Junot Díaz

less attraction towards sports and any other activities that a typical boy would do, instead he loved to read books, dictionaries and also horror poetry. Although Oscar and my cousin sounds way alike, they do also have some dissimilarity. For example Diaz states, “Dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him)” (12), which demonstrates that Oscar didn’t get much of attention from any girls that a normal Dominican boy would get…

something that relates to, or encompasses, the entirety of something- for the purposes of this essay, I will be using the latter definition, with the ‘global’ referring to the whole of America and its culture. The texts I will be referring to are Junot Diaz’s This Is How You Lose Her and Lorrie Moore’s The Gate at the Stairs. In This Is How You Lose Her, the relationship between America (the ‘global’) and its cultural influence and the Dominican immigrants and their heritage (the ‘local’) plays…

affects. Although outside forces might attempt to interrupt those cycles, the only one who possesses the power to to change or break the course of their imperfect circle is the individual(s) it belongs to. In the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, many characters are situated in negative cycles yet they consciously continue to contribute to the detrimental rhythm of their life. Oscar, the insecure, nerdy literature and video game loving protagonist, does so on a personal level as…

Falling into Grey In both “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin and “The Red Convertible” by Junot Diaz the authors accurately depict two men who have suffered through many conflicts and painful experiences. The issues both Sonny and Victor face trigger painful thoughts and leave them craving a way to escape; sadly the easiest way to escape is through finding something that will block out the rest of the world by constantly forcing their attention. For Sonny, the easy access and use of drugs was…

According to psychologist Michael G. Thomas, the sexes have much more in common than not. After giving the same psychological test to both males and females, of all ages, Thomas found that the results indicated a bell-shaped curve with 90% of the responses overlapping. This suggest that the differences among males and females only make up 10% of human psychology. Although this concept is highly contradicted with the social standards that come from gender roles, which often reject any similarity…

Simpson’s style of writing and use of Indigenous words are ways in which we see her resist colonialist storytelling conventions. Leanne Simpson deconstructs colonial space by creating a book that is both familiar and accessible to members of and beyond her community. The absence of capital letters and her use of the Nishinaabemowin language, throughout her work, are examples of this resistance to the standard. Ultimately, the use of language is a method to connect with Anishinaabe culture.…

to change the way that the story is told. Telling a story is being capable of drawing the readers in, grabbing their uttermost attention, perplexing them with the complexities of the story and at the end, connecting with the reader. The author, Junot Diaz implements these elements in his engrossing novel The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao (2007). This book is captivating in the way that it integrates crucial elements such as culture, identity, self recognition and how historical pasts…

First College English Class I have always regretted taking any kind of English class. Growing up, English was my hardest class and I seemed to never do well on papers. Writing papers, reading books, and analyzing texts showed no interest to me and I was always satisfied with my first draft. As I signed up for fall classes, English 1000 of course a requirement and had to be taken. I was hoping there would be close to a 100 people in the class so that I wouldn’t have to answer questions and put…

perspectives are my ability level, my gender identity, and class. These elements of my subject position inflected my understanding of “We are All Works in Progress” by Leslie Feinberg and “ How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)” by Junot Díaz because I am able to relate the experiences of both authors to myself in varying, unconventional ways. I do not see myself as disabled. What some consider to be a disability, I see as an annoyance. Yes this annoyance known as…

Junot Diaz said that dismissing any opportunity for a person to be culturally represented turns them into a “monster” (goodreads.com). So, how does that apply to the media, specifically, Hollywood film? Recently there has been a growing outcry over the lack of complex minority experiences in award-winning films. As a result, more Black actors and actresses have been nominated in their respective categories. However, the same cannot be said for South Asians and Hispanics, who struggle to find…