I saw Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” as a story largely about confidence issues. Yunior’s dating guide for teenage boys attempts to come across as self-assured and suave, but beneath the surface, Yunior is really a self-conscious young boy.
The mere fact that Yunior has to create directions for dating demonstrates his lack of confidence. Dating, making moves, talking to girls, and talking to their parents all seem like skills that would come naturally to men like Papi and Rafa. Yunior, however, has to make a concentrated, focused effort to come across as cool. His dating guide is technical, nerdy, and forced, and is definitely not something that a confident, self-assured man would create.
Although the story itself is only a mere six pages, readers are exposed to various aspects of Yunior’s self-consciousness. Before the date begins, Yunior scours the house, cleaning and hiding things. He moves the “government cheese” out of sight and takes down embarrassing childhood photos of himself (143). Yunior makes a very concentrated effort to present himself in a cool, confident way. Similarly, when he greets the girl’s mother, he says “run a hand through your hair like the whiteboys do even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa” (145). Here, Yunior is trying to be someone he’s not in order to appear more cool. Then, at dinner, Yunior says he is “not good at talking to people [he] doesn’t know,” indicating that he is shy and self-conscious (146). Finally, when Yunior brings the girl back to his house, he advises, “tell her that you love her hair, that you love her skin, her lips, because, in truth, you love them more than you love your own” (147). Yunior doesn’t love himself and his own features, and he loves a girl that he’s just met more than he loves himself. Although Yunior tries to come across as a cocky, confident, experienced advisor, he is truly a shy, nerdy, self-conscious teenage boy.
I recently finished writing a blog post about a similar topic to Yunior's confidence in this story, and I think the introduction of the second person narrative style works well with this one. In conjunction with Yunior's lack of confidence and insecurities throughout the story, the second person style almost appears as Yunior giving directions to himself saying what to do in each scenario on a date. Considering how obsessive Yunior is about knowing what to do depending on the type of girl, I wouldn't put it past him to not only be talking to the reader using the imperative, but also reassuring himself.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Mehul! I didn't even think of that. The style definitely makes it seem like he's trying to coach and reassure himself.
DeleteI really liked this story because I thought parts of it were extremely relatable to teenage boys of all races and socioeconomic situations. I particularly really liked the passage about how he hides embarrassing childhood pictures, probably because my house is full to the brim of those. This story was one of my favorite stories in the book and certainly my favorite story about Yunior.
ReplyDeleteI think he learned a lot of techniques from Rafael, and these techniques don't work out very well for him because he is not that person. He is uncomfortable (unlike Rafael). So he ends up appearing (slightly) awkward. But he's also just a nervous adolescent, which is probably the biggest reason for his behavior.
ReplyDeleteI have seen other blog posts about this story, and I agree that the hidden part of this story is Yunior's lack of confidence. When you look at the title, you expect a how to story written by an expert, but instead you get an internal pep talk from an insecure teen. This story was critical in my opinion to exposing us to more of Yunior's personality. We get to see what is he like when he is interacting with others on his own. This was different from other stories where he follows his brother around, and what we learned from his interactions is that he is not nearly as confident as his brother.
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