In the short story "No Face", we are drawn deeper into the life of the character whom we assume is Ysrael. Diaz shows us the many hardships he has face and is still facing in his life. He is always the outsider and the center of someones joke. In the story, there is a scene when No Face is jumped by four boys. They ask him if he has ever been a girl before which is basically a threat to castrate him. In class we discussed how No Face is a similar character to Bengy from The Sound and Fury. Bengy to was the one character in the story who everyone made fun of and picked on, but the ironic thing is he was the one who survived and remained sane unlike the rest of the family.
No Face, like Benjy, doesn't sit around feeling sorry for himself. Instead, he carries on living his life as a super hero. While exploring deeper into No Face's life, you begin to see his true Identity. He posses all the characteristics of a great hero which are, strength, speed, invisibility, he's a helper to others and he has a mask. His super powers give him the ability to withstand the torture and cruelness of the world that he lives in. But like all superheros, No Face is also vulnerable. No Face is only picked on because he doesn't have a face. He gave himself super powers as a defense mechanism to face the taunting that he is approached with daily. If or when his face is fixed what will become of him? Will he still be a superhero or will he just be a regular kid? All his life he has been No Face, its all he has known. So to me when his face is fixed he looses his identity. He is no longer the center of every ones joke and he no longer has to defend himself. He will be able to walk around and be a normal kid. My Question is will he be a true superhero and survive?
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I agree that No Face will forever be changed if he doesn't have his mask, and his facial appearance resembles that of a normal person's face. He is a very strong character in the series of short stories and he creates an undeniable parallel to, Benjy, from The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner. The two are seen as inferior to most, because of individual situations in which they themselves had no control as to whether they occured or not. The cruelty and taunting that the two characters experienced were mainly because of other's curiosity and ignorance. Strangers were not able to understand what happened and had no explanations.
ReplyDeleteTheir experiences caused them to create barriers with others. These barriers were in the form of many different objects. No Face wore a mask, and believed himself to be a superhero. Benjy moaned uncontrollably and held on to the innocence of nature as his only escape. The two characters were in different tales from two different authors but were undeniably similar in many instances.
I think that No Face might he be a true superhero and survive, but in the far-away future instead of at present. He is now seriously affected both mentally and physically by the mask. Although he is not willing to wear a mask all the time, he has to do so. Just like Benjy in “The Sound and Fury”, people don’t like him because he can only express his feeling by moaning and crying. No Face is also not welcomed by other boys because his mask. However, unlike Benjy, No Face has chances to become a normal boy by fixing his face. If he does so in the future, his life will be better and his fate might be changed. At that time, he will be survived by himself.
ReplyDeleteI think, if and when Ysrael's face is fixed, it will not matter. Ysrael will come back to the same commuinity who has already isolated him. It is true, his face will be put back to a somewhat normal state, but everyone in his town will still associate the boy with his No Face identity. Even if he is to be treated differently as an adult with a new face the damage has still been done to him as a young child. If Ysrael were to truely survive I think he would have to move to a place where he could have a fresh start. Otherwise, his proceding impression will linger, and he will still not gain respect from his current community.
ReplyDeleteYsrael will remain a superhero once he has his operation and receives a new face. Like all superheroes, No Face will evolve. Change is an innate and inevitable part of life. Due to the tribulations that No Face has endured, he is more well-equipped than others on how to deal with conflict. In addition, No Face can now share his inspiring story with others who have been bullied. Although Ysrael will have a face, the people who knew him prior to his operation will still remember him and his life pre-op. Consequently, they may still carry the same feelings, whether sympathetic or hateful, toward him. In addition, his new face will help him grow as not only No Face but Ysrael as well. As a result of his new face, Ysrael will have the opportunity to do and enjoy the same activities that other children have done for years. Now Ysrael has two faces, the face on his mask as well as the one behind it.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Ysrael with continue to be a superhero. Perhaps with this new face he will be known as New Face. It will take a lot of time for the fellow neighbors to greet him by his real name Ysrael, because they are not accustombed to it. With his new identity, he can further his quest to be a hero, and will mature and grow and be able to protect those that once suffered as he did. Of course, as others mentioned before me, it is possible that the children continue to bully and beat him, however they do not have any excuse now. Before they were encouraged by curiosity to see his face, and hatred, but now that he has a face he is normale and would be their equal. Eventually he may become Ysrael, however I believe that it would take quite a while. In the other books we read, Benjy was the only one who survived the fall of the Compson family, and Macduff, who remained loyal and true, defeated Macbeth, so we could draw the conclusion that Ysrael will come out on top. He is a boy with good morals, and a pure soul.
ReplyDeleteI beleive that experiences continue to alter people's live in Drown, and in the case of Ysrael, his surgeory is what worries him the most. Because he is a superhero and he always stands to fight evil, that will not change. His imagination is what continues to save him throughout his life, despite his face, jokes about him, or mistreatment from the community. This surgeory will make a huge impact in his life depending on its success or failure but I'd like to belive that innocence in Ysrael will remain untouched. The superhero will survive and live on.
ReplyDeleteI believe that No Face will remain the same even if he does change his own physical appearance. If he would have received the operation when he was a young boy, he would have been raised completely different than how he was actually raised. Every encounter with another person had been an experience for him, usually resulting in his use of super powers because of the evil he was facing. When we meet No Face he is already well into his adolescence, so that which he grew up with has been instilled in him his entire life. Despite possibly of successfully completing the surgery, No Face will remain a super hero. This super hero identity will never disappear. His face will not determine all his hardships, his heart, mind, and the world that surrounds him will.
ReplyDeleteI think that once Ysrael has the surgery for his face, he won't feel the need to pretend he's a superhero anymore. However, I feel like he is going to be let down when he realizes that even with a new face, the old predjudices people had against him are still there. The people of his town have built him up to be a monster and maybe even a legend, and they will not accept him now, even with a new face. That being said, I believe that if Ysrael decides to leave his town and move somewhere new after his surgery, the strength that he learned as a child will be to his advantage and he will be able to make something of his life.
ReplyDeleteOther than being misunderstood, I don't really think that there's much of a parallel between Benjy and No Face. No Face clearly understands his surroundings, is capable of linear memory, and doesn't need to be fed by a family servant. Benjy understands more than we may think he does, and his innocence makes him endearing to the reader, but Benjy reacts to everyone and everything, and one small change in his environment is devastating to him. No Face has learned to adapt--his father will not accept him, so he bonds with a new "father". The other boys antagonize him, so No Face develops a detailed fantasy life wherein he is a superhero and cannot be harmed. So I disagree with the suggestion that the characters mirror one another.
ReplyDeleteI think Ysrael’s outcome depends entirely on the surgery. If it goes well, he just might be the new kid in town or the same old monster, Ysrael. He might be an entirely new person physically but the same scared Ysrael. And if it goes wrong, he will remain the monster everyone picks on and he will still have to console himself by believing he is a superhero.
ReplyDeleteI must say, I think Benjy and Ysrael mirror each other only in their imaginations to console themselves, not particularly their characters.
I think this is a very good issue to dicuss. While No Face has never known anything else, I think he will benefit from his operation. Like every other child he just wants to fit in and be liked by the other boys. As for his identity, I do not believe he will stop being a hero. Instead I believe he will be more sympathetic with those boys and children who look or act differently because he will know what they are feeling and what they are going through. I believe No Face will be the voice of the scared and ridiculed once he has his "new" face.
ReplyDeleteI think that you are totally right when you say his "no face" makes him who he is. It makes him no face. Although he has lived a painful past and suffered through it. I think that if he were to get his face fixed he would no longer have that superhero image. Being a superhero allowed him to escape the reality of his life, the reality of his hurt and pain that he suffered form others.
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