Personal Responsibility in Sun, The Moon, The Stars by Junot Diaz
Studying the Sun, The Moon, The Stars, by Junot Diaz, brought the realistic image of an intimate relationship in a way I never expected. The main character in the story Yunior says in the beginning, “I’m like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good”, starts telling information on how his personality is. Yunior is not a bad guy even though he cheated on his girlfriend; these comments are retrospective because he makes them when the relationship between Magda ended. Diaz theme of personal responsibility and the way it sustains a relationship, which Yunior fails to accept the responsibility for his own actions, attributing his infidelity to “others” rather than to his selfish behavior.
Yunior cheats on Magda with Cassandra while the relationship between him and Magda was distant and they barely got to see each other. Magda finds out that Yunior was cheating on her because her friend Claribel wrote a letter to her , telling her in details what Yunior did. Diaz makes the story realistic by both of them breaking up , but then Magda takes him back. She becomes curios if Yunior felt something for Magda or if she was better than her so she asked him questions. Although when she asked him these types of questions it was in the dark. Yunior says, “usually in the dark , when we couldn’t see each other. Magda Asked me if I’d loved Cassandra….Do you still think about her?....Did you like fucking her?” He would always say “No” to all these type of questions. Later on in the story he says, “The first night we did it- and it was good , too, she wasn’t false advertising,” he lies to her . He couldn’t accept the responsibility of at least telling her the truth but that’s why he tells her this in the dark because he cannot say the truth to her looking at her.
Yunior blames Magda’s friends for influencing her change in attitude towards him. “So of course I blamed all that shit on her girls, who I knew for a fact were still feeding her a bad line about me.” He starts blaming others for what he did , his not her top priority because when he was he messed up on her, so he went from first on her list to the last on her list.
...and stereotypes against him have played role in Yunior’s racial identity and how he views it. Yunior’s experiences have taught him that white and Latino are different and in essence being white is better. Yunior’s journey of maturation has taught him to accept his racial identity as being Latino and his position in life. Yunior has not reached the end of his maturation period, but given the environment and his situation it appears that he is in a stagnant stage of his life. Had he had a more positive upbringing he would be more optimistic about the future, he would be setting goals for himself instead of just being stuck. In his search for a permanent escape of his reality, he learns that being white is the only way to achieve real success and sadly, Yunior believes, that is not in his future.
In “Autonomy and Benevolent Lies” Thomas Hill presents the case of benevolent lies and if they are morally troublesome. Philosophers have been debating the moral difference between a malicious lie, told in order to hurt people, and a benevolent lie. According to Hill benevolent lies are “intended to benefit the person deceived, for no ulterior motives, and they actually succeed in giving comfort without causing main” (Thomas E. Hill). Many argue that benevolent lies are no different from a malicious lie because telling a lie is morally wrong. Others argue benevolent lies and malicious lies differ because of the deliberate intentions. Hill provides the reader with three cases of a benevolent lies. The three cases he presents are the possible suicide of a student which a Professor lies to the student’s mother, the
to disconnect from each other and their cultural values. Yunior, the narrator, explains how he and his family were immigrants from the Dominican Republic. The lived in New Jersey and were invited to a party in the Bronx in New York City. The father creates disconnection in the family because of his strong connection to his cultural values. His culture taught him to be patriarchal, promiscuous, and authoritative. These qualities, in excessive use, destroyed his family furthermore Yuniors childhood.
young lovers, or is this his personal commentary on their union, harking to an inspirational writer
In this paper I am writing about marriage and infidelity in modern life and the books we have read in class. Marriage is a mutual bond in which a man and a woman decide to be with each other until they die. Infidelity is basically when the man or woman in a relationship cheat on the other person, without them knowing.
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
In the short story “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” by Junot Diaz, the author pinpoints on the Yunior’s life as a writer and college professor who is also struggling with his romantic relationships. The short story is filled with his experiences of using women for his beneficial needs and how it negatively affects him. It focuses on Yunior’s downfall through life after the destruction of his relationship with his fiance. The diction includes the narrator’s hateful consideration of women and a paradox of his own endeavors which prevent him from pursuing a meaningful relationship, but he grows to realize that he treats women awfully and his ex did the right thing by leaving him due to his untruthfulness.
“The Storm” by Kate Chopin illustrates an affair between old lovers, Calixta and Alcée. “For my Lover, Returning to His Wife” by Anne Sexton, the narrator describes that the man she is having an affair with will never leave his wife for her. “Adultery” by James Dickey proves that at times an affair is nothing more than just an affair. Throughout all three texts, you begin to read the different attitudes towards sexual and marital fidelity and the different reactions the individuals have to their affairs. Although, infidelity is viewed as a terrible thing, some people have reasons for the actions.
When the narrator says “without Marla, Tyler would have nothing” (5), he explains her primary function in the text. Marla’s attendance of support groups spoils the scheme used by the narrator to “cradle his inner child” and cope with insomnia. She appears as his reflection because she is a liar. Marla’s indifferent behavior, as well as her gender, challenge the narrator because he does not want look weak. He cannot relax when Marla is watching because he is afraid that she will accuse him of being a faker. Marla is the primary reason why narrator’s insomnia transforms into his personality disorder. She is the catalyst for all events in the book.
But once the accusations started, she couldn’t back out for fear that her name would be ruined even more. She was just as scared as the other girls involved, but had to hide it behind the lies and cunning actions because she had no one to turn to in her time of need. She felt power, and like she had a place in life for once, when the other girls followed her and her decisions.
The chapter talks about the different types of relationships you can have and how to keep them healthy. The relationships that the chapter covers are friendship relationships, love relationships, family relationships, workplace relationships, and the dark side of interpersonal relationships. Friendship relationships are relationships with another person that is “interpersonal” (DeVito), “mutually productive and characterized by mutual positive regard” (DeVito). Love relationships are a next level of friendship relationships. Love is known as the most important types of relationship, because it is a natural human desire to be loved. There are six types of love relationships; eros, ludus, storge, pragma, mania, and agape. Family relationships are the relationships between you and the people you are related to by blood and marriage. Family relationships are known as primary relationships, primary relationships are the relationships that are most prominent in your life. Workplace relationships are the relationships that you have in your workplace, with your co-workers and bosses through networking and mentoring. The dark side to interpersonal relationships is that there are negative aspects to having relationships. These aspects are jealousy, bullying and violence among other things. All of these relationships are affected by culture, gender, and
The more you get to know someone, the more you are able to make better decisions and judgments for not just yourself, but for your partner as well. How a couple handles issues while
For instance in the story The Storm illustrated the marriage life of two couples that are passing throughout a difficult phase of their marriage and infidelity is performed by men/women. The women characters represented a devoted wife and mother responsible of her duties. They display the kindness and affection that women should demonstrate to their family. Regarding their values, women can be driven by their emotions and commit infidelity. One of the couples, the wife cheat on her husband, but then she realizes that what she has done is unappropriated. However, she confirms her loved to her husband and she could not image her life without him and want to keep her family united. In society preconception about women cheating on their husband is inconsiderable and unacceptable. On the past is was a sin or even worst the life of women were the punishment of infidelity. On the other hand, the husband cheats on his wife who is in a trip with his sons, after the infidelity he communicates to his wife to stay longer if she wants. His wife Clarisse found appropriate to stay away longer from her husband, because
“We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.” Responsibility is a big part I am at college and have a job here today which a reason for everyone but for me that didn’t sit in till freshman year of high school I was care free until football. What I had to do was to work together on the field also in the classroom or I would let the team down. Our coach always told us there is teamwork, hard work, and respectful will follow us around for the rest of your life that’s what we are going to learn. I would have to say looking back on it I definitely learn those things from what I did make a better person I would have to thank him for that too.
As human beings, the author says we are like other creatures on earth that are governed by laws of gravity, or certain biological laws that govern things on this earth; we have no choice but to obey. There is, though, one law that we can choose to obey or not. It is a law that we call the law of human decent behavior. It doesn't matter what part of the world we live in, Dr. Lewis says, people differ very little when it comes to right and wrong as related to the law of human decent behavior. We do not always take it into consideration when we should be doing it to other people; nonetheless, we recognize indecent behavior when we are expecting it and do not receive it. There are two things, the author points out, that all human beings all over the earth have in common: (1) this idea that they are to behave in a certain way, and they cannot really get rid of it; and (2) they do not in fact behave in that way — they know the law of nature and they break it.