In "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)," Junot Diaz, the setting—the Terrace—gives the reader a sense of familiarity or unfamiliarity, depending on their background, and impacts the story by giving the narrator a different experience with girls depending on their interpretation of the setting in which he lives.
At the beginning of the story, the narrator is thinking about his upcoming plans with a girl. Diaz writes:
Her parents won’t want her seeing a boy from the Terrace—people get stabbed in the Terrace—but she’s strong-headed and this time will get her way.
This shows a sense of disconnection between him and the people in his life. He's used to the possibility of violence—the stabbing—but the people he wants to be around aren't used to it. It makes them look down on him and shows the difficulty he has in dating people from another place.
If he's dating someone from another place, however, it's a different experience. He says:
If the girl’s...
(The entire section contains 3 answers and 781 words.)
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