Yunior is a poor Dominican immigrant sharing dating strategies with the reader. He lives in an inexpensive apartment in a mostly hispanic part of the city.
The reader can tell that Yunior is in some way ashamed of his family's living area, because he mentions hiding the government cheese (a sign of poverty) and hiding the bucket full of used toilet paper under the sink. Clearly, he is afraid girls might judge him.
These stresses...
Yunior is a poor Dominican immigrant sharing dating strategies with the reader. He lives in an inexpensive apartment in a mostly hispanic part of the city.
The reader can tell that Yunior is in some way ashamed of his family's living area, because he mentions hiding the government cheese (a sign of poverty) and hiding the bucket full of used toilet paper under the sink. Clearly, he is afraid girls might judge him.
These stresses about the apartment combine with Yunior's hints of racial anxiety, such as his suggestion to run fingers through your hair as if you were white, or to accept a white girl's false implication that you are Spanish.
Both of these issues show how having a girl in his living area can cause a great deal of anxiety for Yunior about his own identity. Sadly, he appears to believe that his poverty or his color in some way make him less worthy. Or, alternatively, he believes that these girls would perceive these things as negative.
This fear of judgment forces the reader consider the source of Yunior's attitude. Is there a larger social mindset that has created his opinions of his own home and identity?
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