"The Pura Principle" Thoughts

I thought that "The Pura Principle" views illness in a very interesting way. A short story, "The Pura Principle" documents the life of Rafa, who is the the main character's brother. Rafa, a Hispanic man in his early twenties, suffers from cancer. Instead of letting this illness get in his way, Rafa tries to persevere through it because in simple words, he does not want to look like a bitch.  Consequently, Rafa gets a part time job but loses it due to his illness, marries a girl named Pura who steals from him and Rafa's mom, and leaves multiple days at a time with no warning. Yunior, the main character, also mentions that though he is much stronger than the now weak Rafa, he stills fears Rafa because Rafa keeps the attitude that he is going to live forever and retain his strength.

In my opinion, the main message of the story is that illness cannot keep some people down.  I think that this message is actually buttressed by the genre of this article: a short story. All of the anecdotes that Yunior reminisces about his brother shows that Rafa did not let cancer get in his way.  Rafa did whatever he wanted (i.e. get a job though he couldn't leave the couch half the time), and did not really care about the consequences. Thus, he proved that illness did not control or really influence his life.  In my opinion, only a short story could portray this message. Due to the fact that the short story actually gave real scenarios about how Rafa's illness through debilitating did not get in his way, I think that the short story genre was the best way to express the message. I do not think that fiction would be able to express this message as well because though it may have examples, they may not necessarily be true or realistic. Thus, the fiction article would detract from the main message of persevering through illness.