Drown Study Guide

The stories move generally from a younger male's experiences in Dominica, Dominican Republic, to a maturing young man transplanted to the United States in a rough, poor neighborhood in New Jersey. The stories are colored by the limited view of a child trying to grow up, as well as the limited cultural view of a young person burdened with poverty, an absent father, a preoccupied mother, and the dirt and violence of difficult neighborhoods. Like many kids in such neighborhoods, the young people in these stories act tough and crude, but inwardly suffer from their disrupted families and difficult circumstances. Good and bad things happen to such kids without warning, and Diaz tells of these happenings dispassionately and in seemingly detached language, although events can radically affect the characters. (read more)