Junot Diaz Drown Analysis

Many fathers of immigrating families try to achieve the "American Dream" to provide their families went through hard labor, poverty, and trying to obtain citizenship in the United States. Junot Diaz, who is a modern writer, novelist, and a creative writing professor at Massachusetts institute of Technology wrote his first bestselling novel Drown and is best known for this novel. In Drown, Ramón is a vivid example of a Father trying to achieve the "American Dream" to bring his family from the Dominican Republic to the United States, while dealing with many obstacles that are commonly faced by immigrants.
All while Ramón's family is left without a father in the Dominican Republic.
The novel Drown by Junot Diaz emphasizes the harsh reality …show more content…
And Ramón finally brings the family to New Jersey from the Dominican Republic after five years. In the beginning of the novel, Ramón is an abusive person, and also selfish. For example, in the chapter "Fiesta, 1980," Ramón starts to get abusive with Yunior because he ate his mothers food and Ramón fears Yunior will throw up in Ramón's brand new Volkswagen van. Afterwards Ramón starts to abuse Yunior, "Papi pulled me to my feet by my ear" (26). This evidence shows that Ramón cares more about his Volkswagens cleanliness rather than Yunior, as Ramón is willing to physically abuse Yunior in consequence of eating before a trip in Ramón's van. By abusing Yunior at a young age, it can damage Ramón's status as his ideal role model, because abusing a child at a young age can be traumatizing to Yunior and can cause resentment towards Ramón when Yunior grows older. Furthermore, after Yunior was punished for throwing up in Ramón's van, Yunior remembered he wrote an essay in school called "My Father the Torturer" (30). This is the result of Ramón mistreating Yunior causing him to be resentful to his own Father and ultimately Ramón is not meeting any fatherly expectations for Yunior. In the same chapter When Yunior met a Puerto Rican woman he said "The two of them went upstairs and I was too scared of what was happening to poke around” (36). This presents the dishonest side of Ramón because not only is he a bad father figure he is not an honest husband because he has been sleeping with a Puerto Rican girl in a hotel while Yunior was downstairs. In the end of this chapter, Ramón fails to meet many expectations as he is not a good father figure nor an honest husband. Ramón has not provided for the family at all, and instead he abuses Yunior, and cheats on his