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Ruby Reilly
Ernie Diaz is Evelyn’s first husband. Though his marriage to Evelyn allows her to get to Hollywood and begin her acting career, he pays little attention to her interests and expects her to behave like a typical housewife of the 1950s. When Evelyn leaves him at the advice of Sunset Studio’s producers, Ernie is heartbroken, revealing that he was completely oblivious to Evelyn taking advantage of him.
Ernie Diaz Quotes in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo quotes below are all either spoken by Ernie Diaz or refer to Ernie Diaz. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 8 Quotes
I blame pheromones, ultimately.
That and the fact that, at least at first, Don Adler treated me like a person. There are people who see a beautiful flower and rush over to pick it. They want to hold it in their hands, they want to own it. They want the flower’s beauty to be theirs, to be within their possession, their control. Don wasn’t like that. At least, not at first. Don was happy to be near the flower, to look at the flower, to appreciate the flower simply being.
Related Characters:
Evelyn Hugo (speaker), Don Adler, Ernie Diaz
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
62-63
Explanation and Analysis:
Evelyn describes her attraction to Don, which doesn’t spring from her admiration of his good looks or her desire to share in his fame, but from the pleasure of being treated like a person rather than a possession. It’s clear from this passage that, even early on in her career, Evelyn has already grown accustomed to men objectifying her and wanting to possess her. The metaphor of the flower implies not only that Evelyn felt other men wanted her just for her looks, but also that they saw Evelyn as something delicate and innocent. Though Evelyn resists this, she came up with the flower metaphor herself, which is a sign of her ability to hold contrasting ideas in balance: she knows she is beautiful, but she’s frustrated by how her beauty allows men to treat her.
The flower metaphor also extends to underline how Evelyn felt around Don, versus by other men. When someone picks a flower, they cut off that flower’s access to nutrients, essentially ending its life. For Evelyn, the threat of a man possessing her makes her fear for her life, or at least the life she desires. This is perhaps because, when she was with Ernie, her first husband, she knew he’d eventually expect her to give up her career in order to start a family. In contrast, the idea of a life with Don doesn’t present this threat—at least not when Evelyn first falls in love with him—which suggests that she can envision being with Don while remaining connected to the other things that fuel her, like her growing career.
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Ernie Diaz Character Timeline in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The timeline below shows where the character Ernie Diaz appears in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
...But Evelyn knew she held men’s attention, and she’d heard that one of her neighbors, Ernie Diaz, was about to take a job in Hollywood, so she knocked on his door...
(full context)
Chapter 5
...protect by lying. Monique tells her to start at the beginning, with her first husband, Ernie Diaz.
(full context)
Chapter 6
...and bad people get punished. Evelyn puts on her favorite green dress and knocks on Ernie Diaz’s door. They marry—Evelyn is only just 15—and move to Hollywood, where they save up...
(full context)
Evelyn tells Ernie, dishonestly, that acting will be something fun for her to do until she becomes a...
(full context)
...to go on dates with a few movie stars, implying that she needs to divorce Ernie. She writes him a letter expressing false love and heartbreak. Looking back, Evelyn doesn’t feel...
(full context)
