Summary
The story opens from Ysrael's point of view. When he wakes up in the morning, he puts on his mask and works out by doing pull-ups and using the coffee de-hulling machine. After working out, Ysrael notices that his family is in the house. He runs off before they wake, passing his tío's coffee fields on the way. As he passes his family's property, he catches sight of his mom bathing his little brother and he jumps over the fence.
Ysrael heads first to the bars looking for loose change on the ground. He scrounges up enough money to buy a bottle of soda or a johnnycake.
When the day gets hot, he goes to the church, where a man named Father Lou lets him in and gives him a café con leche. With Lou, Ysrael reads and writes for two hours with supplies that have been donated by the local school. Father Lou teaches Ysrael English in preparation for Ysrael's arrival in the United States.
After his class with Lou, Ysrael visits the house across the church. He reveals that a little girl lives in the house who sometimes invites him in to watch TV, but he always say no because he doesn't go to strangers' houses. They talk to each other using hand signals. Usually, he talks to the girl until her cleaning woman tells him to leave.
Ysrael reveals that once a week Lou takes him to the comic book store and buys him a comic book. He stands guard outside the store while Ysrael peruses his options. This week, Ysrael chooses a book about Kaliman, who wears a turban.
Ysrael moves on to describe his day-to-day life, noting that he "watches for opportunities from corners, away from people" (155). He imagines he has the power of "INVISIBILITY," which is why people don't notice him when they pass by, not even his uncle (155). The only things that seem to notice him are dogs, and they "nuzzle his feet" (155). Ysrael sees that a cat needs help crossing the street and goes to help it. Someone yells at him from a passing car and asks him if he has started eating cats. Another voice says that he'll "be eating kids next" (155). Ysrael runs away.
Later, Ysrael is ambushed while he is in the process of trying to figure out if he can afford another johnnycake. One boy sits on his chest while the other boys pummel him. They threaten to "make [Ysrael] a girl" (156). Ysrael musters a burst of strength and pushes the boy off of his chest. He runs down the street with the group of boys on his heels. The owner of the beauty shop in town tells the boys to leave Ysrael alone but no one listens to her. He runs to the church to hide, and the boys throw rocks at the door of the church. Eliseo, the church groundkeeper, scares the bullies away by banging his machete against the sidewalk.
Ysrael settles in inside the church, waiting for it to get dark so he can head back home and go to sleep in the smokehouse. Lou finds Ysrael inside the church and asks him if he's okay. Ysrael tells him that he's "been running out of energy" (157). Lou tells Ysrael that he imagines Ysrael "up north" in the snow (157). Ysrael shows Lou the cut that the bullies left on his elbow, and Lou takes him to get it fixed up.
Ysrael moves on to think about the story that led to his disfigurement: when he was a baby, a pig broke into his house and tore up his face. Often, the pig who attacked him still comes up in his dreams.
Later, Ysrael and Lou head to Ocoa on a borrowed Honda motorcycle. Ysrael leans into the turns even though Lou tells him not to. In Ocoa, they go to a clinic which is full of bleeding people. Ysrael is brought back to see a doctor, who prods at his face. He asks Ysrael questions about his health and Ysrael asks when they're going to send him to Canada. The doctor responds that they will get him there eventually. Ysrael feels worried for the surgeries he's going to receive in Canada. He wishes he can go somewhere and hide. In the hospital, he meets children with all kinds of disabilities.
The next morning, Ysrael wakes up feeling under the weather. His little brother, Pesao, is outside throwing beans at the chickens. Ysrael places his hand on his little brother's head. Pesao asks his brother where he has been and Ysrael tells him he's been fighting evil. Pesao says he wants to do the same but Ysrael informs him that he wouldn't like it. Ysrael's mother sees him and hands him his mask. She tells him to leave before his father arrives. Ysrael hides in the weeds for a moment and watches his mother bathe Pesao. And then he runs off, telling himself that "nobody's faster" (160).
Analysis
"No Face," the second-to-last story in Drown, gives us a look into the personal life of Ysrael, a character who we met in the very first story of the collection. In "Ysrael," we see Ysrael through the eyes of Yunior, who ends up attacking Ysrael alongside his older brother, Rafa. In this story, Ysrael is tormented by a group of boys in town, but we also see him going to school and spending time with his friend, Father Lou.
The violent encounter that he has with the mob of boys might have caught you off guard because it arrives so suddenly within the text. In particular, it feels jarring to witness Ysrael being tormented because we have already seen him as a gentle character who keeps mostly to himself and never causes anyone harm. In "Words Stare Like a Glass Eye: From Literary to Visual to Disability Studies and Back Again," Tobin Siebers notes the significance of this moment: "It only takes a second for the brutality to erupt around him, for a violent outcry to pierce the quiet and bring a mob of enemies to his pursuit. The 'STRENGTH' of his legs is a direct result of the hatred tracking him."
While we have seen violence in many forms throughout Drown, the violence directed towards Ysrael is perhaps the most potent, as it is enacted on an innocent individual because of the mere fact of his disability—something which he did not choose and he cannot control. When he is ambushed, not only do the boys harm him but they also taunt him and threaten to sexually assault him: "We're going to make you a girl, the fat one says and he can hear the words echoing through the meat of the fat boy's body. He wants to breathe but his lungs are tight as pockets" (156). In this way, they take away his bodily autonomy and threaten to sexually assault him which would reduce him to a "girl"—both a threat to his humanity and his masculinity, which, perhaps, is particularly harmful in a machista society. (We have seen throughout Drown the special set of challenges that women face within the social worlds of the book, including the beauty shop owner in Ysrael's town, who stands up for him but who no one listens to ever "since her husband left her for a Hatian" (156).) Ysrael himself is concerned by his own masculinity: when he has nightmares about the pig that hurt him, "he tells himself to be a man" (158).
In sharp contrast to the terrors that Ysrael has to face at the hands of his tormentors is the loving relationship that Ysrael has with Father Lou. Ysrael uses Lou's church as an enclave to escape the hatred of the town, and Lou takes care of him in ways that the rest of his neighbors fail to do so. For example, he takes it upon himself to teach Ysrael the English that he will need for when he goes to Canada for reconstructive surgery: "At the hottest part of the day Lou lets him into the church with its bad roof and poor wiring and gives him café con leche and two hours of reading and writing. The books, the pen, the paper all come from the nearby school, donated by the teacher. Father Lou has small hands and bad eyes and twice he's gone to Canada for operations. Lou teaches him the English he'll need up north. I'm hungry. Where's the bathroom? I come from the Dominican Republic. Don't be scared" (154). Additionally, it is Father Lou who takes Ysrael to Ocoa to see the doctor rather than his parents. And when Ysrael is harmed by the boys, Father Lou is the one who heals his wounds. This relationship is a positive and nurturing one, and Father Lou gives Ysrael the love that he is lacking in every other part of his life.
Readers of "No Face" might be a bit confused about Ysrael's life after reading "Ysrael." In "Ysrael," Ysrael tells Rafa and Yunior that his father is working in the States, which is the reason that he is wearing Northamerican clothes and flying a Northamerican kite. However, in "No Face," Ysrael's father is both part of the picture and does not seem completely invested in Ysrael's life. In fact, at the end of the story, Ysrael's mother tells him to leave because his father is headed back soon. It is implied that whatever Ysrael's father will do to Ysrael will result in physical harm for the boy. Finally, Ysrael tells Rafa and Yunior that he will go to New York for his reconstructive surgery, but it becomes clear in "No Face" that he is actually headed to Canada. These contradictions are not fully dealt with within Drown, and instead the reader is left to reckon with the uncertainty they cause. Perhaps, in the end, these contradictions speak more to the way that life changes. Additionally, they might suggest that what Rafa tells Yunior at the end of "Ysrael"—that Ysrael was never going to receive his surgery—is correct. Despite the fact that Ysrael never gives up hope, it seems as if the forces of life are working against him and that dream may never come true.
