Introduction
Yunior, a narrator’s character in Junot Diaz’s books, is a main character in “This Is How You Lose Her” as well. He is highly emotional and perceives everything very sharply, but it seems that he cannot think a lot. It is why he sometimes evokes anger and even shame in me when I read Diaz’s books.
Still, his life is full of feelings and emotions, so it is exciting and draws attention. Yunior’s storytelling abilities seem greatly developed, as he loves to talk about everything happening to him. Possibly, he would be able to rethink and even rewrite his personality by writing a novel based on his life experience.
Yunior’s Character Analysis
It seems that he is not a redeemable character: while he often feels grief and sadness after experiencing the consequences of his actions, he is rarely truly regretful. For example, when Yunior describes his behavior after the breakdown with his girlfriend, he wrote, “You write her letters. You drive her to work. You quote Neruda. You compose a mass e-mail disowning all your sucias” (Diaz, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”).
All of them are results of a simple indignation at the situation, not attempts to become better and change something in his life. After the year passes, he tries to forget her and describes her grimly and aggressively. Eventually, after several years, he had depression, lost his desire to live, and all his friends, and even his physical appearance worsened significantly (Diaz, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”). Therefore, no personal evolution was present in his character; instead, it was a degradation.
If Yunior wrote his life novel, it would consist of his feelings about everything around him. Compared to Diaz’s other novels and short story compilations, such as “Drown,” Yunior is more grown-up there, and his feelings are much clearer and usually more aggressive (Lowdon). For example, he aggressively describes his discrimination experience: “Three times, drunk white dudes try to pick fights with you in different parts of the city. You take it all very personally. I hope someone drops an f…king bomb on this city, you rant.” (Diaz, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”). Therefore, his life is full of experiences, primarily negative: from aggressive and furious to profound sadness.
Writing would possibly help him create a new identity, as he seems to perceive the world via feelings and not reflect a lot about them. By writing, he would organize these feelings in words, which would help him self-reflect and rethink all his actions and experiences. He is a bad thinker but a good storyteller; each object and event around him is a reason to add to his story (Cohen). Eventually, writing his novel could become an approach to rethinking and changing his personality.
Conclusion
Therefore, while Yunior does not seem to be a redeemable character, as he repeatedly makes mistakes, his life is full of different emotions. He does not seem to regret much about his actions, which led to him being alone, depressed, and weakened, but he is simply sad that everything turned out this way. Due to his storytelling abilities, he narrates everything happening to him, and probably by writing it as a novel, he would be able to rewrite his personality. Writing about his experience would enable him to rethink the reasons for his losses and understand how he can change himself to live a better life.
Works Cited
Cohen, Leah Hager. “Love Stories.” The New York Times. 2012. Web.
Diaz, Junot. This Is How You Lose Her. Riverhead Books, 2013.
Lowdon, Claire. “This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz – Review.” The Guardian. 2012. Web.