The text by Nathaniel Van Yperen, “I am Your Father: the Villain and the Future Self” talks at length about perceiving the villain of a story as a version of one’s “future self”, as in Star Wars between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Van Yperen describes Darth Vader as a villain because Luke can see himself someday turning out like his father. The concept of the “future self” can also be applied to Junot Diaz’s work, “Fiesta, 1980.” Nathaniel Van Yperen defines a villain as someone that a hero could eventually become—if they make bad decisions. It becomes clear that villains are usually regular human beings who just made some bad decisions along the road. Truthfully, anyone has the potential to become a villain if they make evil decisions,
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With this concept in mind, readers can start to empathize with Yunior’s fear of his father. As horrible as his home life was, the routine beatings and constant yelling could not last forever. The pain, of course, would come and would be horrific, but it would be over relatively quickly. However, to grow up and someday be the same type of awful human being that Papi was would be an even worse fate. As Yunior recounts the story of this party with his family, the reader definitely cringes at least once at Papi’s character. The adults are having a seemingly casual conversation about pop culture when someone mentions Maria Montez. Instantly Papi gets worked up, over a movie star. The idea that Yunior could also be so easily angered someday in the future, the idea that there could someday be more people in the world like Papi, is truly frightening. One Papi is enough. Papi is the true villain of Diaz’s story because we could all someday make decisions like him. Luke resists becoming like his father when he refuses to join the Dark Side just as Yunior must resist becoming like his father. Yunior must avoid losing his temper, sneaking around behind his spouse’s back, and treating his children horribly in order to avoid becoming just like his
With this concept in mind, readers can start to empathize with Yunior’s fear of his father. As horrible as his home life was, the routine beatings and constant yelling could not last forever. The pain, of course, would come and would be horrific, but it would be over relatively quickly. However, to grow up and someday be the same type of awful human being that Papi was would be an even worse fate. As Yunior recounts the story of this party with his family, the reader definitely cringes at least once at Papi’s character. The adults are having a seemingly casual conversation about pop culture when someone mentions Maria Montez. Instantly Papi gets worked up, over a movie star. The idea that Yunior could also be so easily angered someday in the future, the idea that there could someday be more people in the world like Papi, is truly frightening. One Papi is enough. Papi is the true villain of Diaz’s story because we could all someday make decisions like him. Luke resists becoming like his father when he refuses to join the Dark Side just as Yunior must resist becoming like his father. Yunior must avoid losing his temper, sneaking around behind his spouse’s back, and treating his children horribly in order to avoid becoming just like his