I have found
that each book that we read this semester had its own unique reason for why it
was enjoyable. One reason why I enjoyed Junot Diaz’s Drown was because of the various perspectives it had on the same
events and circumstances. Although most stories were from Yunior’s viewpoint,
quite a few of them were from the perspective of other characters, which
definitely spiced things up. One story that I particularly enjoyed was “No Face”,
because seeing things from Ysrael’s perspective changed how I viewed the other
stories and characters. I learned how biased I had become simply because I only
saw things through one person’s perspective. But seeing things through Ysrael’s
eyes opened me up to the fact that the same circumstances and events can look
very different depending on the point of view.
“Ysrael” was
written from the perspective of Yunior, and so I had a very limited view of
Ysrael. The only information I had about him was biased information gained from
Yunior’s point of view. After I read this story, I had several impressions of
Ysrael. First, I saw him as a victim, the helpless kid that everyone picked on.
I felt bad for him both because such an unfortunate thing happened to him and
because he seemed to have no friends. To me, Ysrael seemed defenseless and even
innocent. He didn’t seem to be a bad kid, just a sort of outcast. I got the
impression that he was always lonely, with his family members being the only
people he can talk to without being ridiculed. Overall I imagined him as a sad,
lonely kid who really had nothing to do. But my impressions of Ysrael changed
drastically after having read “No Face”.
“No Face”
was written from the perspective of Ysrael himself. This story shows us a
glimpse inside Ysrael’s own world. The ways that he sees things turned out to
be totally different from what I had expected. We learn that Ysrael is actually
an extremely strong young man who is very gifted physically. Instead of being
the sad, lonely boy I imagined him to be, he was actually energetic and exciting.
He was a kind of superhero, and this “me against the world” mentality depicted
in the story wasn’t negative from his point of view. Rather than being a
victim, Ysrael thinks and talks as if his “enemies” are on equal ground with
him. He turns his bad circumstances into a game in order to cope with it. I
found that the way Ysrael saw his situation wasn’t nearly as depressing as the
way that I saw it through Yunior’s eyes.
Both Yunior
and Ysrael’s perspective give us interesting information, but I don’t think
that either point of view is necessarily “right”. I think that by taking
information from both perspectives we can get a better idea on what reality is.
It is not true that Ysrael is just this sad, little victimized boy who doesn’t
do anything except get bullied. However it is also not true that Ysrael is a
mighty superhero who is constantly fighting his enemies valiantly. The truth is
somewhere in the middle, and I think it is up to the reader to decide on what
is really going on. How did others of you see Ysrael? Did you also like that we
got different perspectives on him?
