131 pages • 4 hours read
Drown
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During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
“YSRAEL”
Reading Check
1. Why does Yunior’s mother send him and his brother to the campo every summer?
2. Why does Yunior enjoy the summers more than his brother?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What happens to Yunior on the bus while Rafa collects money?
2. Who is Ysrael and why do Rafa and Yunior want to visit him? Describe their meeting with this person.
Paired Resource
- Oxford Bibliographies provides an overview of the Dominican Republic community in the US.
- This resource relates to the theme of The Complexity and Hypocrisy of the American Dream.
- Based on the text as well as the above resource, what were some of the motivations for people from the Dominican Republic to leave their country and migrate to the US?
“FIESTA, 1980”
Reading Check
1. What ailment does Yunior suffer from?
2. Why does Papi not let Yunior eat dinner at the party?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Papi take Yunior on car rides? Which unusual place does he take him to on one of these rides, and how does Yunior respond?
2. Why is Tía Yrma concerned about Mami? What questions does she ask Yunior about Mami?
Paired Resource
“Machismo: The Social Paradox of Sustaining a Murderous System”
- This Harvard International Review article provides insight on domestic violence in Dominican Republic communities.
- The article relates to the theme of The Power, Influence, and Construction of Hypermasculinity.
- Based on the text as well as the above resource, how is domestic violence viewed or handled within some Dominican Republic communities?
“AURORA”
Reading Check
1. How does Lucero believe he will remember his friends when he is 50 years old?
2. Where is Aurora forced to spend time?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What type of work are Lucero and Cut involved in? How does their work differ from their competitors?
2. What type of relationship does Lucero have with Aurora? How does he feel about her, and her with him?
Paired Resource
“FAQ: What are the Substance Abuse Rates Among Immigrants?”
- This is Education Development Center’s Fact Sheet on substance use in immigrant communities.
- The fact sheet relates to the themes of The Complexity and Hypocrisy of the American Dream and The Subtle, Psychological Effects of American Racism/White Supremacy.
- How does this resource explain the possible link between drug use and immigration? Does Díaz’s text support or oppose this claim?
“AGUANTADO”
Reading Check
1. Why does Yunior believe the pictures of his father survived the conditions of his house?
2. What job does Abuelo enjoy doing?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Describe Yunior and his family’s financial status. How does his family’s economic status affect his upbringing?
2. Which promise did Papi previously break? How did this broken promise affect Yunior, Rafa, and Mami?
Paired Resource
“U.S. troops land in the Dominican Republic in attempt to forestall a ‘communist dictatorship’”
- History.com provides a brief overview of the 1965 US invasion of the Dominican Republic.
- This article relates to the themes of The Complexity and Hypocrisy of the American Dream and The Subtle, Psychological Effects of American Racism/White Supremacy.
- Based on the text as well as the above resource, how did the Dominican Republic community respond to the US invasion?
“DROWN”
Reading Check
1. How do the kids in the narrator’s neighborhood escape the heat?
2. Where does the narrator accompany his mom on Saturday?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What type of work does the narrator do? How does this work shape his decisions?
2. Describe the narrator’s relationship with Beto. How does this relationship evolve throughout the course of the narrative?
Paired Resource
“Latin America over the rainbow? Insights on homosexuality tolerance from World Values Survey data”
- This London School of Economics resource offers information regarding the LGBTQ+ community in Latin America.
- The article relates to the theme of The Power, Influence, and Construction of Hypermasculinity.
- Based on the text as well as the above resource, why is Yunior so conflicted over his friendship with Beto?
“BOYFRIEND”
Reading Check
1. What did the narrator know about Boyfriend that Girlfriend did not know?
2. Why do the narrator’s friends think that Loretta was interested in the narrator?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Who are “Boyfriend” and “Girlfriend”? How does the narrator draw parallels between his own life and theirs?
2. What does the narrator invite Girlfriend to do? How does this change their relationship as neighbors?
“EDISON, NEW JERSEY”
Reading Check
1. What type of names does the narrator describe his clients as having?
2. Which Dominican Spanish word does the narrator note is popular in Dominican neighborhoods?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the narrator’s job? How is the narrator treated by clients, and how does he treat them?
2. How does the narrator help the woman in the Pruitt house? What does he learn from the situation?
Paired Resource
- Littledominicanrepublic.com shares information on the history of the Dominican presence in New York City.
- This connects with the theme of The Complexity of Human Identity.
- Based on the text as well as the above resource, what role has the Little Dominican Republic played in the identity of immigrants?
“HOW TO DATE A BROWNGIRL, BLACKGIRL, WHITEGIRL OR HALFIE”
Reading Check
1. According to Yunior, when did the “halfie[’s]” parents most likely meet?
2. What does Yunior do before and after a girl comes over?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Yunior differentiate the different ways to date a girl? What has he discovered with dating?
2. Which type of girl does Yunior want the most? What does this desire indicate about his maturation over the course of the narratives?
“NO FACE”
Reading Check
1. Why did people stop listening to the owner of the beauty shop?
2. What does Ysrael dream about?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Which educational activity does Padre Lou support Ysrael with? What is the purpose of this?
2. Describe Ysrael’s home life. How does his relationship with his parents shape his decisions?
“NEGOCIOS”
Reading Check
1. What are the last words that Ramón and Vitra spoke to each other face to face before he left for the US?
2. What object does Ramón take with him when he leaves Miami?
3. Which part of his body does Ramón injure at work?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Ramón initially leave his wife and children while he is still living in the Dominican Republic? What makes him decide to move back in?
2. Who is Nilda? How does Ramón use her for his advantage?
3. Why does Ramón leave Nilda? What happens as a result?
Recommended Next Reads
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
- Díaz’s 2007 novel, which centers on a young Dominican American man and his love of gaming, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
- Shared themes include The Power, Influence, and Construction of Hypermasculinity and The Complexity of Human Identity.
- Shared topics include Dominican American male protagonists and multicultural family stories.
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao on SuperSummary
And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Tomás Rivera
- Rivera’s 1971 short story collection centers on the lives of migrant workers from Mexico in the US.
- Shared themes include The Complexity and Hypocrisy of the American Dream and The Subtle, Psychological Effects of American Racism/White Supremacy.
- Shared topics include collection of immigrant narratives and challenges of Latin American communities in the US.
- And the Earth Did Not Devour Him on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
“YSRAEL”
Reading Check
1. She lacks the time and energy to watch them after her long shift at the chocolate factory.
2. Because he can spend more time with his brother
Short Answer
1. While Rafa is busy collecting the money on the bus, a man sexually assaults Yunior by touching his genital area. After they are kicked off the bus, Yunior begins to cry, to which Rafa immediately tells him to stop being a “pussy.”
2. Ysrael is a child whose face was eaten off by a pig, and, as a result, he wears a mask to hide his disfiguration. In their boredom, Rafa and Yunior visit Israel with the goal of seeing what his face really looks like. Rafa hits a bottle over Ysrael’s head, knocking him down so they can rip off the mask and reveal his face. They find that it is disfigured, and head home.
“FIESTA, 1980”
Reading Check
1. Car sickness
2. “Because [he] said so”
Short Answer
1. Papi begins to take Yunior on small trips in the car with hopes that this will cure Yunior’s motion sickness. One day, Papi takes Yunior to his mistress’ house, where he leaves his son downstairs while he spends time with the woman. Yunior silently watches TV downstairs “feeling ashamed and anxious” until his father comes downstairs and they leave.
2. Tía Yrma is concerned about Yunior’s father’s behavior to Mami in particular. She asks about life at home and if there are many fights; however, Yunior is cautious to reveal too much information about his immediate family to his relatives, and instead says that Papi works frequently.
“AURORA”
Reading Check
1. “[T]ired and yellow and drunk”
2. A juvenile detention center (i.e. “juvie”)
Short Answer
1. Cut and Lucero are a two-person team selling drugs, specifically in heroin (“H”), crack cocaine (“rocks”), and marijuana, and they do most of their business by walking the streets. Lucero notes that their customers are average people, usually unemployed elderly people or young people; however, they know of other dealers who sell drugs to entire families.
2. Lucero and Aurora’s relationship is characterized by intense and intimate nights that are often accompanied with drug usage. He believes he loves her, especially when she is gone; however, when they are together he is abusive towards her. Their relationship is cyclical, as she often disappears, sometimes to attend “juvie” or to work as a sex worker, and she often reappears when she knows he has a new stash of drugs.
“AGUANTADO”
Reading Check
1. Because he kept them in a plastic bag
2. Trapping rats
Short Answer
1. Yunior recalls that his family is “[so poor that] […] [t]he only way [they] could have been poorer was to have lived in the campo or to have been Haitian immigrants, and Mami regularly offered these to [them] as brutal consolation.” As a result, Mami cannot afford to feed them regularly, and when times are particularly tough, she sends Yunior and Rafa to a relative or friend’s house for some time so she can collect money again.
2. Yunior recalls Papi’s broken promise of coming for Mami and the family; he did not show up for a party that she planned, and ultimately she was broken by the event. Yunior and Rafa are affected too, as they wonder why he does not come and when he will be back.
“DROWN”
Reading Check
1. By swimming in the community center’s pool
2. To the mall
Short Answer
1. The narrator reveals that he is a drug dealer, selling primarily marijuana (while other dealers like Lucero sell crack). He supports the household financially, serving as the partial breadwinner as well as masculine presence in the house, while in the evenings he parties with friends.
2. The narrator reveals that he and Beto used to be good friends before he realized that Beto was a “pato” (he is gay). He recalls that their relationship primarily consisted of stealing and hanging out with each other, until Beto made sexual advances towards the narrator. Since that point, he refuses to talk to Beto, who has now left the community to attend business school.
“BOYFRIEND”
Reading Check
1. That he often cheated on her with white girls
2. They say, “no doubt she was already shopping for the lightest.”
Short Answer
1. “Boyfriend” and “Girlfriend” are the names that the narrator gives to his downstairs neighbors, who are a couple in the midst of tumultuous fights, and to whom he frequently eavesdrops on their fighting and sexual escapades. The narrator compares his recently-ended relationship with this couple, and empathizes with Girlfriend after Boyfriend walks out on her, recalling how his girlfriend treated him similarly.
2. After listening to Girlfriend cry and talk to her friends about the breakup through the walls of their apartment complex, he invites Girlfriend over for coffee, a move he realizes is “manipulative.” The two speak and have coffee, but nothing intimate happens, and eventually she leaves, never taking time to speak to him again. He sees her later with a haircut that he describes as “fierce.”
“EDISON, NEW JERSEY”
Reading Check
1. “[C]ourt case names”
2. “Quisqueyana” (i.e., Dominican women)
Short Answer
1. The narrator works as a delivery driver for a department store, along with his colleague Wayne. The two deliver pool tables to wealthy homes in the Tri-State area, where they regularly take advantage of customers by stealing or ruining objects, based on how well the clients treat them.
2. The narrator and Wayne meet a Dominican woman who works in the Pruitt household and is desperate to leave her employment. She asks him for a ride back to Washington Heights, and he acquiesces, ultimately putting him on probation at work for misconduct. When he does not hear from her after a week, he calls the Pruitt house to see if she has returned; when she answers the phone, he hangs up.
“HOW TO DATE A BROWNGIRL, BLACKGIRL, WHITEGIRL OR HALFIE”
Reading Check
1. During the “movement”
2. He removes the “government cheese” from the fridge before the girl comes over, and replaces it after.
Short Answer
1. Yunior has discovered that different races of girls require different approaches for dating, with white girls being more sexually lenient than girls “from the community.” In particular, he differentiates the potential date based on the restaurant, the time they will arrive, and how far he will be able to go with them sexually.
2. The type of girl that Yunior wants most are white girls. Overall, this narrative indicates that Yunior not only has a routine, but a preference for specific types of girl, a large contrast from the original narratives where he was younger and inexperienced with women.
“NO FACE”
Reading Check
1. Because “her husband left her for a Haitian”
2. The pig eating his face
Short Answer
1. Padre Lou supports Ysrael by helping him learn English so he is prepared for his journey “up north.”
2. Ysrael lives with his mother, his father, and his brother Pesao. His mother reminds Ysrael to continue wearing his mask so his father does not become angry.
“NEGOCIOS”
Reading Check
1. “You had best remember where this money came from.”
2. “[A] suitcase filled with Eulalio’s best clothes”
3. His back
Short Answer
1. Ramón initially leaves his wife and children’s house after he starts sleeping with “the puta”; however, after a dream regarding the loss of the potential money from his wife’s father, he pays a visit to Abuelo and begs him for the money. Abuelo urges him to leave “the puta” and move back in with his wife and children.
2. Nilda is a woman from the Dominican Republic whom Ramón meets, eventually marries, and has a child with. As she is an American citizen, he is able to get citizenship, which he uses to support his family with their relocation to New York.
3. Ramón leaves Nilda for his first wife and family. He does this by slowly moving out of Nilda’s house after finding a new apartment for his family.
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