The idea of the American dream is very fascinating to me. As a young kid, I was made aware of what it mean’t and I began to appreciate it more and more as I got older. This semester, I am taking Mr. Leff’s Race, Class, Gender class. We talked about the American dream and what it means to different people. For most immigrants, the American dream is the notion that if you work hard and play by the rules, you will be able to live respectability (maybe even comfortably) and support a family. In Mr. Leff’s class, we studied the American dream during different time period in American history. We debated whether or not the American dream was even possible during low points on American history like the great depression in the 20s and 30s. Was American society hindering individuals from realizing the dream? Or was the American dream achievable for all who putt in the effort? When I was younger, my father would tell me how he came to America after he finished college in India. He tells me that when he came, he had two hundred dollars in his pocket. No family, No resources, No plan. Just a dream. I found his story to align similarly with Ramon’s story in “Negocios”, Junot Diaz’s final story.
While I read “Negocios”, Junot Diaz’s final story, I kept debating whether or not Junot Diaz was doing all he could to realize the American dream and bring his family to the United States. Was he playing by the rules and working as hard as he could? Initially, Ramon’s time in the US prove him to a hard working, relentless individual. He works several different jobs, sleeps minimally, saves as money as he possibly can by cutting his living expenses and making other people pay whenever possible. He even walks by foot all the way from Miami to New York in the bitter cold in an attempt to save money. He seems motivated by something bigger than himself as he sends most of the money he makes back to his children and wife, leaving him broke.
Even though Ramon does work hard and seems to genuinely want to bring his family over to the States, he does still find time to go to parties and go to bars. After Ramon moves in with Nilda, I found his motivation and drive to realize the American dream slip. He doesn't seem nearly as dedicated or motivated with his work as he is when he first moves to the States. He buys new and expensive clothes mentions how he has to pay for eighty-eight light bulbs in his new house. He doesn’t seem nearly as focused on saving up money and sending some to his family back home. I think part of this has to do with the fact that with Nilda, he has a reliable place to sleep, a food source, and another income to support him. When Ramon is living with Nilda, he stops responding to the letters from his family back home. He reads them but it seems like he is dispatched and doesn't have the same drive to help his family back home.
Towards the end of the story, it becomes clear that Ramon was simply using Nilda when he is with her. His intentions become clear again when he begins to borrow more and more money from Nilda and starts lying to her about what he is doing with the money. After his trip to his homeland, it seems like Ramon is even more motivated to bring his family over. His relationship with Nilda seems to deteriorate slowly as they begin to fight more and more and the dream that he had when he first came to the US seems to be back.
The weird thing that happens with the Nilda situation is that we as readers feel sorry for Nilda and dislike Ramon for how he is treating her despite the fact that he is finally doing the "right" thing and leaving her for his family back in the Dominican. Situations like this complicate the idea of the American dream. Overall, I don't think that this story really does tell about the american dream. Ramon works hard enough, but he messes it up in other ways.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that Ramon "uses" Nilda any more than he uses his wife and family back in the DR (which, in a sense he does, since he gets the money to come to the US from her father). This just seems to be how these relationships go for him--he's strongly into it at first, a kid or two comes into the picture, and he starts to shy away from the long-term commitment. Going back to the "other familia" sounds great, at first (except that we now see him sneaking away from Nilda and abandoning another family, so he really can't win). But we know that, once he brings them to Northamerica, he soon takes up with "the Puerto Rican woman" and within a few years has abandoned this family, too.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it seems like Ramon is really driven by self-interest, not in the perspective of his family (well, families). He uses Nilda and his previous family for self-gain, allowing him to come to the Americas and live a relatively decent life. After the people back home pressure him to bring his family to the Americas, he abandons his family with Nilda to bring his other family to the Americas... really this story makes me feel fidgety and is kinda disturbing, though I imagine this is something that does exist... ugh. Conclusion? I don't like Ramon.
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ReplyDeleteThroughout the last story, I kept switching between respecting Ramon and disliking his actions. I think in the context of the American dream, the transitions is fairly apparent. At the beginning of the story Ramon is definitely working very hard to achieve the American dream, but I think over the course of the story he loses some of his drive. The situation is complicated more by how much he gets scammed when he is trying to make a clean living to get his family out. Especially during the beginning of the story, Ramon loses a large amount of money that he worked hard for which I think is a very big contributing factor in his later actions.
ReplyDeleteRamon is clearly working hard in the beginning as you described. Although you do say that the American Dream includes playing fair and I'm not so sure how much making other people pay for things is playing fair. He clearly falls off the path he's falling towards the end and I felt like I lost respect for him. For some reason Yunior tries to show him a somewhat sympathetic light though so maybe he knows something we don't?
ReplyDeleteI think that Ramon is clearly working very hard towards achieving the American dream, and I felt like he got pretty close. He had a family with Nilda and he had worked his way into a Union job. However, this story made it very clear that that was not to be. Between the racism at work, his injury, and his original family I felt that Diaz made it clear that Ramon was not going to achieve the American dream, no matter how hard he worked or how close he got.
ReplyDeleteAs the story continued, I was torn between Ramon's old family and the new one he was making with Nilda. I never felt like he was working purely for self-interest though; he simply didn't have to work as hard as he does or spend that much effort trying to send money back home or try to be subtle about breaking off from Nilda. Ramon is caught between two loyalties, and the end result is that he seems like he isn't loyal to anyone.
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ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that his intentions for what he'll do in the US seem very organized and well thought out in the Dominican Republic, prior to actually travelling, but upon entering the US itself, his focus does seem to blur a bit. Indeed, he works hard initially. That's been well established. But the process of voluntarily and eagerly developing a new relationship with a new woman eventually leading to more children seems very odd to me. His intentions begin to shift away from his family back in Central America. Once his disloyalty's been fully established, he then leaves his new family, furthering his infidelity covered appearance. All the while, the narrator appears to be practically sympathizing with him. It's a very complicated, but certainly fascinating tale.
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