The Generalization Of No Face In Junto Diaz's Drown '

In Junto Díaz’s book, “Drown”, the effect of Ysreal’s single story turning into No face’s humanized struggle is to show when hearing a legend there’s a thought of a specific title that summarizes it as another legend; but when placing an adjective upon what is being seen, there is a deeper analyzation and meaning that creates uncertainty when trying to generalize it.

The first chapter of Drown, Ysreal, shows numerous examples of the generalization of the No Face, exposing the horrific story of an identity less monster. Many things are learned about No Face but none of the facts included his name (other than the title) or the good things about him, they were all hideous and bluntly exposed physical traumas and actions No Face did or what had

Padre Lou asks. I’ve been running out of energy. Padre Lou sits down. He looks like one of those Cuban shopkeepers in his shorts and guayabera. He puts his hands together. I’ve been thinking about you up north. I’m trying to imagine you in the snow. Snow won’t bother me. Snow bothers everybody. Do they like wrestling?’… ‘Let’s go take care of that, OK? Just don’t use the red stuff. We don’t use the red stuff anymore. We have the white stuff now and it doesn’t hurt. I’ll believe it when I see it” (157). In this moment, his optimism is shown through his light-hearted curiosity and responses to his priest. He is cut and has just been harassed by a group of boys, and had to fend for himself yet his optimism allowed him to joke and converse with another person which many people can’t do. “On some nights he opens his eyes and the pig has come back. Always huge and pale. Its hooves peg his chest down and he can smell the curdled bananas on its breath. Blunt teeth rip a strip from under his eyes and the muscle revealed is delicious, like lechosa. He turns his head to save one side of his face; in some dreams, he saves the right side and in some his left…” (157). When light is shown through this dream it becomes evident that even through his nightmares that have become his dreams he finds a way to save a part of himself, a way to give himself hope that part of him is still his. When hearing No Face there isn’t a thought about all of these attributes that make him Ysreal, there is only the story everyone has heard. When he is given his identity –finally- there are so many pieces to Ysreal there is nothing else to do other than think of him as an