Drown By Junot Diaz
DROWN
BY JUNOT DIAZ
Pat Murphy & Iris Foley
Junot Diaz
• Born in the Dominican Republic – December 31 1968
• Like many of his characters, had a strained relationship
•
•
•
•
•
•
with his father
Books include
Drown
This is How You Lose Her
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – won a
Pulitzer Prize
Was awarded a Macarthur Fellowship
Teaches creative writing at MIT
Ysreal
Characters
• Yunior – Diaz has stated he modeled him after himself.
Main character/narrator, 9 years old. Lives in the
Dominican Republic.
• Rafa – Yunior’s older brother, 12 years old, player constantly going after girls
• Ysreal – A kid living in his uncle’s town who was attacked and disfigured by a pig when he was a child, wears a mask to hide his face. Rafa wants to unmask him and see his face, drags Yunior along to do it.
Summary
• Rafa and Yunior are sent to live with their uncle like they
are every summer. Rafa decides that he wants to see
Ysreal unmasked and the brothers go on a trip to find him.
They find him at a farm and talk to him for a while after walking to a store to get drinks. Rafa smashes his bottle over Ysreal’s head and takes his mask off to show his face. • Throughout the story there are flashbacks to other times when Yunior saw Ysreal, both times kids chased him and once Yunior hit him with a rock.
Discussion
• Do you think that with his past of having a mostly fatherless childhood,
was Diaz using this story and characters to show the importance of a father figure? Also based off what we learned in class and personal experiences, how important do you think a father figure is?
• As touched on in Victor Vargas, if the father is absent do older brothers take over the role of the father? Then who becomes the father figure for the older brother? Will they just model themselves after the men around them?
• Rafa was constantly making fun of Yunior and calling him a “pussy” if he was scared of doing something he knew he shouldn’t. Do you think
Yunior only acted out to
BY JUNOT DIAZ
Pat Murphy & Iris Foley
Junot Diaz
• Born in the Dominican Republic – December 31 1968
• Like many of his characters, had a strained relationship
•
•
•
•
•
•
with his father
Books include
Drown
This is How You Lose Her
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – won a
Pulitzer Prize
Was awarded a Macarthur Fellowship
Teaches creative writing at MIT
Ysreal
Characters
• Yunior – Diaz has stated he modeled him after himself.
Main character/narrator, 9 years old. Lives in the
Dominican Republic.
• Rafa – Yunior’s older brother, 12 years old, player constantly going after girls
• Ysreal – A kid living in his uncle’s town who was attacked and disfigured by a pig when he was a child, wears a mask to hide his face. Rafa wants to unmask him and see his face, drags Yunior along to do it.
Summary
• Rafa and Yunior are sent to live with their uncle like they
are every summer. Rafa decides that he wants to see
Ysreal unmasked and the brothers go on a trip to find him.
They find him at a farm and talk to him for a while after walking to a store to get drinks. Rafa smashes his bottle over Ysreal’s head and takes his mask off to show his face. • Throughout the story there are flashbacks to other times when Yunior saw Ysreal, both times kids chased him and once Yunior hit him with a rock.
Discussion
• Do you think that with his past of having a mostly fatherless childhood,
was Diaz using this story and characters to show the importance of a father figure? Also based off what we learned in class and personal experiences, how important do you think a father figure is?
• As touched on in Victor Vargas, if the father is absent do older brothers take over the role of the father? Then who becomes the father figure for the older brother? Will they just model themselves after the men around them?
• Rafa was constantly making fun of Yunior and calling him a “pussy” if he was scared of doing something he knew he shouldn’t. Do you think
Yunior only acted out to