Influence

In Junot Diaz’s Drown, it’s interesting to contrast the two stories, “Ysrael” and “Fiesta, 1980”, in how the men in this family interact. In “Ysrael”, we are mainly observing Rafa and Yunior and how the two brothers interact. The story begins with the two hanging out with their tios during the summer because their mother works long hours and is unable to care for them while they are out of school. When living in the city with their mother, Yunior notes that Rafa tends to ignore him, acting like he doesn’t exist. “Back home in the Capital, Rafa had his own friends...Back in the Capital he rarely said anything to me except Shut up, pendejo”. While living in the city, all Rafa and Yunior do is fight and then ignore each other, they are both in their own worlds, even though Yunior seems to implicate that he would like to hang out with Rafa back in the Capital, (Santo Domingo), more often. Rafa has his own friends in the city and doesn’t have time to look after his baby brother. But, while in the campo, Yunior states that “it wasn’t like that. In the campo we were friends” (5). Yunior values their times in the campo because, even though Rafa exclaims that he is extremely bored, he and his brother are able to hang out and do stuff together. His brother is able to show him the ropes of how to be a man. Since their father lives in America, Yunior is only able to look up to his older brother for guidance in masculinity, who only hangs out with him when his friends aren’t around and when he has nothing else to do.

So, how does Rafa teach him how to be a man? Well, it’s apparent that Rafa thinks he’s hot shit 24/7 while living in the Dominican Republic. (Most likely in Santo Domingo too). Unlike Yunior, Rafa remembers their father because he was six years old when he left. Because Yunior was only three, he doesn’t have a clear picture of what his father was like. So, to make up for that, Rafa takes Yunior under his wing during the summer in order to fill that influential fatherly figure in his life. When they pull off their bus scam, Rafa see’s Yunior crying and says, “You...are a pussy...What the hell’s the matter with you?...You have to get tougher. Crying all the time. Do you think our papi’s crying? Do you think that’s what he’s been doing for the last six years?” (13-14). Rafa berates Yunior for crying at all. He implies that, when you are a real man, you don’t cry. He even pulls their father into the picture, knowing that Yunior doesn’t have a very clear idea of what their father was actually like, implying that their papi is a real man and he doesn’t cry, so neither should he. Now, assumably, Rafa is unaware of what has really made Yunior cry. And even though being molested on the bus gives Yunior a legitimate to cry, he choose to not tell Rafa. Yunior has learned that being a man means you must take things and not complain. You keep things like these to yourself. If you go and tell other people that makes you less masculine. You must suck it up and deal with it by yourself.

It almost seems as if Rafa repeats the phrase, “You think our papi’s crying?” to himself constantly. I get the feeling that he is not only trying to teach his younger brother how to be a man, but he’s also trying to prove to Yunior that he himself is a real man. This is one of the reasons I believe Rafa wanted to visit Ysrael and see what’s truly under that mask. He not only prompts his younger brother to beat Ysrael up with him, but he also rips off his mask, revealing the disfigured face behind it. See, around the campo, Ysrael is seen as a myth, a legend. To show that he is the top dog, Rafa decides to unmask the legend exposing his insecurities and then leaving him to sulk. By doing this, Rafa is able to hide his own insecurities about living up to the man his father is. He feels the need to prove to the world just how masculine he is so he is not a disgrace to his father’s name.

But, in “Fiesta, 1980”, the family dynamic changes as the father enters the scene. Once the family is all settled in in America, we can see how Rafa sort of steps down from the fatherly position, and the father assumes that role instead. But, even though it is a shift in position, there are a lot of similarities between Rafa and his father, especially in the ways they treat Yunior. In order to try and help with Yunior’s car sickness, his Papi took him on one-on-one car trips. Yunior explains that, “these were the only times me and Papi did anything together. When we were alone he treated me much better, like maybe I was his son or something” (35). Similar to Rafa, Papi will only acknowledge Yunior and be nice to him when other people aren’t around. When they are alone together, the two can do things together, but when they are apart, Yunior is just his disgraceful, vomiting son.

We also can see that the lessons Rafa has been teaching Yunior might be coming in handy when it comes to interacting with his father. Papi threatens Yunior to not eat, and he doesn’t even have to verbally threaten him when it comes to telling people about the affair. Papi has this control over his sons so they know not to speak to anyone about family business. What happens inside the family, stays inside the family. It’s quite interesting how the lessons Rafa taught Yunior in the first story carry over to the second story. Even though Rafa seems less confident in his masculinity, he definitely knows how to get on Papi’s good side because he’s learned the ropes. But, Yunior seems like a different person from his brother and father. Already we can see him having qualms with what his father and brother do, or at least he isn’t as confident as his brother or father. (Rafa was a very confident twelve-year-old, but Yunior is still afraid to talk to girls at the same age). It would be interesting to see how Yunior will grow up and what morals will stick with him and how he will develop differently as an individual.