— Anonymous
I consider the short story “Miss Lora” written by Junot Diaz to be a great work. I would consider it to be a great work because of the way the story is told. I thoroughly enjoy reading works written by Junot Diaz, the way he writes, and the content in it makes his works that much more enjoyable. This work is a great work because with Junot Diaz, he seems to be following a storyline throughout his works, in this particular short story he uses the same main character name, Yunior. Because he keeps the main character throughout his works, it makes us try to make connections with his others works, that we might have read. I think that is what makes a text to be a great work, when I’m reading this story, I’m also relating it to the book he also wrote, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”. Because I could relate it to the other work he has written and enjoy his writing I hold this short story to hold more value than other works I’ve read this semester. This story is also relevant to our society today, because this story contains concepts that are a big deal in our society today. This story revolves around the issue of underage relationships, having sexual intercourse with a minor, which under the law, is illegal. So, with this work, it sheds light to the illegal issues presented, and how people in the relationships typically aren’t able to see the issue of underage relationships. This text also challenges you to think in the perspective of the character, because of the way Junot Diaz presented the main character. I felt that with other texts I would automatically side with the issue presented and the moral aspect of it, however, while reading this text I felt bad for Junior rather automatically jumping to the illegal aspect of the issues presented. Reading this changed the way I view this issue, because it gave insight on how the people in this ‘relationship’ felt, and their thought process. It also does relate to the saying, “love is blind” which I feel that myself and other could relate to. This is prevalent to the way people view their love today, sometimes we do not see the flaws when we think we’re happy, something Yunior experiences with his ‘relationship’ and Miss Lora. This story is a great work because of the way it causes readers to think of issues in a different perspective. But also, I think that besides challenging the way we think, this work also incorporates using different languages to tell the story. In this text, there are some part in which Junot Diaz writes in Spanish, and I think it adds to the story, because he puts his culture and background into his writing, giving his writing a little more flare/character. Overall, this short story is a great work because of the many aspects in which it makes you think about the writing even moments after reading the story and compels readers to re-read the story because of all of its characteristics.
