When we read “Ysrael” and “Fiesta,
1980,” two stories in Drown by Junot
Diaz, I could not help but notice a very interesting parallel between these two
stories and the first two stories in Going
to Meet the Man, “The Rockpile” and “The Outing.” These two pairs of
stories share many striking similarities.
These
stories are both centered on the relationship between two brothers. The stories
from Going to Meet the Man focus on
John and Roy, and those from Drown
are about Yunior and Rafa. In Drown,
the relationship between the brothers is defined by Rafa’s position as the
elder brother. Especially in “Ysrael,” Rafa is the dominant force in the
relationship. He bullies Yunior, although this is often in the context of
“tough love,” and Yunior certainly looks up to him. The relationship between
John and Roy in the first story is not very strongly defined, but in “The
Outing” it becomes much more significant. While Roy is the younger brother,
several factors have made him more accepted in the community and the family
than John. Roy has “seen the light” and become a full member of the church
community, while John is still having his doubts. And within his family, John
struggles to find his father’s approval because he is an illegitimate child
from an earlier relationship of his mother.
Related
to John’s position in the family as an illegitimate child is the figure of the
father in both families described in the two pairs of stories. In both Drown and Going to Meet the Man the fathers are violent and dominate their
respective families. The father from Drown
went to America before the rest of the family, so he is not a present force in
“Ysrael,” but in “Fiesta, 1980” he treats both of his sons roughly, especially
Yunior on grounds of his carsickness.
I didn't even notice this until you pointed it out, Sam! This is a really good post, and you make awesome connections between these stories. I agree that these two sets both work really well as a "pair," immediately following each other in the collection. Additionally, they have similar brother (and power) dynamics that you pointed out. Plus, they are the first stories in each of the collections and serve as an introduction to the book as a whole!
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting to study these four stories together because, as you mentioned, even though, in both sets of stories, we have a younger and older brother dynamic, they are a little different from each other. In Diaz's stories, Rafa, the older brother, is the one that leads Yunior, his younger brother, around. Showing him the ropes of how to be a man. Whereas in Baldwin's stories, even thought Roy is the younger brother, he is much more confident that his older brother, John. The dynamic between brothers is flipped in Baldwin's stories, in respect to Diaz's.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't notice this at all! I think it's especially interesting with the father - younger son dynamic, that you mentioned, with John as the less-liked as illegitimate child, and Yunior as being constantly reminded of his lack(?) of manliness since every time, he gets car sick. Both pairs of brothers have the younger brother as the narrator, and so the parallels between John and Yunior are especially interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between the Rafa-Yunior relationship and the John-Roy relationship is an interesting one to look at, as the boys at times appear in very different lights. For example the two older brothers are Rafa and John, who appear extremely different. Rafa is suave and smooth with the ladies, and he uses this concept of "tough love" that you mentioned to try and help Yunior. John appears on the exact opposite side of the spectrum. He is very passive in his relationship with Roy as can be seen by the scene in which he is unable to prevent Roy from sneaking out to the rockpile.
ReplyDeleteI especially saw connections between the fathers. They are both verbally and physically abusive to their children and/or wives. A difference I noticed is that John seemed to have strong feelings of hatred at some points towards his father, whereas Junior doesn't seem to experience that, probably because he didn't know his father for a lot of his life.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think to connect these sets of stories together. Yunior and Rafa seem to have a worse relationship than John and Roy, or more unhealthy. However, in both cases, they seem to be sort of allies against their father.
ReplyDelete