In “Nilda” a chapter in Junot Diaz novel This is How You Lose Her, the story is being told by a first person point of view. The story is being told by Yunior however he is telling Nilda’s story. The opening line of the chapter demonstrates this “Nilda was my brother’s girlfriend” (Diaz 144). Diaz has the character tell the story of Nilda through his point of view. Although one could say that it’s an unreliable first person point of view. Yunior does not show any sign of trying to make himself appear better. The opening line can also signify the distance within time. The distance told within the story is, a time distance meaning that the story is expressed in past tense. Another example of time distance is when Nilda speaks to Yunior while
they are doing laundry and she mentions how the time has passed since they had last seen one another. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, Yunior” (Diaz 150). There are additional times throughout the chapter where Yunior referrers to himself as I and reminisces about his brother Rafa relationship with Nilda. Once again this establishes how he is telling of Nilda’s story and his views of it.
In the novel, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, we learn the story of a abused girl trying to survive the world that she was placed in. She never had any friends until she was in the sixth grade, when she met Eric. Eric was also an outcast because of his weight. The other kids call him Moby because he's on the swim team and that's their clever way of saying that he is like a whale. Sarah and Eric have been friends for six years and when she stops talking and is placed in a psych ward, he questions the situation right away. Eric visits her frequently to try and get her to talk. Sarah finds a way to tell Eric part of the reason why she hasn't been talking. She is trying her best to stay away from her abusive father. In this story, Eric is fighting his hardest for someone that doesn't want his help which makes the situation more difficult, but not impossible. As you follow the story of Sarah and her struggles, the theme will scream at you what real friendship is.
It is safe to say that work comes in many different forms. Whether it be a fast food or a corporate, the people that surround an individual make a great impact on the way he or she may work. Singapore, by Mary Oliver, is about a young woman working as a custodian in an airport who although works alone, enjoys her work and the people she meets. Dorianne Laux’s What I Wouldn’t Do, introduces another young woman reviewing the jobs she has had throughout time and reflects on those that she liked and disliked. Hard Work, by Stephen Dunn, exemplifies a young boy working in a soda factory during his summer break. Searching for happiness in life and work is just what these individuals are doing.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is about the cross-cultural ethics in medicine. The book is about a small Hmong child named Lia Lee, who had epilepsy. Epilepsy is called, quag dab peg1 in the Hmong culture that translates to the spirit catches you and you fall down. In the Hmong culture this illness is sign of distinction and divinity, because most Hmong epileptics become shaman, or as the Hmong call them, txiv neeb2. These shamans are special people imbued with healing spirits, and are held to those having high morale character, so to Lia's parents, Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee, the disease was both a gift and a curse. The main question in this case was could Lia have survived if her parent's and the doctors overcame the miscommunication, cultural racism, and the western way of medicine.
The fourth Chapter of Estella Blackburn’s non fiction novel Broken lives “A Fathers Influence”, exposes readers to Eric Edgar Cooke and John Button’s time of adolescence. The chapter juxtaposes the two main characters too provide the reader with character analyses so later they may make judgment on the verdict. The chapter includes accounts of the crimes and punishments that Cooke contended with from 1948 to 1958. Cooke’s psychiatric assessment that he received during one of his first convictions and his life after conviction, marring Sally Lavin. It also exposes John Button’s crime of truancy, and his move from the UK to Australia.
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, is one of the most famous historical fiction books ever written. This 352 paged book has inspired many teens to acknowledge the Genocide of Baltic people. Ruta Sepetys was inspired to write a fiction book instead of a non-fiction book based on the stories she heard from survivors of the genocide during a visit to her relatives in Lithuania. She interviewed dozens of people during her stay. Between Shades of Gray was her first novel that she had written. This book was interpreted well enough by the readers to become a New York Times Bestseller.
This frustration acted as a vehicle for her to gain a desire to be more
As a journalist in 1920 for the New York Herald Tribune, Sophie Treadwell was assigned to go to Mexico to follow the situation after the Mexican Revolution. (Mexican Revolution 1910-1917) She covered many important aspects of the Mexican Revolution during this time, including relations between the U.S. and Mexico. She was even permitted an interview with Pancho Villa in August 1921 at his headquarters. This interview and other events that she experienced in Mexico are presumably what led her to write the play Gringo. In Gringo Treadwell tries to depict the stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes that Mexicans and Americans have about each other. There is a demonstration of how Mexican women are looked at in the Mexican culture and how they see themselves. The play also corresponds to similar events that occurred during the Mexican Revolution.
This novel is a story of a Chicano family. Sofi, her husband Domingo together with their four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico. The story focuses on the struggles of Sofi, the death of her daughters and the problems of their town. Sofi endures all the hardships and problems that come her way. Her marriage is deteriorating; her daughters are dying one by one. But, she endures it all and comes out stronger and more enlightened than ever. Sofi is a woman that never gives up no matter how poorly life treats her. The author- Ana Castillo mixes religion, super natural occurrences, sex, laughter and heartbreak in this novel. The novel is tragic, with no happy ending but at the same time funny and inspiring. It is full of the victory of the human spirit. The names of Sofi’s first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals (Hope, Faith and Charity).
In the poem “My red face hurts” by Duncan Mercredi, the author has conveyed his message through describing the tragic events that are faced by many discriminated races to exemplify that people cannot face human equality because it reveals the horror of the injustices they commit. Mercredi has portrayed his message because he wants to emphasize the racial hatred and inequality various different races are experiencing. To begin with, one of the main subjects that the author has expressed in his emotion-filled poem is racial discrimination, how people torture many races and treat them like animals only because of their color. Mercredi stated “my red face hurts as I watch my brother die before me white bullets riddle my body and I hide my face
Stereotypes. Something that many women are subjected to in society and are forced to accept it like it is something that should happen. “What do women want”(Addonizio) examines the stereotypes most women face when wearing certain clothing, and the objectification of women, that is frowned upon but all women secretly want. It points out the objectification and stereotypes that women are subjected to, challenges them, and connects them to everyday life.
This is How You Lose Her is a book written by Junot Diaz consisting of short stories, told by the protagonist, Yunior. Yunior’s character is described as the Dominican guy who struggles with infidelity and unable to love others full-heartedly. Diaz also shows how in Dominican culture; men carry the reputation of being womanizers and usually is pass from one generation to the next. Throughout the book, he tells us stories pertaining to the relationships he had with the women he had in his life, and his family. From the stories one can assume that Yunior, caught up in a vicious cycle was destined to follow into patriarchy; a father who cheated on his mother, and an oldest brother who followed
After reading the book called “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman it made me think about life a little different. It made me view life as if I were Lia and her family and going through everything they are going through within this book. How they have overcome every obstacle and challenge. No woman in the world should have to go through a phase where they have lost their child. Reading this book also made me realize some the things I don’t want to go through when I have children of my own when I get older. I give all the woman in the world my respect and support because the pan they have to go through when they have a child especially if they don’t have a home of their own.
“Who is more to blame though either should do wrong? She who sins for pay or he who pays to sin?” Throughout “You Foolish Men” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz the central question lies around who is to really blame for the suppression of women. De la Cruz attempts throughout her poem to portray men as ludicrous for their a double standard of women. However, De la Cruz blames human nature more than men for the suppression of women.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
For instance, Nilda, the girlfriend of Rafa (Yunior's brother), would drop at Yunior every Thursday to talk to him about how unhappy she was. Yunior then narrates how he would sometimes grab Nilda and pull her back on the couch as he waits for her to fall in love with him. Apart from Nilda, there is Alma, the first Latina woman Yunior ever dated. In their relationship process, Alma read Yuniors journal and realized that he had an affair with a freshman girl from Guyana. Addressing himself, Yunior wrote a piece of information "You are overwhelmed by a pelagic sadness. Sadness at being caught, at the accurate knowledge that she will never forgive you." (Díaz, 2013). Upon seeing the journal, Yunior smiled trying to convince Alma that it was part of his novel, "This is how you lose her." In the final story, "The Cheaters Guide to Love," chronicles Yunior's exhaustive five-year effort to get over her fiancée who left him after looking at his email trash and found out that he had been sleeping with 50 women over six years and that is how to lose