Junot Diaz’s short story collection Drown is packed with many themes worth exploring as well as valuable lessons that occur in the collection itself as a whole, and within each of the short stories. One overarching theme that stood out to me, which was displayed in most of the short stories but was most prominent in the story “Fiesta, 1980”, is the theme of unfaithful matrimony and the effects it has on a child. In “Fiesta, 1980”, Diaz presents the reoccurring conflict between Yunior, the protagonist, and his father’s affair with another Puerto Rican woman, although his father is still married to Yunior’s mother, resulting in unfaithful matrimony. Diaz navigates the story through Yunior’s perspective, expressing the struggles that he faces,…show more content… At the beginning of the story, we learn that Yunior cannot ride in his father’s Volkswagen van without throwing up, although “[he] never had trouble with cars before” and called his father’s van “[his] curse” (27). The first time Yunior threw up, it was a surprise, and his brother, Rafa, “couldn’t believe [he] threw up” because Yunior “was famous for [his] steel-lined stomach” (29). The second time he threw up, during a trip to Mami’s sister’s house. Although no exact reason or answer as to why Yunior throws up in his father’s van is described during the situations where Yunior throws up in his father’s van, Yunior later reveals how “[he] met the Puerto Rican woman right after [his father] had gotten the van” (34). Yunior ends up throwing up again in the van, and illustrates how “The Puerto Rican woman was there and she helped clean [him] up” (36). Following this, Yunior describes the situation that occurred at the Puerto Rican woman’s house, where he evidently felt uncomfortable and uncertain of how to feel about the…show more content… The question I would like to propose is what do you think is the purpose of having these stories told from a masculine perspective, and why? By writing these stories through a masculine perspective, does the author, Diaz, attribute, revoke, or simply give a different insight to typical gender stereotypes and gender stereotypical roles in a given
