This book captures the fury and alienation of the Dominican immigrant experience very well. Other immigrants' grief's also come up in Diaz's short stories. My argument for this paper delves with the question of is this book merely storytelling or is it autobiographical? Also, it seemed to me as if he uses some symbols and specific words (mostly verbs) to express himself in a manner which the reader can almost feel the story as if it were real.

The book tells of the barrios of the Dominican Republic and the struggling urban communities of New Jersey. This book is very strong and these stories tell of a sense of discovery from a young man's perspective. It seems as though for the immigrants, even when things are at their best, a high probability of calamity looms just around the corner. Uncertainty is the only certainty for these outsiders, who live in communities that, are "separated from all the other communities by a six-lane highway and the dump." It tells of a w

What I enjoyed about this book is that there was no use of Italics or any other editorial assistance for the reader. This showed me that he is taking a stand against the use of Italics. It's almost as though Diaz is writing in a diary and there is no need for such things. Also, these stories are not read like stories, they are more like a sociological study. The feelings and the observations jump off the page so much so that the stories appear very much autobiographical. Again bringing up the point of whether it should be classified fiction or non-fiction.

In each of his stories Diaz uses a first-person narrator who is observing others. Boys and young drug dealers narrate eight of these tales. Their struggles shift from life in the barrios of the Dominican Republic to grim existence in the slums of New Jersey. These young boys could be the voice of Junot Diaz himself. If so, why would the book be a fiction?

Diaz never loses sight of the telling details of immigrant life stateside. He describes food from the perspective of a Dominican boy who eats only boiled yucca and platano. The yucca and platano is a symbol of his poverty and hunger in "Aguantando."

Then he writes about everyone getting obese in America; even the immigrants themselves. This simple abundance of food gets to the imagi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Dominican Republic, It's Diaz, Junot Diaz, Drown Diaz's, Jersey Aurora, Ysrael Fiesta, , immigrant life, dominican republic, barrios dominican republic, short stories, yucca platano, barrios dominican, junot diaz, story immigrant, government cheese,
Approximate Word count = 881
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)