Throughout the reading I saw a link between absent fathers and America. It was the most obvious with Yunior, even though the quote that made me think about this the most didn't really have anything obvious to do with his father, "when Abuelo was around (and awake) he talked to me about the good old days, when a man could still make a living from his finca, when the United States wasn't something folks planned on." To me it seems like his Father went to America to try and make a better life, but he left his family behind, and his mother especially was forced to wait around for the Father to come back and "save" them, much like many of them viewed America as saving them.
This is seen again on 87 where Yunior and Rafa's dad is actually compared to Jesus. There's a running emphasis about northamerican things making people better, and these boys expected their Father to come back with all of the riches that they think he's getting, but we already know that the Father isn't that great of a character. ALSO, Ysrael's father and america are basically seen as the same thing in the first chapter, and Rafa is so convinced that Ysrael's face will never get fixed...
What do you think about the relationship between Fathers, America, and saving? What is the author trying to do here?
I think, according to Drown, America is more of a place where fathers can run away from the families. I mean, yes they are still sending their families money and their children clothes and all, but still the fathers don't have to be with their families and this might makes them feel like they are free. So in a way America is "saving" the fathers for their own selfish reasons. The fact that Ramon won't write back to his wife and keep ignoring his family makes me think America is a place where fathers can get away just for a while, because in the end, they still come back. Ramon did go back to DR to get his family but only after he grew sick of his second family. But I guess America stands for many other things to foreigners as well.
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