— Anonymous
After reading the short story “Miss Lora” by Junto Diaz, we could see that Miss Lora is compelling to the main character, Yunior. Miss Lora is a middle-aged teacher while Yunior is a high school student. When I first read the story, it made me uncomfortable to see their cross-generational relationship. Miss Lora shares with Yunior that her first sexual relationship was with her high school teacher. I did not enjoy the story when I read it for the first time. However, after reading my classmates’ postings and viewing the videos about the story posted by the professor, I finally understand the feelings of the main character and I could find myself sympathizing with Yunior.
The entire story is written in second person point-of-view, which puts the reader into the story. Yunior’s father abandons his family and his mother is checked out. His older brother Rafa died at the age of 18 because of cancer. On the other hand, Yunior’s girlfriend, Paloma, dates with him only out of pity and she will not have sex with him. She wants to help her family since she is the caretaker of her family. According to the story, “Paloma was convinced that if she made any mistakes in the next two years, any mistakes at all, she would be stuck in that family of hers forever.” The quote demonstrates that Paloma is concerned with her situation because she wants to make a change in her life.
What is going on in Yunior’s life seems that nobody in his family actually understands his feelings besides Miss Lora. She pays attention to Yunior and she cares about him. In addition, she pushes him and gives him the college application to fill out so that Yunior ends up going to college. Miss Lora is a muscular and skinny woman. As stated in the story, “You graduate in June, and she is there with your mother, clapping. She is wearing a red dress, because you once told her it was your favorite color, and matching underwear underneath. Afterward, she drives you both to Perth Amboy for a Mexican dinner.” Miss Lora comes to Yunior’s graduation and he finds out she is always supporting him. These might cause Yunior to gravitate towards the love and attention that Miss Lora shows him. We could see there are several reasons about how Miss Lora attracts Yunior. Therefore, I could not deny that Miss Lora is probably the one person in Yunior’s life that really cares about him.
As stated in the story, “You are scared stupid at what you are doing, but it is also exciting and makes you feel less lonely in the world.” Yunior is lonely and it seems like he has no one else until Miss Lora comes to him. Before then, he has no one to turn to and he does not know where to find support. Miss Lora is different from everyone else in Yunior’s life. I did not understand this until after reading my classmates’ postings and writing about it.
