Critique Essay

Meza !1 Sandra Meza Dr. Jon D. Lee WRI 102 - G 12 February 2016 Critique Essay Assignment The essay I critiqued is called “The Money: Starting Out,” by the Dominican American writer Junot Díaz. Although, the ending was weak in comparison of the story; I may say the story was great overall. I liked many characteristics that Díaz has as a writer: clear writing, conversational language, but, at the same time, educational and exaggeration which is great. The author’s capacity to catch the readers attention is the reason I choose to review this essay. The essay tells the story of an immigrant family from Santo Domingo, who lived in a low-income neighborhood from New Jersey, where everyone got robbed at some point. The family eventually comes back from their summer vacation, to find out that some thieves had robbed their house. The thieves had stolen something important to the mother, the “remittances”. The “remittances” were two or three hundred dollars that the mother send to her parents in Santo Domingo every six months. Suddenly he realizes that it was his friends who stole the money, and then he steals the money back. He wants his mother to congratulate him for giving the money back, but he does not receive what he hopes for. The first characteristic is clear writing. His writing is so easy to understand that you can enjoy it even if your English is not perfect, or if you do not quite get the literary reference. The story is good. He starts by narrating a little bit of his childhood, of how his family survived their first years in the United States. The reader feels sorry for him at some point, understanding how

Meza !2 it must be coming to a strange country, not even speaking the same language, feeling harassed. As he says: “When you’re a recent immigrant, it’s easy to feel targeted” (Díaz 385). The second characteristic of the author’s writing is a conversational quality. Díaz uses this relaxed tone, as if he was talking to you in a cafeteria. This essay is full of phrases that arguments the characteristic mentioned before; however, I chose words that I thought were the most representative: “Nut,” “Hell,” and “Run our gums” (Díaz 385). He also uses Spanish words, so you can see his Hispano ancestry: “Mami negotiated the absence, the distance, caused by our diaspora … She chipped dollars off the cash Papi gave her for our daily expense” (Díaz 385). The author also gives references to pop culture material like, “C.S.I.,” and to a famous children books called Encyclopedia Brown and the Three Investigators. The reader can easily understand his references, so the reader relates more to the essay and how the story would develop. You feel more connected to the author since you know him a little more, line by line. Díaz has this quality of writing as if he were talking to his friends in a casual setting, drinking some beers and chilling. The third characteristic is Díaz’s ability to exaggerate. He showed his childish side, not necessary a bad thing, but he was able to connect himself, the grown up man, with the child he used to be in the essay. He starts his narration with some sad facts narrated from his adult perspective, later on he mixes phrases like: “half-baked get-to-know-country-better-by-sleepingin-the-van extravaganzas,” and “violent punishment approaching death” (Díaz 385). In order to let the reader have a connection, not to mister Díaz but to little Junot. The kid who did not understand exactly the world he had to live on.

Meza !3 I really enjoyed reading this essay, but there is a major failing that I would like the author to correct or explain, and that is the end. At the ending, he gives back the stolen money, but we do not hear a concrete reaction from the mother: “Nada. I’d wanted a party or at least to see her happy, but there was nothing. Just two hundred and some dollars and fifteen hundred or so miles–that’s all there was” (Díaz 386). I understand the author’s frustration as a kid not seeing the reaction of the mother, at least not the reaction he hoped for, but as a grown up man who clearly remembers his childhood, he should explain what was the reaction of the mother. The reader deserves better than a mediocre ending. Let me say something important here; I know the intention of the author is to give the audience that frustration of not knowing what happened, but it gives the wrong frustrating feelings, at least to me. As kids people do not realize things, but people grow up, people start connecting the dots of what happened. I just think that Díaz should have provided a better ending; he should have described better his mother’s facial and physical expressions. How was her face? Does she was: smiling, serious, or shocked when he handed her the money? How does she grab the money? Does the money was grabbed with joy, or she snatched the money from his hands? I think he should have explain with more detail, in order for us to draw our own conclusions. However, the reader can also see that Junot Díaz is well educated. He uses common words, as well as Spanish words, mixed as well with what I would call “SAT words” like: “dolt,” and “nictitating membrane” (Díaz 386). He also makes reference to classic literature by mentioning Raskolnikov, a character from the Russian literature that murders two people without feeling any regret. All of these examples illustrates how multicultural he is.

Meza !4 As a conclusion, I may say that I really enjoyed this essay. I like how the author combine casual tone that compliments his culture and intelligence; the reader can learn about his culture a little more. I would say that this essay has a strong structure, because of the author’s ability to write. The essay also has a weak point, thanks to the lack of detail at the end of it; as I said before, the ending not was what we expected but at least it was a fun story to read. It was enjoyable for anyone.

Meza !5 Works Cited Díaz, Junot. “The Money: Starting Out.” In WRI 101 and 102 Common Reader. 1th ed, New York: McGraw-Hill Create, 2014. 384-386. Print.