36 pages • 1 hour read
Junot DíazThis Is How You Lose Her
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
Story 1
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Story 1 Summary: “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars”
In “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars,” Yunior has a “good girl” girlfriend named Magda. Magda hyperventilates when she receives a letter from another woman, Cassandra, detailing her affair with Yunior. To repair the relationship, Yunior takes Magda to Santo Domingo for a vacation. Every time he turns his back, men hit on Magda. This angers Yunior, even though he too flirts with other women, including one named Lucy.
One night, Yunior drinks too much and goes out to the Cave of the Jagua, which he calls the “perfect place for insight,” (24). In the darkness, he has visions that his relationship is over. Upon returning to the hotel, a crying Magda wants to leave Santo Domingo. He tells her, “This can work. All we have to do is try” (25).
Story 1 Analysis
In the book’s first story, Yunior arrives to the reader as charismatic due to his ability to turn a phrase. At the same time, he is extremely unseemly, due to his treatment of women. This Jekyll-and-Hyde quality will remain a part of his character for much of the book.
Magda means “high and noble” in Latin. The contrast between Magda and Lucy, the girl Yunior flirts with at the resort, creates a binary between female characters in the story that extends across Diaz’s collection: females are either extremely virtuous or the
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