Nilda

Worth It, Or Not?

Nilda Dominican girl, a rather quiet girl, never really had the best reputation when it came to her and the ways she would live her life. She wasn’t like the other local Dominican girls who weren’t aloud to leave their household. She was a free bird who chose to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted and that’s basically how she has been portrayed throughout the story. There are two other main characters in the story. They are both brother, Rafa and Yunior, Rafa being the elder one. The story is told by Yunior in a manner that focuses entirely on the life of Nilda. At the end of the day, Yunior makes the reader wonder about Nilda, was she a person worth remembering or was she just a memory one summer and no one special. Sometimes one cannot clearly express his/her feelings and thus chooses to behave in an unusual manner. This is a perfect example of how I truly believe Yunior acts with the case of Nilda. Yunior had an older brother Rafa, who was going out with Nilda. Both Rafa and Nilda had a very physical relationship, mainly which was all. Yunior on the other hand had strong emotional feelings for Nilda. One thing Yunior did throughout the story was never to make it evident to either Nilda or Rafa that he had feeling for her. The readers though knew he liked her early on in the story which makes the entire narration more interesting. Yunior seemed like a rather insecure boy. He was young at the time and could only understand what a relationship seems like by seeing Rafa and Nilda.
“Did you guys fight or something?”
“No” he said
“Why’d she leave?”
“She had to go”
“But where’s she gonna stay?”
The above conversation was held between Yunior and Rafa. It was the time during the end of the story when Rafa and Nilda broke up. This clearly shows the innocent side of Yunior and also shows how he has troubling understand the ways and working of relationships. There are instances in the story in which one can clearly tell Yunior has certain feelings for Nilda. There is an interesting passage early on in the story whereby Yunior tries to show the readers his love for Nilda by describing her in ways which are not at all beautiful. “She had big stupid lips and a sad moonface and the driest skin. Always rubbing lotion on it and cursing the mereno father who’d given it to her” (76). This passage is very interesting because of the ways he showcases his love. This is sign for Yunior in childhood where he is a bit confused. He does not truly understand what it feels like to be attracted to a girl. He likes her but surely does not want to believe it. He doesn’t want to believe it due to the fact that he knows Nilda and Rafa are going out and it would only complicate things more if any of them found out about how he truly feels. Another particular example in the story is the part when Yunior describes the Thursdays him and Nilda spend together talking till it gets dark outside. At the point in the story, Yunior realizes he likes Nilda and wants to be with her. “Sometimes I could grab her and pull her back onto the couch, and we’d stay there for a long time, me waiting for her to fall in love with me”(78).This is a very strong statement in the story because it clearly indicates and provides the reader with the knowledge early on in the passage that Yunior has trouble expressing these feelings personally towards Nilda. By talking to be and being with her, Yunior wants Nilda to fall for him. This particular quote in the story also implies that even though Nilda is his brother’s(Rafa’s) girlfriend, it doesn’t affect him. It doesn’t affect him in the sense that he knows she is seeing someone else, but it doesn’t bother him. He wants to be with her irrespective of that matter. In the end of the story, Rafa dies due to cancer; Yunior eventually drops out of school and doesn’t have any friends. Nilda too goes her own way. “It was only one summer, and she was nobody special, so what’s the point of all this?” (83). This line at the end of story is said by Yunior. He is confused as to what happened that particular summer when his brother and Nilda dated. His brother eventually passed away and he was not able to tell Nilda how he felt about her. Yunior describes Nilda as nobody special and somebody he knew for only a summer because he could not make anything special out of him and Nilda. It was that particular summer where everything happened and then everything ended. The particular passages explained above help explain as to what he meant when he said this. What he said involves a lot of emotion, emotion in the form of love for Nilda and also sadness in the form that he was unable to do anything about it.