Diaz’s Description of Character in “Fiesta 1980”
Diaz’s Description of Character in “Fiesta 1980”
Junot Diaz demonstrates great writing skill in his short story “Fiesta 1980” through the way that he is able to create believable and well-rounded characters in nine short pages. He does this through the exploration of several different techniques. This can be demonstrated by analyzing Yunior, the story’s narrator and main character.
One very interesting aspect of the way that Diaz transmits information about his characters to his readers is that his narrator rarely talks about his characters’ traits explicitly; instead, he shows those traits indirectly. For instance, Diaz never tells us what Yunior’s age is or, but through subtle clues throughout the text, we can assume him to be around twelve or thirteen years old. This information is transmitted to the reader through his actions and thoughts, such as the way he mimics his brother on page 1 and the way he is shy around girls and usually only spoke to them in arguments or to call them “stupidos”, which he, as the narrator, tells the reader on page 4. In addition to that, Diaz also uses other characters to hint at Yunior’s age; also on page 4, his uncle says that, even though his mother claims he is young, he would already be getting laid in Santo Domingo.
And while Diaz uses other characters to tell the reader more about Yunior, he also uses Yunior to give us more information about other characters. We can illustrate this by taking a quick moment to consider Yunior’s father, Ramon. The reader first learns that Ramon is a violent man through Yunior’s comment that if he and his family weren’t ready to go to the party when his father arrived at their house, “he would have kicked [their] asses something serious.” (Page 1)
Another aspect that contributes to the strength of Diaz’s writing in the short story is the fact that he doesn’t reveal all the information about his characters in the beginning of the work. Instead, from the first page until the last, the
Junot Diaz demonstrates great writing skill in his short story “Fiesta 1980” through the way that he is able to create believable and well-rounded characters in nine short pages. He does this through the exploration of several different techniques. This can be demonstrated by analyzing Yunior, the story’s narrator and main character.
One very interesting aspect of the way that Diaz transmits information about his characters to his readers is that his narrator rarely talks about his characters’ traits explicitly; instead, he shows those traits indirectly. For instance, Diaz never tells us what Yunior’s age is or, but through subtle clues throughout the text, we can assume him to be around twelve or thirteen years old. This information is transmitted to the reader through his actions and thoughts, such as the way he mimics his brother on page 1 and the way he is shy around girls and usually only spoke to them in arguments or to call them “stupidos”, which he, as the narrator, tells the reader on page 4. In addition to that, Diaz also uses other characters to hint at Yunior’s age; also on page 4, his uncle says that, even though his mother claims he is young, he would already be getting laid in Santo Domingo.
And while Diaz uses other characters to tell the reader more about Yunior, he also uses Yunior to give us more information about other characters. We can illustrate this by taking a quick moment to consider Yunior’s father, Ramon. The reader first learns that Ramon is a violent man through Yunior’s comment that if he and his family weren’t ready to go to the party when his father arrived at their house, “he would have kicked [their] asses something serious.” (Page 1)
Another aspect that contributes to the strength of Diaz’s writing in the short story is the fact that he doesn’t reveal all the information about his characters in the beginning of the work. Instead, from the first page until the last, the