Week 1: Sample of Discussion Questions- Junot Diaz "How to Date a Browngirl..." from his novel Drown

A Sample of discussion Questions- Junot Diaz "How to Date a Browngir, Blackgril, Whitegirl or Halfie" from his 1996 novel, Drown. Hope you have more! Please bring them to class!

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1. What do you think about the names of these types of young women that the narrator assigns? What does this signify?
   2.      What does it mean that the young women are “types” but also have no personal names?
   3.      What pictures of urban life do we get from this story?
   4.      What kinds of stumbling blocks does the unnamed young narrator face to get to his goal?
   5.      How does he overcome them?
   6.      To whom is the narrator talking?
   7.      What does it mean that the narrator has no name in this story?
   8.      What do we learn about class in America from this story?
   9.      What is the purpose of Diaz’s use of Spanglish?
   10.  Is this story uniquely Latino? Could it take place in an African American, Asian American or European American immigrant home (or others) also? What changes, if any, would occur?
   11.  Does anything seem familiar to you in this story? If so, what and why?
   12.  What happens when you find out (in other stories in the book) that the main character’s father is absent from the home and his mother is raising two boys on her own? (Father has abandoned the family for another woman.)