Drown Essay

In the book Drown, the narrator says You watch anything long enough and you can become an expert at it. Get to know how it lives, what it eatswhen Im fifty this is how Ill remember my friends: tired and yellow and drunk. These quotations were used by the narrator to describe the relationship between him and his friends. In the first chapter of the book the narrator Yunior spends most of his time with his older brother Rafa. Their relationship in this chapter is not friendly at all. On page 5 of the page the narrator describes how things were back in the capital and how Rafa only hung out with his friends and barely paid any attention to Yunior. The only time he really talked to Yunior was when he was insulting him like saying he looked too Haitian and that their mom found him and adopted him. He also writes how they used to always fight and the neighbors had to him them with broomsticks to break up their fights. On page 6 the narrator talks about his relationship when he and Rafa were living at the campo. They became more like friends when they moved here. There were times when Yunior wanted to hang out with Rafa and follow him around but whenever Rafa was going to hang out with girls he told Yunior to go back home. Later

when Rafa came back they usually had conversations about what happened with the girls. Another relationship Yunior had during the first chapter was with a boy named Ysrael. Ysrael always hung out by himself because he had no friends. He had to wear a mask because when he was a baby a pig had eaten his face off. Yuniors first encounter with Ysrael is on page 7. He spots him in an alleyway, they have a quick conversation then Ysrael runs away because other kids saw him and then they always chase him trying to rip off his mask. The next day Rafa and Yunior set out to find Ysrael and try and to take off his mask. On page 12 when Rafa and Yunior are on the bus A man tries to help Yunior wipe a stain off his pants and ends up pinching the tip of his penis. The relationship Yunior had with this man was negative, weird and it traumatized him. While he was crying Rafa showed him no remorse and didnt even care why he was crying. On page 15 to 19 they find Ysrael and started asking him questions that made it seem they werent from around the area. Towards the end of their conversation Yunior and Ysrael see they have a lot in common and start to bond but then out of nowhere Rafa hits Ysrael over the head with a glass bottle, knocks him out, removes his mask, and then they leave him there.

In chapter 2 Yunior and Rafa are with their parents in the United States. Yunior and his mother seem to have a good mother-son relationship she always was nice to him and took care of him like a normal mother. The same cant be said about his father. Yuniors dad was a strict father. He never wanted Yunior to eat before they were leaving somewhere in the car because he got carsick and threw up in his dads car. On page 25 and 26 the narrator shows how his dad reacts when he finds out Yunior had eaten when they were about to leave, Papi turned to me. Cono muchacho, why did you eat?...If you throw up, I wont, I cried, tears in my eyes, more out of reflex than pain. Yunior was scared to even look him in the eye.

On page 37 it also shows how his dad threatened to beat him if he saw Yunior eat again.

In chapter 3 Yunior is older and he has a roommate named Cut and a girlfriend name Aurora. He has a good relationship with Cut because he lives with him and they sell drugs together. Auroras relationship with Yunior is somewhat confusing because at times it seems they she likes him and other times it doesnt. On page 48 this line shows how they are together when everything between them is fine, She meets me at the door of the utility room..I shut the door behind us and we kiss, once, on the lips, but she keeps them closed first-date style.

In Chapter 4 the narrator describes how his life is before he and Rafa were sent to the campo. He lived with Rafa, his mother and grandfather. He and Rafa had a good relationship with their grandfather because if they ever got in trouble with their mother he would always go easy on them by not making them go through to punishment their mother gave them. During this chapter their mother is working long hours just to take care of her children. At one point she goes into a state of shock and depression because Yuniors father told her he was coming home to see them but he never showed up. This made their mother sad and she left to live with her other relatives for a while. When she came back she acted like she had a lot of feelings built of inside her and they were waiting to burst out.

In chapter 5 Yunior is living in the States with just his mother. He has a best friend named Beto. Yunior and Beto always hung out and always get themselves into trouble. Beto was leaving for college so they didnt have that much time to hang out with eachother. Then one time Beto and Yunior were watching a porn movie and Beto went into Yuniors pants and was touching him inappropriately. Yunior didnt bother stopping him and then he just left. The relationship between Yunior and Beto seemed like a normal best friend situation and then that incident happened which made the relationship seem like they were gay. Throughout these 5 chapters of Drown, Yunior had many positive and negative relationships with people that affected the outcome of his life so far.