The U.S. is divided and there are many debates. Marches, riots, demonstrations and disagreements in the Senate. This all can connect to today--2021.

The narrator is asking so many questions here. Do all these questions reveal his fears about the war? The many questions show all the unknowns of the war.

The narrator is comparing courage to an inheritance. Why?

The narrator feels shame. Feels pressure. Shame for wanting to flee? Shame for fighting in the war? Why does he feel this way?

"growing heat" contrasted with the "cold river"

a type of flower

https://gardenerspath.com/plants/flowers/grow-four-o-clock/

Port Elizabeth is known as the financial district in SE South Africa.

Transvaal is a former province of South Africa. It occupied the northeastern part of the country. The Limpopo River marked its border with Botswana and Zimbabwe to the north, while the Vaal River marked its boundary with Orange Free State province to the south.

Free State is a province, east-central Republic of South Africa. Under the name Orange Free State, it was originally a Boer state and then (from 1910) one of the traditional provinces of South Africa; it was renamed Free State in 1995.

Natal is a former province of South Africa. It was the smallest of the four traditional provinces and occupied the southeastern part of the country.

Cape Province is also called Cape of Good Hope, Afrikaans Kaapprovinsie or Kaap die Goeie Hoop, a former province of South Africa, occupying the southern extremity of the African continent.

"mealies": corn

"grapes"--used for making wine

Repeat of the simple sentences from earlier. Same form but he is showing that the duties are over. They workers have done their jobs.

So, does the author really never find out? Can we have a resolution without knowing the fate of the driver? What do you think?

Again, the author uses language as if he is a TV extra (actor).

Are we supposed to think about Law and Order here? CSI? etc.

We as readers are meant to question the author's place in this setting. Is he being helpful? Is it his time to go now?

The simple sentences reveal the seriousness of the situation.

B.C. Edwards---narrator; driver; 2 men

Conflict-Establishing elements of the plot---What is the author witnessing...Is the driver dead already? What is going on?

respite: rest or relief

What does this title refer to?

St. Petersburg is a city on Florida's gulf coast, part of the Tampa Bay area.

Puppy is a nickname for Claire's father's fiancée or wife-to-be. Her real name is Poppy.

"they" refers to the Confederates losing the Civil War.

Ocean City, Maryland, a resort town. It features miles of beach and a wooden boardwalk lined with restaurants, shops and hotels.

Anton Chekhov allegedly said in the 1880s: “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.” In dramatic performance or writing or film, anything explicitly mentioned must be used. Once something is used or introduced, it will be used later.

In this moment, Machado says that a “metaphorical gun” has been placed on the mantelpiece: “The gun is set upon the mantlepiece” (125). Machado emphasizes the “metaphorical gun” as opposed to a literal gun. This means that the presence of the threat is out in the open, in an open space that is shared between Machado and her girlfriend. That threat will not go away. It will come back. It’s not going anywhere, just like Chekhov’s gun. Once it is introduced, it is there to stay—there is no turning back or erasing what has been mentioned. Machado, here, is explaining how the threat, the presence of danger, is constant and looming until she is freed from the abusive relationship.

Lethe is one of the five rivers in Hades, the underworld in Greek mythology. Lethe means oblivion, forgetfulness or concealment (from Mythology.net). The River Lethe is the river of forgetfulness. The significance of the Greek river of forgetfulness appears to mirror Machado's own forgetfulness in her relationship. She continually "forgets" how deeply she is caught in the abusive relationship patterns with her partner. It seems as if, after each instance of abuse, she takes the hurt and pain in. She allows for each abusive instance to seep into her psyche and emotions.

This becomes interesting when it comes to the River Lethe allusion because one can argue that each time she allows the abuse to seep into her she is “drinking from Lethe” so to speak: “All those who drank from the river experienced forgetfulness, and Lethe’s murmuring sound would induce drowsiness” (from Mythology.net). As Machado forgets, her girlfriend grows drowsier and drowsier while driving. The two of them together are direct products of this Greek river. When Machado wakes her girlfriend up from nodding off while driving, the girlfriend is angry and in denial that she is sleepy. This is a sign of her own forgetfulness as well.

And let us not ignore the larger image of the two of them driving in darkness, at night, into oblivion, deeper into unconsciousness. Together, they are speeding into the daze, further into the stupor of their broken relationship.

These films really locate the reader in a particular time--mid-90s, early 2000s in film.

This seems to be in juxtaposition with the meanness and violence she encounters later on in her relationship with a woman. Is she wanting to punish herself for some reason? If so, why? Because her parents did not seem to respect her intellect and mind? Or is there another reason why she rejects gentleness? Why such a self-punishing tendency?

"giving permission" is reminiscent of sexual consent (and the four types of consent).

The use of the words "twisting," "swallowing," and "eating" reveals not only the hunger and excitement shared between the two women but also foreshadows the domestic violence in the girlfriend's parents' house in Florida.

The literary technique that Machado is using is called a polysyndeton. The repeated use of conjunctions without commas adds a particular rhythm to the sentence. Machado reveals how passionate and gluttonous the two are in their relationship and as they eat food from the sea.

This description reminds me of the atmosphere of a thriller or horror film. The unnerving, slow build to a break of some sort...

The threat lurks outside and inside the home.

Perhaps the mother is too scared to eat. Living in fear of her husband's next violent move.

This seems to connect to the narrator's interest in giving attention to abuse that occurs within same sex relationships.

This reminds me of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. When Lt. Cross asks the narrator to never write about his failure of leadership with regard to Ted Lavender in the Vietnam War. But the narrator writes about it anyway.

Why is this? How is Arlenny different? Because she is a scholar and fellow academic? She knows better than to get involved with Yunior?

This is a great example of Junot Diaz's sense of humor. He paints a ridiculous, almost cartoonish, image of Yunior here. He reduces Yunior's abilities down to some very basic movements (understatement) and even those (movements) come as a result of pain and numbness that Yunior feels.

I wonder whether this is a reference to the story entitled "Edison, New Jersey" that is in Drown by Junot Diaz? In "Edison, New Jersey" the narrator delivers and builds pool tables with his co-worker named Wayne. The two characters drive around different towns in New Jersey and share stories about their love lives and relationships. This is such an interesting connection (and possible allusion) to another story by Diaz. It makes me wonder whether the narrator in "Edison, New Jersey" is Yunior or reminiscent of Yunior in any way?

What an effective use of simile. Are we supposed to think that Lora is deformed at all? Or that she has a hormone imbalance? The way that she is described seems odd--skinny yet muscular, feminine yet masculine. Attractive yet horrific.

In Diaz' storytelling, it is often the father who leaves (or betrays) the mother. Here, however, for Lora it is the reverse. Lora's mother leaves the father and the family for an Italian waiter.

I wonder if this is how we can explain Lora's actions? Her involvement with an adolescent boy? How has the absence of a mother altered her outlook on life and ability to form relationships? Does she form a bond with Yunior because she is acting like a mother figure that she never had? Does she sexually abuse Yunior because she and her father were emotionally abused by the mother?

This image is descriptive and intense. It gives the reader a vivid picture of the terror that Yunior feels living without his brother and amidst the fear of a nuclear war attack. This is clearly a nightmare reality that Yunior is sharing. But there is another message here that is hidden under the surface.

What is interesting is the existence of the nightmare and Diaz' particular description of it--biting the tongue and feeling the blood drip down and tasting the blood. After reading Diaz' article in The New Yorker--"The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma"--there exists a similar description detailing the aftermath of nightmares that Diaz experiences as a victim of rape. Diaz writes, "Often the dreams were so upsetting that I would bite my tongue, and the next morning I’d spit out blood into the bathroom sink." This distress must be significant because Diaz mentions it for a second time in his article. What one may notice is that Diaz is not only writing about an anxious period in time for Yunior but also about an anxious time for Diaz himself. In Diaz’ article, he expresses how the trauma of rape filters through his life in all stages. He says that his trauma seeps into his writing too. He writes, “you’d be amazed how easy it is to rewrite the truth away.” It seems highly likely, from what Diaz himself explains, that this unforgettable image of the bitten and bloody tongue is his attempt at “rewriting the truth”. For Yunior, the fear of nuclear attack, the anxiety and depression caused by The Day After, and his brother’s death feed his violent dreams. For Diaz, the fear, anger, anxiety, depression, and suicidal tendencies caused by repeated childhood rape fuel his horrific dreams and terror-filled waking hours.

This image is descriptive and intense. It gives the reader a vivid picture of the terror that Yunior feels living without his brother and amidst the fear of a nuclear war attack. This is clearly a nightmare reality that Yunior is sharing. But there is another message here that is hidden under the surface.

What is interesting is the existence of the nightmare and Diaz' particular description of it--biting the tongue and feeling the blood drip down and tasting the blood. After reading Diaz' article in The New Yorker--"The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma"--there exists a similar description detailing the aftermath of nightmares that Diaz experiences as a victim of rape. Diaz writes, "Often the dreams were so upsetting that I would bite my tongue, and the next morning I’d spit out blood into the bathroom sink." This distress must be significant because Diaz mentions it for a second time in his article. What one may notice is that Diaz is not only writing about an anxious period in time for Yunior but also about an anxious time for Diaz himself. In Diaz’ article, he expresses how the trauma of rape filters through his life in all stages. He says that his trauma seeps into his writing too. He writes, “you’d be amazed how easy it is to rewrite the truth away.” It seems highly likely, from what Diaz himself explains, that this unforgettable image of the bitten and bloody tongue is his attempt at “rewriting the truth”. For Yunior, the fear of nuclear attack, the anxiety and depression caused by The Day After, and his brother’s death feed his violent dreams. For Diaz, the fear, anger, anxiety, depression, and suicidal tendencies caused by repeated childhood rape fuel his horrific dreams and terror-filled waking hours.

It is interesting to have this perspective of a younger, more vulnerable Yunior because we as readers know that he (as a teenager) loves to use his recently acquired English. We have access to this information because of Diaz's use of unstable chronology from one story to another. By jumping around in time in his storytelling, we experience moments of Yunior as a teenager and in later stories we have him as a younger boy who has just arrived to the United States. In this moment in "Invierno," we see his vulnerability as an immigrant who feels alienated in a new land that has its own language. Here, Yunior is not swaggering around using his Spanglish to degrade and objectify women. Instead, he is miming and gesturing his desires with Elaine on a cold winter day. Diaz writes, "She took her hands out of her mittens and rubbed them together. We were out of the wind and I followed her example" (141). Uncharacteristically (at least in comparison to his older years), Yunior is following the lead of the opposite gender. He watches her to make a similar move. In the next moment when Eric shows up, Yunior copies Elaine's moves in stepping out of the pipe. Yunior is limited in his language comprehension and Diaz shows this when he writes, "She was standing next to her brother. When he saw me he yelled something and threw a snowball in my direction" (141). When Diaz writes "yelled something," he emphasizes the likely possibility that Yunior does not understand what Eric is saying. This shows that Yunior is isolated with regard to the English language, exchange and communication.