Diaz recounts a series of events from a period in his childhood during which his newly immigrated family struggled to maneuver through their new life in America in the face of economic and social hardships. Through this essay the reader is able to gain some insight on Diaz’s relationship with his mother, and an overall better understanding of his family dynamic. Diaz’s initial tone is somewhat simple. This piece was published in The New Yorker, a magazine full of articles stocked with SAT words ready to be picked out by someone whom I imagine is a lot like the real life version of Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada; an added to a collection of words archived in a still fairly unexercised portion of their brain to impress people equally as shallow and/or make up for lack of substance. This demographic might not be use to phrases like “skinny ass” but they’d certainly appreciate a good Raskolnikov reference. For this reason I’m not entirely sure who the intended audience is. Still with all Diaz decides to reveal about his early life with his family after moving to a new country there is no doubt “The Money” is a personal essay.

-Amyri Williams