Yunior Analysis

622 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Caribbean society and culture

Yunior is so ashamed of who he is. I assume it’s because he was raised in America and its been instilled in him to think of himself as inferior to the white man. A quote that stood out to me was when he was speaking about white girls, “Tell her you love her hair, that you love her skin… because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own,” I found it so sad that doesn’t accept himself. The poor boy just wants to fit in, he goes through all these hoops to please other people, he’s used to people being scared of him. To add insult to injury, he’s poor, lives in a bad neighborhood, has a single parent, receives government assistance. This seems like more of a how to: pretend to be someone you wish to be. Yunior says, “If she’s a halfie don’t be surprised that her mother is white,” I find this interesting because it applies to him, he prefers white girls over girl that are like him. …show more content…

I know everyone is different and no generalization is absolutely true but it’s been said so much for a reason. One can even here about it in rap songs, like Kanye West’s song “Gold Digger” it says something along the lines of a girl sticking by her boyfriend and when he makes it big, he leaves her for a white girl. The question is why? Why are certain women preferred because of the color of their skin? Maybe they’re seen as trophies, going back to what was said in the beginning with the thought of white people being superior. Yunior never actually speaks his mind or does what he wants to do. It’s like he’s walking on eggshells, every move is calculated, he’s very cautious about what he says or does. It’s hard for him to deal with. Constantly being judged at face value handicaps him. He’s used to being reduced to his skin color or to being “Spanish” and it probably makes him feel

Show More
Related

  • Yunior’s Journey of Maturation in Junot Díaz’s Drown

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Looking for Work, a Reader's Response

    343 Words  | 1 Pages

    He is a colored kid who just wants to be liked by white people. This is shown later on, after dinner, when the siblings talk and the little sister asks, "What is the crap about getting dressed up?

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Violence In Fiesta 1980 By Junot Diaz

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    Yunior struggles with his exposure to male privilege in a Dominican family, as he is very sensitive. Yunior can not fully comprehend why men took actions that women didn’t attempt to do. For example, Papi made all the decisions in the family. “She and tío Miguel got themselves an apartment in the Bronx, off Grand Concourse and everybody decided that we should have a party. Actually, my pops decided...” (306). Papi decided that a party was obligatory to be thrown for their arrival, but not as his expense or home; Tia and Tío hosted it, despite it being Papi’s decision. Male privilege is shown in the way “the women laid out the food and like always nobody but the kids thanked them. It must be some Dominican tradition or something” (312). Instead of having both men and women lay the food, it is only the women’s job. Helping with the preparations is not their responsibility, nor is showing appreciation with a genuine thank you. Junot Diaz gives a personal example on his family in his

    Read More

  • Theme Of The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    Diaz uses the characterization of Yunior to show that he may not he's isolated himself from loyalty and having good relationships with people as well. Yunior is a character portrayed as a true dominican male because he is good with women. In chapter 6 on page 269 Yunior got lola

    Read More

  • "Fiesta" for Whom? by Junot Diaz

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, and Halfie

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the story there is evidence that the main character is ashamed of himself and his background. He hides the government cheese, which tells us that he is in a low economic class. He also takes down embarrassing photographs of his family and himself, which is more indication that he isn’t proud of his family, background, or heritage. Yunior also tells us many things to do in order to be like other people, especially white people. He tells us that you need to run your fingers through your hair and to write directions for parents in your absolute best handwriting (Diaz 236). It is also evident that he is ashamed of his background when he states “You’ll wonder how she feels about Dominicans. Don’t ask.”(Diaz 237). Also, when he is telling the girl stories about the neighborhood, he says not to tell her that his mother knew immediately what t...

    Read More

  • The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although it is ultimately revealed that Oscar and Yunior are close with each other, Yunior’s pure embodiment of the Dominican masculine is the complete antithesis of Oscar’s character, who is the opposite of anything that could describe Yunior. One good analogy to the hyper masculine identity of Yunior is to that of the personality of Trujillo, the repressive dictator of the Dominican Republic who oversaw the Haitian parsley massacre. Trujillo had a strong lust for women and a rather apparent tendency for violence, and as some sources (i.e. Masculinity after Trujillo, by Maja Horn) argue, the modern conception of masculinity in the country came to full bloom after his rein. Interestingly this was the period of time that Beli grew up in, and a substantial part of her childhood experience was suffering at the behest of Trujillo’s suppressive regime, and consequentially this contributed to her hefty and dominant

    Read More

  • Themes In Battle Royal, By Ralph Ellison

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    He uses the values and expectations to try to define himself. All that comes from that was him having to fake it to make it, still not finding out who his is as a person. Later on in the story when the narrator chooses to join the Brotherhood, he doing this is because he thinks that he can fight his way to racial equality by doing this. Once he enters in to this he figures out that they just want to use him because he was black. While at the place where this battle royal was going to take place is where some of the most important men in town are "quite tipsy", belligerent and out of control. When he gets in the ballroom there is a naked girl dancing on the table at the front of the room. He wants her and at the same time wants her to go away, "to caress her and destroy her" is what is states in the story. The black boys who were to take part in the battle were humiliated, some passed out, others pleaded to go home. But the white men paid no attention. The white men end up attacking the girl, who is described as having the same terror and fear in her eyes as the black boys. Over all, the narrator comes to conclusion that the racial prejudice of others influences them to only see him as they want to see him, and this affects his ability to act because

    Read More

  • Culture And Identity In David Henry Hwang's 'Yellow Face'

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hwang’s father has been victims of racism since 1996, we can’t tell by the last name or by the way the look like where they come from. We aren’t allowed to ask at auditions legally, a person’s race. Therefore, the fact that DHH a character in this play mistakes a white man for being part Asian shows us that we can’t necessarily tell where a you really from by looking

    Read More

  • Mixed-Race Identity In Senna's Caucasia

    1632 Words  | 4 Pages

    From an early age, Birdie is immersed in black culture and identifies as black. Various people refer to her as white, or try to invalidate her blackness and, while she does become very insecure at points, she never thinks of herself as white. This can be seen like times when she goes to Nkrumah, Ali throws a spitball at her and says “’what you doin at this school? You white?’” (43), and when a white girl is murdered, after an exchange with her mother reveals “It struck me as odd that my mother hadn’t warned Cole not to go to the park, just me. ‘There are perverts, crazies, dirty old me, and they want little girls like you.’” (67). But in addition to these events, she also recounts many incidents where black individuals, including her father, shame biracial couples or mixed race people. “My father laughed a little and said, nudging Cole, gesturing toward the [interracial] couple: ‘what’s wrong with that picture?’ ... She didn’t seem to remember the right answer – or perhaps she didn’t care – but I did and, throwing my hand in the air like Arnold Horshack, piped in from the backseat, ‘diluting the race!’” (73). Her father, her strongest connection to blackness, accepts her as a black person but rejects her in many ways as a mixed person, which is harmful as she comes to terms with a mixed

    Read More

  • Role Of Power In Cultural Discrimination In Leigh Anne's 'White Guilt'

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning, people are hesitant to get to know him because of his assumed character traits and background. This is evident in a myriad of scenes, such as when the little girls on the playground run away from him when he first arrives at Wingate Christian School. The teachers at the school presumptuously assume him to be too stupid to pass before he begins working with his tutor. There is a general consensus amongst the affluent characters that a black man cannot find the success that the whites have in the film, to which he happily proves them wrong in the end.

    Read More

  • African American Film Stereotypes Essay

    1946 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nationalities in society today have a stereotype that they are unfortunately characterized by. People assume that Asians are smart and good at martial arts, that the Irish swear too much and consume too much alcohol, that Americans are obese and lazy, and that African Americans are criminals into drugs and are in prison. These stereotypes make everyone of one nationality to be the same as individuals. There are, of course, people who fit the stereotype, which is how the stereotype came to be, but there is a large number of people who defy the stereotype of their race. The film industry helps to reiterate the stereotypes of certain races by matching the race of the actor with the character in the film for a certain effect. African Americans, specifically, in modern day films have been frequently seen to both

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Merle Woo's 'Letter To Ma'

    750 Words  | 2 Pages

    In her letter, Woo references the time she saw her father humiliated by two white cops. At the time of writing the letter she feels anger towards the racist police officers, but at the time of the event she was a victim of learned behavior and also becomes a part of her father’s abuse. Learning to be ashamed of your father when he is not able to fit the “masculine” schema you have made for him is a socially taught and reinforced belief, which in this case manifests as a behavior when Woo says “I was so ashamed after that experience when I was only six years old that I never held his hand again” (Woo, 164). In this flashback to her childhood Woo and her father are not the only ones expressing learned behaviors. The two white cops who mock the Asian immigrant do so because in some way, whether from prompting by society, teachings from their upbringing, or any other way, these officers were taught to be racist. Her father’s learned helplessness is what gave him a chance to survive in America, the cop’s learned racism helped them get ahead in a society that values “whiteness”. Just like with racism the ignorance of sexism is also taught and is not coded into our genes. Woo is disheartened that some of her Asian brother’s do not support her fight for the Third World women and against sexism. She points out that they are trading vices when “these men of color, with clear vision, fight the racism in white society, but have bought the white male definition of ‘masculinity’” (Woo,

    Read More

  • Ideology Of Colorblindness

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    Statements like ‘I don’t see color’ and ‘I accept you despite your race’ conveys a major implication. These statements imply that color is a problem. I believe there is no problem with color, but there is people who have a problem with color. Walker’s encounter with a WASP-looking Jewish student that invalidates her racial identity by asking if she is “really black and Jewish” (25) and “how can that be possible” (25) makes her question if her biracial identity is a problem and if “[she] is possible” (25). Ralina Joseph, author of "Performing the Twenty-first Century Tragic Mulatto: Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self" believes the conflict that arises from the farce of “colorblindness is the reality of tragic, mixed-race blackness.”(Joesph). According to Joesph, Walker’s invocation of Movement Child, and the tragic mulatto becomes the means through which she “demonstrates the impossibility of the racial ideology of colorblindness” (Joseph). I agree with this. Walker’s biracial experiences prove that society has yet to move past race. I can only imagine Walker walking into different classrooms and everyone looking at her trying to analyze what other race she is mixed with; this other race not being the norm, which leads to the social exclusion Walker faces.

    Read More

  • Understanding My Social Location and Experiences

    1769 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ding white, male superiority. Back in high school, I dated a non-Asian male from my class who often talked about how Asian women are “hot and sexy” yet “more faithful to men and less aggressive than White women.” At the time, I thought this was a compliment and I often tried to conform to this stereotype in order to satisfy my partner. Images of Asian-American women as both innocent and dangerous have legitimized any racist and sexist policies directed at Asians and women.

    Read More

More about Yunior Analysis

Open Document