How to Date a Brown Girl by Junot Diaz - Essay Example

? An analysis of How to a brown girl, black girl, white girl, or halfie Number Number Teacher’s Due An analysis of How to date a brown girl, black girl, white girl, or halfie An analysis of a form of a work of art can often lead to profoundly critical revelations regarding its thematic concerns. On the other hand, the thematic concerns can also help in the analysis of the formal concerns of the work. The two aspects of art are thus, related. The narratorial voice, the chronological structure of the events in the work of fiction and other aspects of style often influence the outcomes of thematic analyses of a work of art. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the forms of literary works have come under the scanner in a way different from and in a greater intensity than in earlier centuries. It was then that issues came up which made writers feel that existing forms of literature were insufficient for the expression of reality as they felt and experienced it. Junot Diaz’s short story, How to date a brown girl, black girl, white girl, or halfie, possesses a unique form. It is a very short piece of fiction and this brevity aids the concerns of the theme of the story in developing to its fullest extent. The story is told with the narratorial voice addressing the protagonist of the story using the second person pronoun. As a result of this stylistic technique, the writer, Diaz can remain unnamed throughout the story without affecting the readability of the story. This technique enables the protagonist to thus remain as the symbol of the marginalized communities of a particular place. The actions of the protagonist place the stamp of truth on this mode of representation as his desire to have sexual relations with a number of women comes at the cost of the erasure of his racial identity. Racial identity in this case is constituted not merely by the color of the person’s skin or the facial features of that person but the cultural and economic attributes of that person. In this case, the poverty of the youth who is a Dominican is what defines him racially since this is the collective experience of this community. The fact that the protagonist is nameless aids this process. The relentless use of the pronoun ‘you’ produces the effect of the protagonist turning into the representative of the people who remain on the periphery of the society as a result of the poverty that racial difference from the majority or the powerful brings about. The differences in the attitudes of the speaker regarding the different races and women of these races are owing to the prejudices that prevail in society regarding them. The fact that the speaker of the narrative speaks in a manner that makes him look like an experienced person is also owing to the fact that the story keeps the protagonist out of the limelight. The story is thus, not a dialogue. This aspect of the story prevents any other perspective from informing it. At the same time, it also means that the protagonist has no means to refute the claims of the experienced member, who is presumably of his own race. One can make this assumption since the speaker is aware of the minute details of the protagonist’s life and activities. These particulars of the protagonist’s life are evoked through a chronological account of what he has to do in order to enter into sexual relations with as many women as possible. This account makes it clear as to at which points his masculinity is threatened and the reasons for it. A linear account of the visits of women enables the speaker to point out the points at which mistakes may happen on the part of the protagonist. These mistakes would lead to the protagonist having to forego sexual intercourse as he would become less attractive for the visitor. These include the “government cheese” that the protagonist has to hide and also any photos of the protagonist’s family in the campo, especially the one with the halfnaked kids dragging a goat on a rope leash” (Diaz). These are markers of the racial belonging of the protagonist and these are to be erased if the narrator has to be successful sexually. This chronological account thus makes clear how the masculine ideals that are set forth by traditional linear narratives are hollow and racist. The narrative of Diaz’s story, while being an account of what not to do for a Dominican boy, operates through irony and self-reflexivity. This self-reflexivity in the account translates into a scathing critique of the cultural and racial stereotypes that are held by the marginalized communities in the United States of America. The absence of a dialogue in the formal structure of the story thus is indicative also, of the lack of a dialogue between the different racial communities in America and in other communities. Irony works in other ways in the story as well. The ironic treatment of the lack of knowledge that is displayed by the narrator regarding the complexities of other cultures is continually mocked within the narrative. The linearity of the narrative that the speaker aims at is subverted by the constant interruptions that are consciously introduced by the writer of the short story. These speak about the complexities of the existence of the Dominican who cannot afford to view the world in shades of white and black since that would be a world where he would be unable to locate himself. The interruption where the speaker advises the protagonist to imitate the white races is interesting- “Run a hand through your hair like the whiteboys do even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa” (Diaz). The impossibility of becoming white is undercut by the irony in the narrative which questions the very desirability of being so. At the same time, it also reveals how people of other races in America feel a certain amount of pressure to conform to the stereotypes that are set for certain roles by the white races of America. The message of the speaker of the story has to give demands that the story be said in the form of a short story. The speaker conveys through a short passage of advice to the protagonist the racial and cultural stereotypes that prevail in the United States of America. The story reads like a manual of seduction based on the racial stereotypes that are a part of American society. The protagonist has made his peace with this and is content to listen to the words of wisdom that the narrator of the story has to provide. The surety of the date also means that the message has to be short, conveyed before the arrival of the woman. The chronological arrangement of events in the story ensures this and the process is aided by the fact that the events are narrated with a tone that has a note of urgency in it. The form as we have seen in Diaz’s story, How to date a brown girl, black girl, white girl, or halfie, is an aspect of the story that aids in the elucidation of the racial politics that is a part of the reality that Dominican-Americans have to face at an everyday level. The story thus, like much of the fiction that has been produced by Diaz, has autobiographical elements to it. The form of the metanarrative of life thus gets translated into that of the short story, with the same concerns as that of Diaz and his protagonist. Works Cited Diaz, Junot. How to date a brown girl, black girl, white girl, or halfie. Web. Retrived on 24March 2012 from: ap4odyssey.wikispaces.com/file/view/How+to+date+a+brown+girl.pdf Read More