More handpicked essays just for you.
American literature themes and writers
An essay on contemporary american literature
An essay on contemporary american literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: American literature themes and writers
Prolific Dominican American author Junot Diaz is a recognizable author for many familiar with contemporary American literature. Currently a creative writing professor at MIT, Diaz is renown for his expert use of voice when crafting a story. Taken from his collection of short stories titled This is How You Lose Her, Miss Lora uses solely the second person to tell the story and it is almost intimidating just how well Diaz accomplishes this writing taboo. Diaz won the pulitzer in 2007 for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Diaz’s writings are immensely personal and seem to draw from his experiences as an immigrant youth growing up in Parlin, New Jersey. Shortly after graduating from Rutgers University Diaz created the character
Junot Díaz’s Drown, a collection of short stories, chronicles the events of Yunior and his family. Each story focuses Yunior and his struggle growing up as a Dominican immigrant and finding a place for himself within American society. Throughout the progression of the novel, Yunior realizes the stereotypes placed on him and recognizes that being white is advantageous. Yunior’s experience growing up both in the Dominican Republic and the States has shaped his perspective on life and life choices.
The two hour movie, partially in Spanish, is based off the autobiography of the same title written by Reinaldo Arenas with only a few notable differences. It follows the entire life of Reinaldo from his birth in Cuba to his eventual suicide in New York. Although it is difficult to understand during some scenes, the film does an exemplary job at presenting the issues of literary and homosexual oppression in Cuban through the viewpoint of Reinaldo.
In Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, he tells the story of a Dominican family but mainly about the son, Oscar de Leon. The book opens with the story of Oscar as a child and him having two girlfriends at the same time. The older people in town see him as a ladies man and encourage him. The boy and the two girls all broke up and his life seemed to be on a steady decline since then.
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
Elena Poniatowska escrita durante una epoca de cambio en Mexico. Antes de sus obras las mujeres mexicanas eran sometidos, docil, y pasivo. En la tiempo de sus obras las mujeres estaba tratando salir de los estereotipos de antes. Esta problema social tomo un afecto en Elena. Aunque ella no viene de un movimiento literatura directamente, ella escrita con el concepto de compremetido. En su narrative El Recado ella crea un mujer estereotipical que no puede controlar sus emociones. La titula es eso porque ella viene a ver su amante, pero el no esta, asi ella escribe las cosas que sentia. La perspectiva es de un personaje y ella nunca interacta con otros personajes. En facto la unica descripcion de un personaje otro de la protagonista es de su amante Martin. Habla de otros personajes, pero solamente de sus acciones. Porque ellas es la unica perspectiva que tenemos es sencillo a sentar compasion para una protagonista de quien nombre no aun sabemos. Ella da la descripcion de toda que vea, y mas importante todo que se sienta. Tambien tropos y figuras retoricas dan un tono significante al poema. Estos sentimientos de la portagonista y el tono emocional de la narrativa transporta una tema de una mujer estereotipical y debil quien quiere ser reconocido.
Junot Diaz's short story “Fiesta, 1980” gives an insight into the everyday life of a lower class family, a family with a troubled young boy, Yunior and a strong, abusive father, Papi. The conflict, man vs. man is one of the central themes of this story. This theme is portrayed through the conflicts between Papi and his son. Papi asserts his dominance in what can be considered unfashionable ways. Unconsciously, every action Papi makes yields negative reactions for his family. Yunior simply yearns for a tighter bond with his father, but knows-just like many other members of his family-Papi’s outlandish ways hurts him. As the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the conflicts between Papi and himself-along with conflicts between Yunior and himself-affect not only them as individuals, but their family as a whole.
In the Junot Diaz short story “Fiesta, 1980,” the relationship of the main character Yunior and his father is examined from the son’s point of view. A variety of conflicts and events that are common between a son and his father are discussed, memories and events are revealed in a way that show the son is eager and anxious to have a relationship with his father. Although conflicts are presented that involve both characters, it is mainly Yunior who happens to be experiencing these conflicts. This story goes in-depth to explain how Yunior learns how to cope with all the manifestations experienced throughout these conflicts and how he learns to respond to them. For example, one of these conflicts details how Yunior begins to foster resentment towards his father after he discovers he is cheating on his Mother with a mistress. In another instance Yunior’s father undermines and insults him for throwing up in the car after his father had previously warned him not to. These warnings that he would beat his son before they reached their destination if he vomited, however, simply made Yunior more upset and cause Yunior to vomit more desperately.
Junot Diaz’s “Otravida, Otravez” postulates a perspective of life where one’s present and future always reflects their past in some way. Diaz incorporates symbolic figures to convey how a person’s past can be carried into the future. Diaz’s use of symbolic figures includes the dirty sheets washed by Yasmin, the letters sent by Virta to Ramon, and the young girl who begins working with Yasmin at the hospital. These symbolic figures and situations remind the readers that the past will always play a major role in one’s present. Additionally, Diaz’s word choice, where Spanish words appear in many different parts of the reading, suggests that indirectly, one’s past habits are not easily broken.
Many writers focus their works of written art on life situations. They focus on drugs, poverty, stereotypes, young adults living in a difficult world, and of course a topic that has been present for many years, male domination. Abraham Rodriguez Jr. in “The Boy Without a Flag” captures all these themes and more in his Tales of the South Bronx, that relate to the lives of many Hispanics and minority residents of the United States.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz paints the life and death of its protagonist, Oscar Wao, as narrated by his foil and friend, Yunior. Junot Díaz creates dual character arcs that portrays both Oscar and Yunior’s coming of age stories as they function within one another throughout the novel. These defined maturation moments can be seen throughout the execution of each character’s goals, and the lessons that both Oscar and Yunior teach each other throughout the narrative. Oscar Wao, described as a Dominican boy cast from Dominican hypermasculinity, spends his entire young life chasing after girls, and pursuing futile love affairs. Oscar arguably sees his retribution immediately before his death after he loses his virginity. The
Merrim, Stephanie. Early Modern Writing and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 1999.
Many reviews have been written on Julia Alvarez since she is a Dominican Diaspora, a Jew who lived outside of Israel, who wrote in a Latina perspective in the country of Uni...
Gary Soto is an American poet, memoirist and a novelist. His works focus on daily experiences, and in most cases, they focus on his life. His works mainly focus on the day-to-day challenges and tribulations of the Spanish-speaking Americans. Having grown neighboring Mexicans, he has been able to borrow from the community to build up incredible writings. Determination, resilience, and patients can all be attributed to the success of Gary Soto who conquered all the challenges to rise the ladder of writing. In fact, Soto is considered an important contemporary author in the US.
Junot Diaz’ (2007) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao discusses the life of Oscar Wao, an overweight Dominican comic book loving-nerd spending a majority of his time pursuing the love and attention of the female characters in his life. His pride which was deeply rooted to that of his Machista ideology exhibited all throughout his homeland of the Dominican Republic began to deteriorate in his teenage years as a result of his grotesque and subpar characteristics to that of the ideal male of Dominican society. The novel offers the ability to dissect the differing perspectives of a female feminist and female machista reader living in the Dominican Republic in terms of who the actual novel is centralized around, how certain instances are socially
As she was struggling to find her place in a world that was so different from her own, Julia Alvarez was able to translate her thoughts and feelings into writing. Through writing she could develop a sense of who she was as a person, as she says “Everyone needs a strong sense of self. It is our base of operations for everything that we do in life.” -Julia Alvarez.