Junot Diaz's Drown

In the novel Drown the author, Junot Diaz, uses allusion and simile to show the reader his theme that your family affects the rest of your life and your future decisions because they create values in which you live your life by. This novel conveys its theme when the narrator and protagonist Yunior takes after his father’s abusive tendencies in his own relationships. Yunior’s father’s abuse can be found in the ‘Fiesta, 1980’ chapter, where Diaz writes about how his father would hit him and he wasn’t allowed to look his father in the eye: “he expected your undivided attention when you were getting your ass whupped. You couldn’t look him in the eye either —that wasn’t allowed. Better to stare at his belly button, which was perfectly round and immaculate. Papi pulled me to my feet by my ear.” Papi was ready to beat Yunior without
This gives the reader an example of his theme because a reader would see that Yunior adopted his father’s abusive ways and acts in the his father treated him towards the women he has relationships with in his life. Another way that Diaz shows his novel’s theme of how your family affects the rest of your life and your future decisions can be found in the ‘Ysrael’ chapter when Yunior is searching for Ysrael. This experience is an allusion to how the Jewish people searched for the promised land of Israel for forty years where they were wandering and were without a proper amount of food to live with. This shows the theme because Yunior is searching for love and affection from his family for a very long time before he is given the love he needs and the support he needs, just as Ysrael. The search for love from his family is shown to the audience when Yunior is trying to stop throwing up in his father’s van; Yunior is trying his best to not vomit Papi’s car and he can’t control whether or not he feels sick. His father would constantly abuse him and his mother neglected him for reasons he could never