The Trials and Tribulations of Love Anonymous College

Junot Diaz’s book This Is How You Lose Her provides an insightful look into love and loss, mostly through the eyes of its narrator, Yunior. Within this collection are stories of Yunior’s infidelity and the relationships of those around him; this includes tales of his family’s struggles with their respective partnerships. There is a subtle but evident shift in Yunior’s attitude as these stories progress, turning him into a more rounded character. Though greatly flawed, Yunior’s complexities make him human and allow him to reach a newfound understanding of love and its consequences. It is through attempting to cope with heartbreak that he learns to value the ideas of intimacy and compassion. By doing so, Diaz justifies the importance of moving on from past mistakes, rather than dwelling on them and letting them cause destruction to himself. With the use of a dynamic character such as Yunior, Diaz is then able to acknowledge the presence of male privilege, and emphasize the significance of dismantling the code of masculinity in order to truly understand oneself and one another.

Despite Yunior’s claim that he is “not a bad guy” in “The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars,” his penchant for cheating is highly evident in many of the stories...