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 with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Story 8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Story 8 Summary: “Miss Lora”
While grieving for Rafa who recently died, 16-year-old Yunior finds himself attracted to a middle-aged female neighbor named Miss Lora. Like Yunior, Lora is also Dominican. This infatuation starts while Yunior is dating Paloma, who doesn’t have sex with him. When he mentions that Lora likes him, Paloma calls her a “disgusting old hag” (157). He becomes obsessed with Lora, a former competitive gymnast who is uninhibited and mature. Of Lora, Yunior says, “Bitch made Iggy Pop look chub, and every summer she caused a serious commotion at the pool” (154).
Lora gets a job teaching at the high school Yunior attends, and one day the student gymnasts convince her to show off; Lora responds by doing a perfect back flip.
Yunior goes on to college. He continues to see Lora at times but is now embarrassed by their age difference. Yunior explains, “At Rutgers, where you’ve finally landed, you date like crazy and every time it doesn’t work out you’re convinced that you have trouble with girls your own age. Because of her” (169). When Yunior finally falls for a girl, Negra, he tells Negra about Lora. Negra gets angry and bangs on Lora’s door, but Lora doesn’t answer. Eventually Lora moves, as does Yunior’s mother. Yunior looks for Lora but never finds her.
Story 8 Analysis
Sixteen-year-old Yunior’s relationship with the middle-aged Miss Lora reflects some of the guilt and mixed emotions Yunior experiences early on regarding his sexual conduct. Miss Lora has no hang-ups about sex or her body, unlike girls Yunior’s age. He says, “The girls you boned. They were always ashamed after. And there was always panic. Someone heard. Fix the bed up. Open the windows. Here there is none of that. Afterward, she sits up, her chest as unadorned as yours” (162).
Despite the age difference, Lora wants bonding and a least somewhat legitimate relationship. Yunior paraphrases her, “If you have to go, wait till I fall asleep, OK? But after a few weeks it’s Please don’t go. And finally just: Stay” (164).
This story is also from the second-person perspective, with Díaz again placing the reader as Yunior while also effectively distancing Yunior from these events. This might be seen as an especially apt point-of-view choice with material that acknowledges and somewhat attempts to address the crime of statutory rape. In New Jersey, the age of consent is 16, so technically what Miss Lora does is not a crime. Nevertheless, it would be considered as such in many states, and readers should grapple with the implications of this age gap. If, in “Otravida, Otravez,” readers see Yasmin resign herself to a less-than-ideal position in her relationship with Ramon, here, readers see Yunior, struggling to process the death of his brother, begin a relationship with a woman who breaks the law and knowingly takes advantage of him.
It’s telling that this story arrives very late in the collection and well after readers witness Yunior’s sexual escapades and generally poor behavior towards females. One psychological effect of both male and female victims of sexual assault may be a dysfunctional preoccupation with aspects of the sexual brought on by sex-related trauma. While this in no way necessarily excuses Yunior’s actions with other women—which, it may be argued, is why Diaz places the story so late in the collection—it does help to explain them. Here, Yunior, through Lora, is able to locate both a matriarchal figure and a sexually-adept lover, with the tradeoff being that this seemingly-ideal hybrid is also a rapist. We even see Lora say something akin to what Yunior tells Magda in “The Sun, The Moon, The Stars,” when Lora urges Yunior to stay so that they can work things out, which flies in the face of the reality of their relationship.
Related Titles
By Junot Díaz
