Analysis Of Junot Diaz's Against The Mainstream Narrative

Lastly, Junot Diaz presents a counter narrative against the mainstream narrative that women are far more emotional than men and subsequently more prone to being negatively affected by change and new prospects than males. Diaz does this by presenting the character of Lola, Beli’s daughter and Oscar’s sister. Lola was forced to move to the Dominican Republic with her grandmother, La Inca, for a short amount of time as a form of punishment after she ran away from home. Lola described the way in which she had to learn to adapt to living in the Dominican Republic. She describes “I’m into my sixth month here and these days I’m just trying to be philosophical about the whole thing. I wasn’t like that at first, but in the end I had to let it go” (Diaz 70). …show more content…
This is an example of Lola employing navigational capital as she must navigate through the estrangement towards her mother as it is what caused this punishment in the first place as well as the different forms of oppression (such as colorism) as well as the poverty of the country. Furthermore, it also presents a counter narrative against the sexist narrative that women are more susceptible to be affected negatively by change as Lola is able to adapt to change in a rather painless manner. This is seen later on in Lola’s life when she meets one of her ex-boyfriends in the bus and begins to discuss her plans for the future. Her ex-boyfriend describes her response when he asked what her plans were by stating “I’m teaching English in Japan next year, she [Lola] said matter of factly. It’s going to be amazing” (Diaz 197). In this instance, Yunior expresses the way in which Lola is planning to have an experience in which she will likely face culture shock but will, ultimately,