Tag Archives: lonely

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Please excuse all inappropriate/if im not politically correct

The story “Drown” by Junot Diaz is about Dominican Republic high school boy that lives in a poor neighborhood in New Jersey. At the beginning of the story the reader is introduced to another character named “Beto”. This Beto seems to have different rolls in the story. He is first introduced when the narrator indicates “he’s a pato (homosexual) now but two years ago we were friends” (page 1241). The term “pato” seems to have here a negative association. The reader can infer that the reason they are not friends anymore is because Beto is now gay. That same sentence continues that Beto had “a voice that crackled and made you think of uncles or grandfather.” This indicates to the reader that Beto was some kind of friend that the narrator looked up too or was an adult roll model to him. The two use to hangout day and night; “we stole, broke windows… pissed on people’s steps and then challenged them to come out and stop us” (page 1242) at this point they just seem to be good friends that did everything together and were just rebellious boys in a poor neighborhood. The narrator goes on telling the reader some more about his own personal life, which through out Beto is embedded in his stories. Much of the time he seems to write about Beto as though he misses what they had together. Right before the end of the story the reader is exposed to a sexual relationship they had. After that he writes; “my mother sensed that something was wrong” (page 1247) everything changes and their friendship starts to break. Though he still hung out with Beto a little, it is clear their friendship has changed. “Mostly I would stay in the basement, terrified that I would end up abnormal, a fucking pato, but he was my best friend and back then that mattered to me more than anything” (page 1248). The narrator is torn between being stigmatized in his community and being with his best friend he looked up too. Even though the sexual act happened only twice its still happened. It happened in a community where being gay is only to be a curse you shout out at the cops or in fact just to anyone you hate. Right before Beto leaves to college, Beto gives him a book and says “you cant be anywhere forever” (page 1249). This sentence he thinks to himself while watching his mother sleep and dream about his father who left her to another women. He thinks about his mother who has been always waiting for his father to come back even though he does not deserve her. “You cant be anywhere forever” he thinks. You cant always stuck behind in a reality that does not exist anymore. His mother must move on and forget his father, and he must confront his feeling to Beto and realize he has the right to be with him even though he will be called a “pato” in his community. He must stick to his own truth even if in his community being gay is frowned upon.

Bartleby the Scrivener : A Story of Wall Street

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While reading what can be called a “biography” of Bartleby, I found that Bartleby had a very strange, yet captivating personality. I felt that his emotionless characterization was somewhat a way of shielding his true inner emotions: a sad and depressed human. However, as readers, we don’t realize this until the end of the story. In the beginning, he seems obedient and hard-working. The lawyer applauds his diligence, as he completed “an extraordinary quantity of writing,” but realizes that “he wrote silently, palely, and mechanically” (301). The lawyer’s description is an accurate indication of Bartleby’s work-ethic, along with his true personality. But as time goes on, he becomes more stubborn and responds with “I would prefer not to” to all the tasks that the lawyer asks him to perform. His responses represents his carelessness and disregard of what other people think of him, even when it is towards his own powerful boss, who works on one of the most powerful financial capital, Wall Street. However, the lawyer does not become angry nor agitated, but a sense of curiosity fills his mind. I found this rather interesting since the lawyer is paying Bartleby to work for him, yet he doesn’t lose his temper when Bartleby basically rejects all his requests. Nowadays, someone who disobeys or doesn’t do as they are told, would get fired. Later on in the story, the lawyer discovers that Bartleby lives in the office, which he finds astonishing. I feel that this was one of the big indications that Bartleby was, indeed, depressed and lonely. He probably didn’t have a family, nor anyone to talk to; that is enough to make someone upset and somewhat anti-social.  Once, Bartleby is forced to leave the office, even after the new lawyer has taken over the space, he refuses; further illustrating his stubborn personality. He is then thrown in jail, where we learn that Bartleby previously worked at a Dead Letter office. This aspect of Bartleby’s sad life is an indication of why he is the way he is. Anyone would progressively become dispirited and glum after reading over the deaths of a countless number of people. It could be said that the cause of Bartleby’s internal death, rather than his physical death, was ultimately from sadness, not from being in the jail. But why are the last lines of the story, “Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!” (321)? Perhaps, the lawyer feels as if humanity was the cause of his death. In other words, the death of Bartleby was caused by the harsh reality involved with life and that is death.