Drown depicts the story of a minority youth hindered by normative ideologies. The story is infused with flashbacks to illustrate a self-discovery milieu. The writing style is vivid and illustrative, while also casual and without pretentious vocabulary and framework.

A story of an angsty youth trying to find an identity; Yunior develops a bitterness toward the world he fills. It is called “Drown”, and though Yunior is literally drowned by Beto, the story is about Yunior drowning himself. Yunior purposefully adheres to the norms of his surroundings, knowing that Beto is different. The second time Beto touches Yunior, Yunior does not object. A sign of being passive toward his heteronormativity. However, with the exception of the flashback riding in the car when Alex yells “Fuck you!” (page1247) and Yunior invalidates Alex’s remark by calling him lazy: Yunior fulfills the normative ideologies imposed by his surroundings.

This isn’t my first time reading Diaz–or even this short story–but this is the first time where I realized what the title of the story was saying. In hindsight, the flashback that held the most insight to the meaning of the story is so painfully obvious, yet I missed it every time I read through “Drown.”

The line: “He was stronger than me and held me down until water flooded my nose and throat,” which describes an interaction between the protagonist and the his best friend, Beto, provides the foundation for the idea that Beto drowned Yunior (both literally and figuratively). Throughout the story we are given scenes that depict the narrator’s reluctance to see Beto during one of Beto’s breaks from college. This comes across as odd seeing as they were best friends. We wonder why? The first question is–why does he not want to see his best friend? The idea that Beto is the person who drowned the narrator is a logical answer to the question, but then the question becomes: How and why?

The line that I referenced earlier provides ample evidence: “He was stronger than me and held me down until water flooded my nose and throat,” is strong imagery of Beto overpowering the narrator. In fact the narrator said himself that “[Beto] hated when [the narrator] knew something he didn’t.” The motivation for Beto’s actions is clear: he enjoyed being superior to Yunior and having that power over someone. Throughout the story, Beto is seen influencing the narrator in shoplifting and defamation of property. While earlier on, the narrator is established as a person with good character (seen in his accompanying his mom to the mall, giving her money, and following her wishes however ridiculous he finds it), the actions he displays when with Beto completely contradicts that. Beto is placed once again as the superior friend. Even in scenes where Beto wasn’t present, the idea of him caused the narrator to act aggressively. While, as aforementioned, the narrator usually acts favorably towards his mother, the thought of Beto caused him to treat her rudely: “[m]y mother sensed that something was wrong and pestered me about it, but I told her to leave me the fuck alone.”

While there are countless other reasons that point to Beto drowning the narrator and how consequently, the narrator was changed after that one summer with Beto–there isn’t enough time to explore all those ideas in this blog post. Hopefully this has however, sparked your interest in that analysis and you see the ways in which Beto drowned Junot as you read through the story.

Hello Professor Benjamin and Classmate,

Just a friendly reminder for my film screening at 7pm at BPAC they’re  38 minutes long Dreaming American, The Park and The Waiter, that are all written and directed by Emmy-winner Lee Percy  staring me.  After the screening there will be a  Q&A with lee Percy and a special guest from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Immigration Equality to talk about undocumented students and LGBTQ youth. There will be media covering the event as well.

Hanan Al-Shaykh portrays the everyday struggles women face in Islamic-Arab countries. In her short story The Women’s Swimming Pool, she vividly describes the grueling anxiety the young narrator faces as she accomplishes the goal of visiting the sea. The story is told from a young girls point of view, as she and her grandmother make the journey to Beirut to visit what she has been dreaming for: the sea. The story implies the clash of strict religious views and secular views, and the obstacles faced for young girls stuck between both worlds.

Throughout the story, it becomes evident that the sole purpose of the grandmother to the young orphaned narrator, is only to demolish her dreams, instill fear,  brainwash her and force her down a road that is obviously not the right one for this young, hopeful girl. The young narrator seems to always be drowning in sweat, anxiety, fear and sadness. Her grandmother is the one to blame for all this because of the constant negativity she inflicts on the girl. This is demonstrated in the sentence “All this trouble is that devil Sumayya’s fault” (1168). The grandmother repeats this over and over again, blaming the young girls friend for putting “modern” and “inappropriate” things in her head. She sees this visit to the women’s swimming pool as something extremely inappropriate, due to her strict religious mentality. From all the fear and angst the grandmother inflicts on her, the young girl starts doubting her dream. As they arrive to cosmopolitan Beirut, the young girl only strengthens her doubt of having come, because they do not fit in at all in the city. “If any man were to see you, you’d be done for, and so would your mother and father and your grandfather, the religious scholar- and id be done for more than anyone because its I who agreed to this and helped you” (1168). With these words the grandmother is not only crushing the young girls dreams, but also brainwashing her with this absurd idea that her going to the swimming pool like other young girls her age, will block her relatives from entering heaven from the improper, and “scandalous” act she’s committing. These type of ideas are the last things the grandmother should be telling the young girl as they are making their way to their destination, the destination the girl yearns for and dreams about back home on those dreadful tobacco fields.

The grandmother represents the grim side of the story, in other words, the strict religious lifestyle. The lifestyle that only refrains the young girl of all the happiness, and carelessness she should be experiencing like other young girls of Beirut. Cosmopolitan Beirut represents the bright and promising side. The side that would never put such ridiculous fears in young girls heads. The side that would encourage you to follow your dreams, even if they’re as small as visiting the sea. Toward the end of the story, it becomes clear to the young girl that the grandmother is only keeping her back in life. “I felt how far removed we were from these passers-by, from this street, this city, this sea. I approached her, and she again put her weight on my hand” (1171). As the call for prayer was heard, the grandmother knelt down on her knees and prayed. People were staring at her, as nobody did this anymore in this modern city. The young girl felt sorry for her. As they finally arrived to the swimming pool, the grandmother ends up blocking her (with her prayer)  and essentially her dream. At that moment, she knew which side she was going to chose and how she was going to live her life.

Nawal El Saadawi’s In Camera illustrates the treatment of women under the judiciary system of an un-named government. She presents the trial of Leila Al-Fargani, a young woman arrested for her negative opinion of the President: “Imagine, ladies and gentlemen. This student, who is not yet twenty years old, refers to Him, whom God protect to lead this noble nation all his life, as ‘stupid’” (1109). Awaiting her hearing, she is imprisoned for several days, beaten, raped by prison guards, and is unknowingly presented to a courtroom. The text is introduced through the perspective of Leila, who is blind sighted either from having been inhumanely beaten or by blindfold; through her minimal view she struggles to apprehend her surroundings. Subtle clues and flash backs help both Leila and the reader understand the events leading to her current state. Upon her hearing, as the Judge speaks for Leila’s crime, many in the audience begin to applaud in support of her claim towards the President.

To be “born a female in a world that wants only males” is the central idea El Saadawi challenges in the text. In this society (presumably an Arabic or Islamic state) women are always placed at a disadvantage. As Leila’s Mother had explained to her “What’s politics got to do with you? You’re not a man. Girls your age think only about marriage…Politics is a dirty game which only ineffectual men play” (1109). Leila had stepped in forbidden territory and was to be punished for this “corruption” she had conveyed. To the men in this society, women are the “weaker” sex and are to be controlled. Women are not to express any notion or opinion to the system of oppression which they live in. Yet, Leila continued to stand true for her belief.  She is the black sheep in the herd; the one which stands from the rest and is followed by the others. El Saadawi’s work of activism encourages women to speak their voice, for they are never alone in this fight of equality. It is a topic that should not remain “in camera” or a “closed session” for that matter.

Nawal El-Saddawi criticized social system in the Arab culture and their history of discrimination against women in her fictional story “In Camera”. Nawal El-Saadawi used a third person view to write this fictional story, also she use an outsider perspective to looked at the problems women were facing in the 1900s, She mainly focused on government oppression, limitations of women and how women were treated unequally in traditional Arab society.

In the story “In Camera” by Nawal El-Saadawi, women often played an insignificant role in traditional Arab society and were treated unequally in the political world because of their biological sex. The quotation, “No animal could sit like the way she could, if it did, what would it do with its four legs?” (1108), highlights just one of the struggles that women are faced with—degradation. Nawal El-Saddawi shows the status of women in her culture by using irony to compare women to animals, perhaps even worse than animal in some cases. In addition, she illustrated the idea that women were not supposed to get involved in the corrupt judicial system, “If she had been a man, he would not be suffering now the way she was” (1113). Leila, the main character of the story was raped by 10 different men and was badly tortured just because she made a political remark about a government official by calling him “stupid.” Even Leila’s parent were brainwashed by the beliefs of their traditional Islamic culture and believed that, “Politics is a dirty game which only ineffectual men play” (1109) women like Leila should not be part of it.

The conversation between the rapist and Leila brought out one of the most important themes of the story. One of her rapists said, “This is the way we torture you women—by depriving you of the most valuable thing you possess” (1113), followed by Leila’s angry response, “You fool! The most valuable thing I possess is not between my legs, you’re all stupid. And the most stupid among you is the one who leads you” (1113). The dialogues between Leila and the rapist showed that the role of women in the Arab culture were insignificant and often undervalued. Women’s ability to contribute in politics has been overseen in the past; morally deformed Men only looked at women as sex objects, in order to violate their “honour and dignity” (1113). The only punishment they possessed was to use sexual violence against them. Yes, they might have physically destroyed Leila’s body, but they will never conquer Leila’s heart and her desire to break the voices masked by fear of the women within the Arab culture.