Through "Bonds of Love", Benjamin’s psychoanalytic dissection on how masculinity and femininity have become linked to the roles of master and slave, she attempts to explicate why and how this situation corrupts our amatory lives and worse, our social existence. Junot Diaz parallels the root of Benjamin’s concern in his short story, "Fiesta 1980". In this piece, there is no room to argue that Yunior’s father, Papi, holds a forcefully dominant position over the rest of the family, while the mother takes a much less assertive position. Papi is heavily abusive to his wife and kids, particularly towards his oldest son Yunior (the narrator) over any of the other children. Whether it is expressed by the physical abuse towards Yunior, the dismissive scoldings at his wife, or his ability to make his youngest daughter’s lip quiver “like some specialized tuning fork” at the sound of his voice-the Man has all the power at home, in the car, and else where. The Woman, being the subdued, well rehearsed, nurturing Woman that she is [forced to be] tiptoes her way through the story finding her place comforting her son, or chatting quietly with her sister in a corner. While yes, this story has a specific focus on dynamics of Hispanic culture, I do think Diaz’ story parallels greatly to all aspects of society, and Benjamin's approach.
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