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Gender, Race, Social Class And Relationship Essay

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Gender, Race, Social Class and Relationship
“How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” is in the first story collection of Junot Diaz that was published in 1996. Junot Diaz was born in Dominican Republic, he moved to the United States at the age of seven. He is currently a creative writing teacher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Meyer 97). In the short story, Diaz describes how a teenage boy approaches romantic relationships and characterizes the girls based on their race and social class, instead of focusing on their individuality. The author also adds some sarcastic details to point out that a relationship should be built on trust, not massive lies. In the book Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, Barry defines narratology “as the study of how narratives make meaning, and what the basic mechanisms and procedures are which are common to all acts of story-telling” (Barry 214). Barry also introduces the narrative theories of famous narratologists - Aristotle, Vladimir Propp, and Gerard Genette. In Genette’s theory, he discusses six areas including narrative mode, focalisation, kinds of narrators, timing, types of narratives, and different types of speeches. The story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” answers six questions from the theory of Genette and has successfully depicted Diaz’s theme regarding the impact of gender, race, and social class on one’s behavior towards others, In his

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