How dating girls can be related to discrimination
The short story “How to Date a Brown Girl” written by Junot Diaz talks about the tactics that a teenage boy can use in trying to conquer girls from all races, white, black and brown. There is a romantic aspect about the story but one thing that stands out is the racial stereotypes that he highlights. The story is about a white poor teenager who is about to start dating girls like any other teenager in this society. Diaz gives several hints about how the girls from the different races he talks about are supposed to be treated differently. The issue of racism stands out because if it was not so serious and was not implied in the story, then Diaz could not have mentioned the different races time and again. The central theme in this story, therefore, is racial stereotypes. Generalizations are given about the races the girls come from because of some assumed characteristics that they possess but this does not mean that it is true. The story tells of how people stereotype and make assumptions about others, something that explains the forms of discrimination seen in it.
The writer shows a lot more discrimination and stereotyping in this story and there are a few examples that show that. First, when reading the title of this story I can be sure that there is something related to racism. The title of this story is “how to date a brown girl”, so he may want to show something related to the blacks or any other race. Why he didn’t choose the title to be “how to date a girl” which would have been more general and not specific for group. The story is between a white boy and a brown girl so it can be something strange about it. That is because it is rare to see a white teenager and a black or brown girl together. Another thing is that the writer mentions the word African more than three times in this story. The reason behind this can be in order to show that there is a girl that has African roots. For example, he mentions it when he said “The only thing that runs easily in your head is Africa”. That was a discussion between the white boy and the brown girl. The third thing is that he mentioned black a lot in this story. For instance, he mentioned black at least once in every paragraph and some are more than this. Many writers who write about the racism issue try to eliminate these kinds of words and that is because they don’t want to discriminate against any races or groups of people. The last thing, which relates to racism, is that he mentions Dominicans when he was talking about the girl. He said “you will wonder how she feels about Dominicans”. This therefore, means that there is a kind of way that people from each country or region of the world are treated or even behave.
When considering the literary devices used in the story, it is true to say that the story is written in free style. In fact, anyone who reads it and becomes easily offended can become very angry. This is because of the language that is used that seems rather offensive. The language can also be said to be discriminatory and refers a lot to stereotyping. The style that he writer used is meant to be read and understood by anyone. It does not matter whether they come from a rural or urban setting. In fact, the style used looks like a step by step direction on how to date and this seems to be very funny. The narrator gives the teenage boy tips on how to handle themselves when faced with different situations and girls. It sounds very funny because the boy is told about easy ways of getting away from a bully when the girl he is dating is around. He is also being told about hanging up the phone if the father of the girl picks it. These are some of the easy going and funny highlights of the story.
When it comes to the tone, Diaz starts off the story with a very funny remark. He says that the boy should wait for his mother and brother to leave the house and that the boy is too sick to go with them. The story is just hilarious and gets funny as it progresses. The language is easy and as well as the way in which the advice is presented. One may not be mistaken to say that the advice is coming from one teenager to the other. The story is also told from the first person narrator. This is because the story is told from the very person who is giving the advice.
Another literary device that the author uses is the use of a detailed description of persons as well as things. There is a way in which the narrator talks revealingly about issues such as the government cheese. The cheese is used as a way of telling the narrator’s poverty, youthfulness as well as telling the story of the girls and how he evaluates them depending on their ethnicities. The language he uses can also be termed as urban and this helps show the authenticity of the story is told from that background. He goes on to use a mild form of vulgar in order to bring out the story’s credibility. There is also some kind of authority on women because of the way he describes them.
It is stereotyped that for a man to date a girl they need money. The teenage boy in the story dates the girl even if he doesn’t have enough money. The story is just a step by step guide on how to date a girl. First, the guy talks about a brown girl and the way he can treat her when out on dinner. He tells of how to take her to an inexpensive restaurant in a poor neighborhood. It is just funny how he does his thing. Letting her go to his home was a problem to him too. At the end of the story he didn’t get a chance to date this brown girl and he had to go back to his family.
In conclusion, the writer wants to give an example of how a young guy can date girls even if they are poor. The young guy is from a poor neighborhood and he was concerned about how to go about dating girls. That if the girl is from a higher class than him then she will not go out with him. Another thin that he was also concerned about is the government cheese. As I mentioned before, this is a clear indication that this boy was poor and that he did not have money to buy food and that is why he was receiving food from the government. The writer also mentions some words that could be said to be stereotypical or discriminatory on some cases. For example, he talks about blacks, Africans, brown, white and Dominicans. It shows some kind of discrimination because he shows to the readers that these people are different. Even when he talks about the neighborhood where the brown girl lives in, he shows that it’s different from other places and neighborhoods. He also shows that a lot of the non-white people are in a lower level than the whites. In general, the writer in this story talks about a real situation that a lot of teenagers could find themselves.
