How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie) – Junot Díaz – Flashcards

Diaz's dating guide for the Dominican American teenage male takes on the authority of experience by employing a narrator speaking in second person. The story is centered around a young teenage boy giving instructions about readiness for a date. Starting off with removing obvious signs of Dominican "ghetto" culture such as the "government cheese", then to approaching the female depending on whether or not she is an "insider" or "outsider". As the story progresses you see how the narrators words and mannerisms change according to the race of the female. These observations determine his speech and physical approach to them. The narrator constantly shifts descriptions of both the women and the male's ethnicities and social class to where it is very difficult to determine exactly what type of person is speaking or to whom.

The narrator is assumed to be a teenage boy living in an urban area. He is trying to win the hearts of the local girls. However, because of his upbringing and his culture, he knows he has to hide his identity in order to please a white girl or a halfie. You see the multiple dimensions of this one character all brought out by race.

Set in the 20th century, most likely between the 1970s and 1990s, in New Jersey. Specifically the Terrace.

2nd Person!! Giving instructions on how to do something.

This kind of cheese is a processed meal that was provided by the U.S. government during several years as a mean of social assistance. In that sense, this food not only represents Yunior's family alimentary preferences but it represents its social status. Yunior's family was a poor family that was a beneficiary of Social Security.

Photo showing Yunior's childhood : This photo becomes an important symbol because it contains elements that reveal Yunior's past and identity. The elements portrayed in the photo -described in the text- like the "campo", the half-naked kids, the goat, the rope leash, permit the reader to know what the background of Yunior's life is; those elements make the reader to realize that Yunior comes from a very humble family and context.

the way in which the neighborhood (the Terrace) is represented is a way to represent the "ghetto". A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure.

it represents different qualities people in different contexts have. "Run a hand through your hair like the whiteboys do". It is referring to the characteristic of people in another place; in this case I believe he is contrasting white's people hair with his own type of hair.

The narrator's style is said to "undercut both individuality and objectivity" by pointing out the different ways to court women or to hide your particular ethnicity. He also recommends running a hand through your hair like "the white boys do". Also stereotypical machismo can be seen through this piece as Diaz writes about the narrator's attitude towards women. However overall, the narrator never allows for all the potential outcomes of the date to outstrip that there is a date to begin with.

"The narrator feels the need to hide aspects of his life from his "dates" depending on their status. The narrator stereotypes how his dates will act and respond to situations.

Diaz is not afraid to include small gestures that reveal cultural attitudes, even if these attitudes do not put Dominicans in the best light. When the narrator hides his origin when he gets rid of the Dominican "artifacts" in his apartment. He also recollects on his mother's experiences of the tear gas from when the Americans invaded the "island".

Uses disctinct dialect and words. Short choppy sentences, like an instruction manual.

Diaz writes the story in an instruction manual type of way using exaggerated stereotypes and generalizations. His use of satire or irony plays a big role in delivering the meaning of the story which is that we can't rely on stereotypes to class people Irony: The title is "how to date" yet the story teaches you the opposite.