In
Junot Diaz's "Drown" performance of masculinity is shown as a self
destructive as a practice, as particularly illustrated in the short
story "No Face". The character Ysrael through his two appearances in the
book is highly symbolized through his physical appearance and actions.
His character trait of a masked, disfigured face, and obsession with
masked wrestling in itself illustrates a great deal.
The
character's focus on masked wrestling both as a cultural hyper
masculine sport and performance art illustrate the gender theory
proposed by post-structuralist Judith Butler of gender as a result of
collective performance rather than a result of physiological tendencies.
Butler’s model explains performance as the existent and perpetuated
series of acts that have come to support what the culture has, through
it’s own practice, come to identify as the idea of masculine or
feminine. That is to say the culture has come to associate acts, which
in themselves would be gender neutral, as part of a specific gender
identity solely because of the continued project of those acts upon that
gender identity and the resulting submission of individuals to
performing said acts.
Self
created identifiers such as gender serve the purpose of a cultural
language; same as language, created for ease of communication and to
allow or better discussion a previous lexical gap had left- in the cases
of identifiers we add to the cultural language in order to map out an
increasingly complex world. When an individual's acts are deemed
inappropriate in relation to the identifier by society the individual
becomes ostracized from society, deemed as an ‘other’. It’s in this fear
of ostracization that Ysrael wears a mask, his deformation separating
him in physically appearance from being relatable with the rest of his
village. Ysrael is regularly referred to as No Face, or Monster; by
being unable to physically perform as “normal” person, and is
dissociated by almost the entirety of his village. To mask his
difference he strives to take on the identifier of wrestler and even
hero to a sense, both powerplays that are attributed to hyper masculine
traits, masked wrestling and fighting evil are “manly” acts.
It
should be mentioned that Ysrael’s fantasy as Wrestler and super hero is
not negative and does not promote violence. In his book on child
development and make-believe, Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones explains
how children are both able to distinguish and rely on make believe
violence as part of their development. While the world is violent and
readily opposed to Ysreal and his differences, Ysreal is shown combating
that in a peaceful manner. Instead of running into fights with his
strength, he runs away, he does just enough to get away. When confronted
with violence or feeling threatened we see him revert to this
make-believe hero persona. The heroes in his comics, the wrestlers he
looks up to, he knows they are fake; but as play they allow him a safe
place to deal with and confront feelings of adversity because of his
difference while adhering to -and again giving him solitude from- the
expected performance.
This
is important to note to fully grasp the significance of Jonet’s Mask as
metaphor, in the final section of the short story No Face. It isn’t the
mask, the masculine persona, Ysreal hides behind that is damaging, it
is the fleas, the parasitic tendencies within hiding yourself and
constantly performing that Ysreal loses himself. What society deems
"masculine" while within itself isn't harmful the unrealistic
expectations and pressure to perform; specifically in submitting to
pursuing a social mirage, lead to self destructive patterns.
Works Cited
Gerard,
Jones. Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, And
Make-Believe Violence. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Print
Diaz, Junot. Drown. New York: Penguin Group, 1996. Print.
Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theater Journal, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 519-531. Web
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