Drown Social Sensitivity

Drown Social Sensitivity

Drown is a candid, blunt book. Just as Diaz does not shy away from presenting the seedy side of life in poverty, he does not scrub his stories clean of racial and cultural conflicts. For the most part, the author reserves comment on the settings and cultures that he portrays, but his characters occasionally express cultural biases. In "Fiesta, 1980," for instance, Mami dislikes all things American: "In her mind, American things—appliances, mouthwash, funnylooking upholstery—all seemed to have an intrinsic badness about them." On the contrary, Papi seems to favor American luxury items, a discord that foreshadows the marital friction between the two characters. Even when he profiles drug dealers and petty criminals, Diaz refrains from moralizing, attempting only to present his characters authentically.

Racial issues underlie all of the stories.

Most of the characters are Dominican; many also have black skin. Racial issues are treated...
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