Drown

Drown

• Genre: Fiction; Short stories
• Originally Published: 1995
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 830L; Grades 10 and up
• Structure/Length: Collection of short stories; approximately 240 pages; approximately 7 hours, 25 minutes on audiobook
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: The collection of short stories explores the lives of Dominican immigrants and their families in the United States. The stories are often interconnected, sharing themes of identity, culture, displacement, and relationships. While the protagonists and central conflicts vary from story to story, common themes include the challenges of assimilation, the impact of cultural heritage, and the complexities of family dynamics.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Themes of immigration; family struggles; mature content such as sexual assault and domestic violence, references to sexual intercourse, drug usage, housing and food instability, antigay bias, infidelity, and sexist slurs

Junot Díaz, Author

• Bio: Born 1968; Dominican American author and creative writing professor; known for his unique narrative style, blending English and Spanish language elements; received acclaim for his debut short story collection Drown and his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; addresses themes of cultural identity, masculinity, and the immigrant experience; has contributed essays, stories, and commentary on social and literary topics
• Other Works: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007); This Is How You Lose Her (2012); Islandborn (2018); Negocios (1999, short story collection); Monstro (2015, graphic novel)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• The Power, Influence, and Construction of Hypermasculinity
• The Complexity and Hypocrisy of the American Dream
• The Subtle, Psychological Effects of American Racism/White Supremacy
• The Complexity of Human Identity

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Teaching Guide, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the historical and sociological contexts regarding immigration from the Dominican Republic to the US, which impacts the development of Díaz’s characters.
• Analyze paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of The Power, Influence, and Construction of Hypermasculinity; The Complexity and Hypocrisy of the American Dream; The Subtle, Psychological Effects of American Racism/White Supremacy; and The Complexity of Human Identity.
• Reflect on, write, and share an essay about the author’s choice of a single-story title as the title of the collection.