Analysis Of Why Junot Diaz's Why Yunior Keeps Losing Her

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Why Yunior Keeps Losing Her Junot Diaz’s This is How You Lose Her follows the story of, as Magda says, a “typical Dominican man: a sucio, an asshole” named Yunior, and how he struggles and grows throughout his life with the concept of love, trust and monogamy. A lot of this stems from his issue of hyper-masculinity often portrayed in Dominican culture, however, Yunior grew up in America and was influenced by the people around him more so than traditional Dominican culture does. These examples are seen in a few different stories, specifically from the influence of his mostly absent father, late brother Rafa, and lastly his well-intentioned friend Elvis . This topic of masculinity is more complex than it originally seems, and Yunior himself …show more content…
“What did I tell you? How many times have I told you to stay quiet? He was free with his smacks and we spent whole afternoons on Punishment Row…” (134). In this scene, Yunior is learning how to be a father from his dad, and the example is set that brute force and aggression are basic parts of how a Dominican man acts, and where his masculinity stems from. Yunior does not have a father figure other than his own actual dad, and the illustration of masculinity here is one that Yunior does not seem to accept, but its evident that some of what his father shows him seeps into his mind …show more content…
Despite being a friend and not a paternal figure or role model, it says “Elvis keeps a strong eye on you – he’s over all the time, stands by the window as if he knows what you’re thinking” (184) and this figure in Elvis’s life is a huge contrast to Rafa and his father. Rafa is a well put together veteran, who served in Baghdad. Elvis has a family, a daughter that he loves. Elvis helps show Yunior a gentler side of masculinity, and inspires Yunior to be a better man. In “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” we see Yunior show a more humane side of himself. Yunior begins to clean his act up, “you cut it out with all the old sucias” and while its only a temporary fix, it is still a drastic change from the Yunior we see in the rest of the stories (136). He is more respectful and caring with his friends, family, and life. Regrettably, later in this particular short story Elvis begins to slip up himself, and begins to be more vulgar in his description of women. Being the, arguably, only positive role model in Yunior’s life, we see Yunior slip at this point in time too. Yunior was originally rejecting the original notion of “masculinity” as a, over-competitive, testosterone filled, selfish man and was making positive strides in both his health and his relationships, but crumbles similarly along with Elvis. They both become the stereotypical “sucio, asshole” Dominican man that Magda says they all are, but we realize in this

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