I really enjoyed Drown by Junot Diaz. It was a really fast and interesting read. I feel that he gives a personal in-depth view into the lives of some immigrants struggling in the United States. He shows that the "American dream" isn't always as it seems and that sometimes the United States is not so different that where you're original country. Due to a mixture of time and placement with the chapters, the reader feels disoriented with the start of each one. I couldn't always distinguish where each chapter was taking place. I think that Diaz did this to achieve that reader to see the similarities between two completely different countries. Life for Yunior wasn't that much better in the United States and sometimes it was worse. This is one reason I thought of for the disorganization of the chapters. Did anyone else have any other ideas as to why Diaz mixed up the chapters like that?
We talked about this in class today some- about why Diaz chose to end the book with his father's chapter instead of the chapter about Ysrael. Diaz didn't want us to have a positive and happy feeling when we finished reading the novel. I feel that he did this because he wanted to leave us thinking about the book instead of peacefully shutting it and continuing on with our lives. He wanted us to contempate the depth that people have and that you cannot take anything for face value. The American dream is also taken at face value throughout the novel. Many think that it will just come to them when they get here but it is not so easy to achieve as Diaz displays throughout the novel. Yunior and his family struggle during their time here in the United States and he even begins to sell drugs to support himself and his family. Yes, there are other ways to go about it, but his family clearly doesn't have a glamorous life here in the United States, as many seem to believe that they will have. Maybe someone else has some ideas about Diaz's perspective on the American dream as portrayed throughout this novel.
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About Charlotte’s view on mixed placement of chapters, it is not completely clear why Diaz insists on doing so. Though, it does seem that he is creating a “compare and contrast” type of theme when he reflects on the lifestyles in both the countries. Had he, for example, mentioned the Dominican Republic lifestyle in the first half of the book, and then the American life in the second half, it probably would not have created the same effect as he does with mixing up the chapters. Though readers may feel disoriented, it makes the book fast-paced and shows a more in-depth understanding of two completely different cultures, within which similarity still exists (such as poverty). Also, Yunior’s life is still very well connected to Dominican Republic (even if they are only memories), so it makes sense to mix up the chapters, to show both sides of the story, reminding the readers that there is so much more to an individual’s story that just that particular moment or action (or chapter).
ReplyDeleteTo further comment on the inconsistency of time and place in Diaz's work…I felt that the constant transitions and jumping around throughout the story was important because it keep the reader mindful of the link between the Dominican Republic and New Jersey. The characters in the novel are never void of their roots and connections to their country of origin. I feel Diaz made the story time sequence nonlinear so we, as readers, would always remember the DR as we were contemplating their immigrant life in Jersey. By jumping from Junior's life as a child in DR to being a drug dealer in the US, we are forced to compare the different situations and examine what the American dream really meant for him.
ReplyDeleteAlso the constant shift made the reader question who the narrator was. By not having one distinct speaker for this tale of an immigrant family's experience, it is showing that there is not only one way to view this immigrant experience. It also emphasizes that there is not one Dominican immigrant experience. This questionable narrator shows there is no genuinely accurate voice of immigrant experiences.
I think Marissa made a good point about the narrator being unknown. There is a lack of names used in the chapters and the situations the protagonist deals with also vary. I think that Diaz wanted to right a book that told the story of immigrants moving to America, not just a story about one boy's journey. There are parralels between each chapter that link the characters together just as the struggle to achieve the American dream brought so many immigrants together through the years.
ReplyDeleteI thought that the reason the author chose to keep the chapters unorganized was to make it easier for the reader to naturally compare the poor situations they had in America with that of the poor situations they had in the Dominican Republic. When most people come to America they automatically think they will be living the American dream and Diaz wanted to make the point that it's not as simple as just coming to America and life automatically being different from that of any other country.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Jonathon that the appearance of unorganized chapters helps us view the stories in a more general sense although they were personal so that we would understand what all immigrants go through and apply the specific situations to a broader knowledge that we can take with us.
I agree with Alyse about the disorganization of the chapters. This is essential to the reader's connection with the separate environments of The Dominican Republic and New Jersey. It allows for the understanding of similarities and mutual characteristics of the two experiences. This seemingly disjointed structure was central to my understanding of the novel, and really helped to develop the characters in my mind, as well as the two completely distinct, yet mutually intertwined environments.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for your insightful comments about structure; I'm enjoying revisiting them in light of what we've been discussing in "Interpreter of Maladies"!
ReplyDeleteI think the point Diaz was trying to drive home was certainly propelled by his decision to mix the stories up as he did. It serves to remind the reader of the character's origins as well as to confuse the idea of who the narrator actually is, thus creating a blanketing effect to personify the "immigrant" experience. That being said I think one of the most significant points to what Diaz is doing is comparing and contrasting life in the Dominican Republic and life in America. Alyse touched on this in her response above, and I agree with what she said, but to expound on her point I would say not only does it show the reality of the American Dream, it almost creates a sense of the Dominican Republic being almost the more wholesome and enjoyable place by contrast. Throughout the entire narration from America, the narrator is riddle in a world of depravity that pits of poverty provide, whereas in the Dominican Republic, everything seems almost simpler and just enough to get by. For instance he talks about how poor they were but he says they are not the bottom of the food chain, whereas in America, they essentially are. Dont get me wrong the sections on the DR do have their fair share of depravity, such as the sexual experience of Yunior's 12-year-old brother, it just seems, to me anyway, less of a destructive environment. In other words I believe that Diaz is trying to say that immigrants will sacrifice tolerable conditions for intolerable conditions in order that they might possibly catch a glimpse of the American Dream.
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