesight, seizures, a stutter, and a lisp. Junior also has a intellectual curiosity that is much stronger than most of his classmates or fellow rez members. This makes him an outcast among his own people. When Junior transferred to Reardon he is the only Native American. He is bullied and picked on as he tried to find out where he fit in. While attending Reardan, Junior feels like he has become two separate people. He feels as if he is Junior the indian and Arnold the white boy. Soon Junior realizes that he will never be truly accepted into one tribe or the other. Through this realization Junior is able to understand that he is a part of both tribes not just one. Junior solved his split personality crisis and finds his own unique identity. While in the movie Smoke Signal the topic of identity is not strongly expressed. A way that the characters, Thomas and Victor expressed this is by going out and trying to find their own identities separate from their parents. They set out on their own path and try to find their own identity as an adult. In the novel the topic of identity was more strongly expressed and straightforward that the reader could see and understand it. While, in the movie the audience may struggle to see how it comes into play with the
First, Junior confronts the dreariness of the Wellpinit school system by deciding to transfer to the Reardan school system. Junior initiates this decision when he throws a book across the room upon discovering his mother’s name inscribed inside the cover. His outburst signifies Junior’s recognition of Wellpinit’s misery and desire to achieve. This ambition drives his decisions throughout the novel and defines his unique character. In addition, Junior discloses his decision to his parents with fearlessness and trepidation. Junior confesses, “I want to transfer schools... I want to transfer to Reardan” (Alexie 45). Junior’s bluntness highlights his fearless personality and validates his ability to confront his problems and tasks head-on. In complex situations, Junior possesses the skills to navigate his future. Finally, Junior’s ability to overcome problems appears in his ability to navigate his way to Reardan each day for school. With the uncertainty of gas money in his family, Junior often finds himself walking or hitchhiking to the school, however
Female friendships are thought of as complicated, confusing and stereotyped as maleficent. Roxanne Gay stated in her book Bad feminist that, “all female friendships must be bitchy, toxic, or competitive.” (47) Her point made in the chapter titled; ‘How to Be Friends with Another Woman’ clarifies and lays out the rules and procedures women must undergo and follow to satisfy society’s basic layout of women’s relationships. Her points stated specify the attitudes, behavior, and expectations of one another to balance and create a stable relationship.
In the short story “Brownies” by Z. Z. Packer a young girl that goes by the name of Snot realizes that the world is a harsh place. Not only does Snot have a realization about the world, but she also realizes that everyone around her is contributing to the harshness and meanness and Snot cannot do anything about it. The harshness and meanness in the world that Snot cannot do anything about is racism. All throughout the story, racism is a huge factor, but the main character realizes that racism comes in all different ways including age and color.
One of these moments of loss of hope is when his grandma died by a drunk person on a motorcycle. His grandma has been his one savior in his life. When she died, Junior was really depressed and felt like giving up, but he still persisted because he remembers her final words “forgive him”. Junior’s sister, whom he loved dearly, also died in a house fire while she was passed out drunk. At this point, all hope was lost for Junior. However, he had courage and found a little bit of hope. That hope was Rearden. At Rearden, Junior learned many things. Junior found a new friend, Gordy who teaches him a lot about life, and was very wise. Junior also found love there too. Penelope was his love interest “almost girlfriend”, who really cared about him. Many people at Rearden were supportive of Junior and that inspired him to become the best person he could be. Junior’s coach was especially encouraging to Junior, he even went with Junior to the hospital and stayed up with him all night. An example of Rearden’s support was at two basketball games, one on the rez and one at Reardon. At the rez, all of Junior’s fellow tribe members were booing him, but at Reardon, all of his teammates cheered him up and told him he was going to do great. Junior realizes that he is the only one on his reservation that still has hope, his hope was hope for everyone on his
Junior was born in a desperate, hopeless place. His parents and community were withering in despair. However, Junior did not choose to languish like the rest of his community; he boldly left his comfort zone for a better education—facing obstacles from losing
The short story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, and Halfie” by Junot Diaz is the main character, Yunior’s, guide to dating girls of different races and the ways to act in order to get what you want from them. The only thing Yunior seems to want for these girls is sexual acts. This short story argues that a person’s heritage, economic class, and race affect how a person identifies themselves, and how their identity affects how they act towards other people. The pressures a person may feel from society also has an effect on how a person treats themselves and others. The pressure and expectations from society are also what makes Yunior think he needs to have sex with these girls. There are many different occasions of the main character talking and acting differently to other people within the story, such as: to himself, his friends, and the different girls he tries to date.
As Elie Wiesel once stated, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” (“Elie Wiesel Quote”). Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, which discusses criminal justice and its role in mass incarceration, promotes a similar idea regarding silence when America’s racial caste system needs to be ended; however, Alexander promotes times when silence would actually be better for “the tormented.” The role of silence and lack of silence in the criminal justice system both contribute to wrongly accused individuals and growing populations behind bars.
Richard Wright, author and main character of Black Boy wrote about his ongoing struggle to figure out the unanswerable question of why. His questions of why stemmed mainly around why people had to conform and act a certain way for certain people (more specifically why black people or Negroes had to operate in a certain manner in the presence of whites).
He knows that he never wants to be like his father when he grows up. Alcohol also causes a lot of deaths in Junior’s life. His sister died in a terrible fire because she was too drunk to escape her burning RV. Junior was let out of school early because of his sister’s death. He has to wait for his father to come get him, and he laughs and he cannot stop laughing at the thought of his dad also dying on his way to pick Junior up, “.it’s not too comforting to learn that your sister was TOO FREAKING DRUNK to feel any pain when she BURNED TO DEATH!
This is not my first time meeting Junior; however, I would like to point out that before getting to know Junior, he was initially shy. It wasn’t until I had seen him four or five times that he made the connection that I was both the
He works a great deal of the time, and when he comes home, he likes to eat and go to bed. Connie has a girlfriend who she enjoys going to the mall with. While at the mall, the girls like to meet boys and watch movies. It is a place where the girls can express themselves in a way different from the ways in which they portray themselves at home. The story's climax begins the day after one of Connie's trips to the mall.