He picked up the bundle and ran down the alley. Some other boys saw him an wheeled around, howling but, coño, could he run.It is obvious that the boys, or Yunior at least, have a certain amount of respect for Ysrael's physical prowess. Díaz also makes us respect him as readers for his strength and perseverance in his training in the second story focused on him, "No Face."
He goes to the guanábana tree and does his pull-ups, nearly fifty now, and then picks up the café dehuller and holds it to his chest for a forty count. His arms, chest, and neck bulge and the skin around his temple grows tight, about to split. But no! He's unbeatable and drops the dehuller with a fat Yes. (153)I found this passage to be very impressive and it certianly made me impressed by Ysrael's commitment to his training. However, is this training self-imposed, or is it forced on him by the rest of the people of the island who are constantly fighting against him? I think that it was forced on him as it was necessary for his survival, but then he grew proud of his strength and now strives to better himself in that regard.
When Rafa and Yunior find him towards the end of the first story, Yunior asks if Ysrael is still interested in wrestling. Ysrael says that yes he is. This seems to make Rafa uncomfortable as he does not want to actually wrestle Ysrael but also does not want to lose face. He instead finds a way out of a fight, saying "You wanna try it pendejo?" Here, Rafa is relying on the fact that Ysrael is tired of fighting everyone he meets and would rather back down than wrestle Rafa. The first time I read this story, before I read "No Face," I did not realize this subtlety since I thought that Rafa really was the stronger wrestler. However, in the second story it is made clear that Ysrael would have won, since he beat four boys at once who jumped him. This means that Rafa must have know he could not possibly win a fair fight with Ysrael. Therefore, he takes after the rest of the bullies in that country and starts an unfair one. Rafa suddenly smashes a bottle on Ysrael's head and Ysrael falls. Despite his superiority, he is still defeated by Rafa who can't stand the fact that the disfigured Ysrael is superior to him, and uses trickery to make himself feel better.
You raise a great--and probably unanswerable--question here, and it's probably one that most superheroes contend with in their own more introspective moments: to what extent is Ysrael's impressive self-sufficiency and strict, almost military discipline, a result of his experiences as a social pariah, a "marked man" whose unfortunate luck as a young child has set him apart from the rest of society. As you note, some of his most impressive character traits are inseparable from his tragic fate. Like many superheroes and their own origin stories, we get the sense that Ysrael's life is transformed forever by this pig--there is no sense of what a non-mutilated Ysrael would have been like. His personality--suspicious, persecuted--is inseparable from the treatment he receives every day when he leaves the house (and, from what we glimpse at the end, even when he stays at home). He takes the mark of his difference--his mask, his outcast status--and makes it a source of power and individuation. He is shaped--in positive as well as negative ways--by this experience of ostracization.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's common to pick on someone because of your own insecurities. In the story, others might feel embarrassed that someone with a mutilated face could be faster and stronger than them so they purely focus on the negative aspects. See, if Rafa had actually fought Ysrael, it would be like one of those videos where the victim destroys the bully.
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ReplyDeleteI think that Ysrael's strength was definitely a result of the bullying and not the cause of it. I feel that it is a classic case of he did what he had to, given the tendency of kids to try to beat him up. I think that without his discipline and continuous training they would only bully him more. The fact that Rafa has only just now gotten the mask off is a testament to the effectiveness of his strength training in keeping him safe.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think Ysrael strength was at least in most part a result of his bullying and condition, I don't think the kids bully him because they are jealous of his strength, but simply because he is different. Likewise, Rafa didn't seem to have any reason for his assault on Ysrael than to satisfy his own curiosity. The mask dehumanizes Ysrael in a way that Rafa and others may not even think they are bullying a human being but rather some kind of monster.
ReplyDeleteI think Ysrael's raw physical ability is a product of his own motivation. I don't think he's developed in such a superior manner out of necessity--out of survival. Instead, I think it provides him with a way to stand out, not in a negative way, as has already been established with his mask and unfortunate disfigurement, but a positive one. Interestingly enough, it's this positive way of setting himself apart that attracts all kinds of unwanted and ironically negative attention. The neighborhood kids' obsession with his mysterious persona is only added to when he can run that much faster than they can, or do that many more pull-ups.
ReplyDeleteYsrael is bullied because he is different, and because he is separate, and that makes him a target in a situation where there is nothing to be lost but only to be gained for the others by going after him. His strength seems to just be a thing for him to develop on his own, that helps him escape them--I agree with Jack and Nicholas that the strength is not a reason for the others to pick on him, it merely makes him seem even less relatable to the others.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of the other comments above in that Ysrael's strength seems to be more of a coping mechanism for his bullying rather than the cause of it. I would also say, though, that it is not only a physical way to cope, in that it helps him keep people from beating him up, but it is also, and maybe more importantly, an emotional one. By developing his physical strength and being a fast runner, it enhances Ysrael's view of himself as a superhero, which we see in "No Face." This superhuman view of himself may help him to make sense of why people bully him. It also helps him to not care about the bullying, as he can see himself as superior to his bullies.
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