Change in Oscar Wao

by Nathan Gale

There is a notion towards change that follows the narration of each character, from Oscar to Belcia and even onward onto Yunior. This change manifests itself in many different ways, as a way of escaping ones identity, or even in Oscar case in loosing weight. Change is not always adaptable to their situations, and they have a hard time following through with that change. One example is Oscars courage to take Yuniors help and advice as they began a routine of jogging and healthy dieting. At first Oscar is compliant towards his new regime, but with it he suddenly becomes the brunt of the schools jokes. Under this pressure he gives up, in a sense he vacates his dream of changing because of what people think about him. This shows how characters like Oscar become burdened by their own change, and cannot handle the consequences of that change has upon the world around them. Not until Oscar falls madly in love with Jablesse do we see him follow through, and his change internalizes and becomes personal to him in the light of romantic love. For Oscar change must have some kind of personal motivation behind its cause, yet motivation seems the rarest element in Oscar’s physique, and he discovers it only in brief spurts of inspiration, through contact with other individuals, both in love and in friendship. Oscar essentially desires a friend, someone who will give him the encouragement he requires. And he finds this friendship in Yunior, who sees in him what others have not. Indeed, Plato defined friendship as the highest form of love.

In the brief narration by Lola we see how she is subject to change, as she tries to become less of brat, and more of a women. We see this clearly in the passage: “I would let myself grow dark in the sun, no more hiding from it, let my hair indulge in all its kinks, and she would have passed me on the street and never recognized me.” For Lola change comes in the form of personal development, both physically and mentally. She seeks to become a person who is no longer familiar to her mother, to her family. She realizes that the fuku or curse is not something superstitious and mystical, but life itself. Life is the curse she believes we all must endure with one way or another “The curse, some of you will say. Life, is what I say. Life.” At the death of her first true love, Max, she sees how the curse is something not only the Cabrals must deal with but what everyone must deal with. This is ultimately her success in changing herself. She understands that fuku does not just follow families or individuals, but it is figuring out life in itself. That fuku has only become a form of excuse, not to change, in her families history and in their everyday present lives.

Week 6, focus on 'The Final Letter

In 'The Final Letter', the author implies that Oscar's death is worth it, for Oscar risked his life to uncover beauty and love. The final sentence reads, “So this is what everybody's always talking about! If only I'd known. The beauty! The beauty!” (335). At first glance, it may appear as though all Oscar really accomplished was having sex. However, the implications behind sex throughout this book is so great that sex is more than fucking. It is an important element in Dominican culture as well as a mark of love and acceptance, which Oscar has sought throughout this tale and finally receives.

As the narrator states, to not have sex is to be “un-Dominican.” By 'The Final Letter', Oscar is fully in touch with his ancestry, fully Dominican. Sometimes the narrator seems to stereotype Dominicans as sex-obsessed fiends, but the author intends sex to be an act of reciprocated love in this instance. The author states, “it was the little intimacies that he'd never in his life anticipated...like listening to her tell him about being a little girl” (334). To imply Ybón wants Oscar, the narrator says “She could have had him banned him...But she didn't” (318). The author does not have Ybón outright declare that she loves Oscar because Ybón, due to her romantic relationship with a Dominican public servant, is very cautious about what she says and does not say. In this way, the secrecy of the Dominican Republic, even when it comes to love, is conveyed.

Unlike Oscar, Yunior has not found love. He states on page 326, “I have a wife I adore and who adores me...I don't run around with girls anymore. Not much anyway.” The word 'adore' is significant, as it is not quite love. Yunior is the narrator of this piece, the one who has deemed Oscar an epic hero who has lived a full, wondrous life. It is thereby fitting that Yunior is the opposite of Oscar. After Lola left him, Yunior describes how he “alternated between Fuck Lola and these hopes of reconciliation [he] did nothing to achieve” (334). He can fully appreciate what Oscar did for love because he is afraid to take the steps necessary to obtain it.

I am turned off by the rushed nature of 'The Final Letter' despite the author's best intentions. The author writes, “And guess what? Ybón actually kissed him. Guess what else? Ybón actually fucked him” (334). All this information comes at once; not in a shocking way, but in a way that excludes so much that I am apathetic. The author says that this happened, “for one whole weekend while the captain was away on 'business'” (334). The franticness, the fear, and much else is unexplained. The author sought to convey something huge with direct simplicity to emphasize the momentous occasion. The author feels the details are unnecessary. Instead, he highlights the more important concept that Oscar finally managed to find love, acceptance, and an identity as a Dominican through sexual intercourse.

Response #6

Shelby Scott
Into to Writ& Lit
Response #6
10/27/10

What you won't do for love. When I think of that phrase it takes me back to a song Tupac covered nineties. It's a simple phrase that means exactly that through hell and high water love prevails and all that jazz. But for those of you that haven't heard of it, the song's chorus wails on about being a sucker for love. Tupac raps about the situations he finds himself in like fathering a child that's not really his, bailing this woman out of financial situations, and moving her into a fancy house in the hills. Sounds familiar right? Reminding you of a hot blooded Dominicano that fell in love with the wrong gangster, or her son? (the not so attractive but equally love starved nerd.) I thought you'd catch on. In the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao my interpertaitons of the key themes the building and breaking power of love, wild fukus that never end, the traditions we sometimes accept because there's no other means of explanation, and the parraells that the fuku caused genration after genaration.
You see throughout the book that Oscar is just a poor, lonely, sometimes suicidal nerd looking for somebody to love him back. The guys got it bad for the girls too like “Dude weighed 307 pounds, for fucks sake! Talked like a Star Trek computer! The real irony was that you never met a kid who wanted a girl so fucking bad.” , says our narrator Yunior. You'll find that the actions parallel with his mother Beli, but the characters are completely different along with their motives. Beli craved the love of her Gangster with the incentive to boost her status in the world and Oscar wanted love to be considered a normal. (By Dominican standards.) I think Junot did this to showcase that in the DR fuku can “make” crazy things happen, cycles continue to live, I also believe that he did this to push the boundaries of the characters so that the could find redemption in the things the believed to be normal. For example when Lola confesses that, “ I was fourteen and desperate for my own patch of world that had nothing to do with her.” For me it was just another thing to relate to( Yes after reading this book I still believe I'm an honorary Dominicano) .Showing that no matter how bad you want to break the cycle somethings are just meant to take their course. He does this because in the DR everybody feeds off of them, it's what some would call culture and others would declare as torture.
The parallels continue all through the book, Beli and Oscar each had three great loves but unfortunately O's end with death and his mother's life was barely spared by the grace of the Zafa. After I read this I was happy that the curse was finally done. Oscar triumphed in some way and our nerd got to be the hero with his monologue right before he was gunned down, but fukus have a way of reeling in everybody. “ One day the circle will fail. As cirlces always do. And for the first time in her life she will hear the word fuku.” Are some of Yunior's last words. Junot did this in my opinion to reveal that traditions no matter how old live because that's how the characters dealt with the real world through fukus, zafa's, great loves, and never learning from each others mistkes.

how to zafa your writing

In the prologue, the narrator wonders if this book isn’t a zafa of sorts. As if writing this story (from the point of the narrator Yunior) counters the curse itself. But, all the history and stories in The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are all from a specific perspective in which the readers can not question. It is in it’s storytelling a form of dictatorship. And since the narrators in the book are all historically Trujillo’s children, the readers are also a generation touched by the fuku. This is why Junot Diaz chose to open the book, as well as title it, with Oscar Wao: because he is the most relatable and modern character for a worldly audience. Oscar is always psychologically caught between two forces- America and Santo Domingo, sexual experience and virgin awkwardness which goes hand-in-hand with this nerdy love for reading and writing apocalyptic stories. And the only thing truly American about him is his weight. But as much focus as Oscar gets, Diaz says in an interview at the 2009 National Book Festival, that the book is more about the women- Beli, Lola, La Inca, the daughters of Abelard, Lola’s daughter. I guess he makes this point because readers forget about all the important characters in this novel. And also it is difficult to relate to strongly rebelliously over sexualized women of a specific culture during a violent time. Diaz is using the women as a vehicle to show the effects of Santo Domingo’s rough criminal history not only physically, but emotionally and sexually. Every one gives us a personal view into the history of Trujillo’s dictatorship. Can the constant state of violence effect generations after the death of Trujillo? It is a curse associated with Christopher Columbus’ representation of European colonialism, leading to emigration, and ultimately is also an effect of assimilation into America (the same country which backed Trujillo). It is more than superstitious violence contributing to the curse.
Diaz also talked about how being from a struggling race, it is expected for smart children to use their full potential to become doctors or invest in a profession in which it pays well to be smart. It is not possible to become an artist, a writer. This is an example of his own perspective of the cycle of poverty in first, second generation immigrants shows up as a possible effect of fuku. Then, in that perspective, writing about the experiences and stories of Santo Domingo can be a zafa, a counter to the fuku- exposing it. But, the narratives and personal accounts seen through the eyes of Abelard or La Inca (which may represent a time before Trujillo being that her name is intuitively native), show a glimpse into a time where poverty was not a factor to the Cabral family. It is during Beli’s story that we see the effects of the dictatorship on families in the poverty of Santo Domingo. Also, Oscar and Lola circle again in America. But since the book collects bit of personal attributes to Junot Diaz’s life and family, the book may as well end the ill-fated family. Diaz’s mother always wanted him to be a doctor, just like La Inca and Beli proudly make references to their children. It is a time for art! Reading and writing are survival techniques which have as many opportunities as a curse can. A curse is a superstitious myth which requires the listeners to suspend their realistic belief (sounds like fiction). The book can be a dictator, a history book, a chance to access personal accounts into another culture, and also a lesson in the arts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gu91htmDpM

Response 6

Vanessa Hernandez

27 October 2010

Eric Olson

People want what they cannot have. This yearning for the unattainable is a natural aspect of humanity that can never be expelled. Though a large sum of lusted items lie within tangible objects, an even larger portion dwells within the blood of people. Diaz touches upon this topic by exposing a Dominican families’ struggle of accepting and being accepted into their own culture’s identities.

Sometimes, people don’t even wish to exist outside of their race, but be embraced by it. Oscar has a hard time fitting into the Dominican culture because of his fat body and nerdish nature. “…Dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him)” (1) He even attempts to loose weight and gain romances but each time fails.

Other times people do wish to leave their culture and exist in another. Unlike Oscar, Belli, with her grand breasts and perfect body, fits well into the Dominican culture. Since she has had the chance to know what it is like to be embraced (though for the wrong reasons), she wishes to marry a man like Jack Pujols and move to Miami. Belli’s dissatisfaction with her situation, even though it would be an ideal one for Oscar or any other outcast, further promotes the idea that human’s naturally want what is either difficult or impossible to achieve.

Many people can relate to this novel because all, in any shape, size, or color experience the urge to be other than themselves at some point in their lives. I know I grew up wishing I had pale skin and soft hair like the rest of my friends, and though I have learned to love my culture, know plenty of things I would like to have that I probably wont ever get.

One Way Out

Running away is something many have accomplished, but running away from your past is impossible. It’s the thing that always lingers behind you, waiting for you to be vulnerable. That hides, waiting to be remembered. Waiting for you to finally run back to them. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junat Diaz Oscar and his family try to free themselves from not only their past but also their culture and their demons. This attempt at freeing themselves from these things is something many Latin Americans have tried. I know I have attempted to escape, but there is always a little bit of me that will always be Mexican. Just like Lola and Oscar will always be Dominican, no matter how much they try to ignore it.

And because of the need to forget it they become the a sort of “anti-Dominican.” You know they attack all the clichés and make them pray for mercy. And how do they do this? Well Oscar becomes an extreme case of geek and Lola a rebel. But no matter what they do they are still Dominican. They still live around all the breathing clichés. Like the sexually active cholos that beat their girlfriends. Or those same girlfriends that let their boyfriends beat them because es Amor or the other billion clichés that surround Latin Americans.

But for Lola it was much more than clichés. For her it was the expectations, and all that was put upon her shoulders. Most of it was just the responsibility of taking care of your fat unsocial brother, and your stubborn dying mother. She does run away from them too, but they soon trick her to coming back. Though it was her who let them in, because she missed them. That is the thing about culture and family. Yes, you can totally run away, but there will be part of you that will miss something. Even if that something is your brother. And no matter what, things will follow it. In Lola’s case those things were her mother and the rest of her family. But that was not the last time she attempted to run away. Though it seems that as she lived in the Dominican Republic, she actually accepted her culture, but then the past came tumbling in. Just like it always does.

Oscar on the other hand drifts away from his culture and family subconsciously. Since it is not something he can completely control. Even when he tries to fit in, it does not work. Oscar is just Oscar. Protecting himself from the world with the fantastical. Sometimes that is the easiest way to do it, and it’s the only way Oscar knows how. Both the fantastical and his culture are what lead to Oscar’s demise. Since if he had not drifted so far from all this Dominicanness he would have never ended up visiting that one horribly beautiful time. Not only was that the time when he fell in love with his homeland and a real girl that actually cared, but also when he first encountered that faceless man. Fuku.

And that is where the demons come in. They are the reason his mother lost so much, and suffered so much more. That faceless man is why she came to America. It is the thing that will be stuck to her family until the day they forget. Since the moment they learn about it they can’t erase it. Then they will begin to dream about the “No Face Man” and won’t be able figure their way out. It’s the inevitable. Since the Fuku is both their present and their past. He always appears when the worst is to come. Let it be in dreams or just as they are going to get their ass whooped. But with this Fuku comes Zafa. The Mongoose, the one that protects them all and leads them to survival. These are the two things they are all doomed and blessed with. What cannot leave this family's mind, because to them the Fuku and Zafa were the fairy tales they learned as a kid. The stories that really stuck and bent their expectations. No matter what the “No Face Man” and that Mongoose will always be in the back of their mind, waiting.

It’s all like Lola said: “The only way out is in.” Since you either have to just stop running or realize that it’s all in your head. It’s all just a part of you.

Response 6

Jenna Wilhelmi

Oscar Wao

Response 6

Mongoose Magic

The mysterious Mongoose makes several appearances in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, but what does it mean? Throughout the book, Diaz uses various characters and situations to reference back to the Dominican Republic as a whole. This leads me to believe that the Mongoose is a representation of the zafa, the counter curse of the fuku. However, it can also represent the indomitable spirit of survival in the Dominican people as well as the roots of culture that reside in the children of the Diaspora like Oscar. It is a protector, a spirit, and a symbol of a superstitious culture.

What leads me to believe that the Mongoose is the representation of the zafa is that it was the reason Beli and her son survived their near death experiences. It is what pulled Beli out of the ether and made her fight for her life. “So as Beli was flitting in and out of life, there appeared at her side a creature that would have been an amiable mongoose if not for its golden lion eyes and the absolute black of its pelt. This one was quite large for its species and placed its intelligent little paws on her chest and stared down at her. You have to rise.” If the Mongoose hadn’t appeared when it did, Beli would have let herself slip into death, thus completing her personal cycle of the fuku. I must also point out that the fuku was present for Beli’s troubles as the faceless man.

This creepy faceless figure seems to always appear before something terrible happens to a member of Oscar’s family. The entrance of the Mongoose then follows his manifestation and licks their wounds and urges them not to give into its counterpart. All wicked things must have a light counterpart. The universe loathes things being unbalanced. In the footnote about the Mongoose, Diaz hints that it is more than just a mythological figure. “The Mongoose has proven itself to be an enemy of kingly chariots, chains, and hierarchies. Believed to be an ally of Man.” So if the fuku can take physical form such as Trujillo, why not the zafa?

However, the Mongoose is more than just the zafa. It is the spirit of the Dominican people. Like its real counterpart, the Mongoose is long enduring and migrates constantly to new lands where it flourishes like a weed. Similar to its famous cartoon counterpart, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Mongooses are hardy little creatures that can take on animals far stronger than them like the King Cobra. It epitomizes the will to survive, just like the people of the DR. They may have had to flee their country, but they are doing so with a strong will to not only survive, but also thrive.

The Mongoose, like all otherworldly creatures, is never just what it appears to be. Even the gods of old never were just a god, but a god of virtue or war or love. A god-like figure of any kind is just meant to stand in for a larger concept that is important to those who worship it. For the Athenians it was Athena - Goddess of Wisdom and Justice. For Dominicans it is the Mongoose - Spirit of Resilience, Stamina, and Grit. What could be more fitting than for a tiny wily creature to signify the people of a small devious island haunted by a curse that strikes like a cobra?

Freedom in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Nathan Gale

Freedom in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao plays an integral role in the narrators shared delusions of what experiences the world can provide. A freedom to express themselves, that will extricate them from their personal images both in their schooling and the general frustration they lead their lives with. Just as Belica (Oscar and Lola’s mother) searched for freedom from her adopted families upper-class prejudices, she also subjects her children later in life to the same constraints she faced in her day, with the notion to breed her children into people she was told were important, such as doctors or lawyers. Just as Lola describes the feeling of freedom after returning from her absences “It’s about that crazy feeling that started this whole mess, that bruja feeling that comes singing out of my bones, that takes hold of me the way blood seizes cotton. The feeling that tells me everything in my life is about to change.” Unlike many of her urges to runaway from her mothers tyranny, this feeling is something purer then adultery or shaving her head, that in itself wants to free her from her own idea of personal freedom. Similarity Oscar wants to be more then a nerd, he wants women, yet most importantly he is seeking love in all the wrong places. Love for him helps his identity free itself, from pornographic desires, and his role-playing tendencies. Just as he tries to love his first “friend that is a girl” Ana, he cannot bring himself to just seeing her as sexual idol, he cares for her, in this way he frees himself from his boyhood naivety. Yet ironically falls victim to that naivety in his search for companionship in Ana.

The characters seem to set in motion a circle of misery in each others chaotic lives passed down through the generations. Just as La Inca, wants to shape her daughter into a formal doctor, she removes the freedom to discover oneself needed in a child's growth into a self respecting individual, whose ideas of perfection can be different from those of her mothers aspirations. All characters seem to be cast as extreme outsiders, not fitting into any category both in school and in their neighborhoods. Belcia works at the Chinese food restaurant to express the fact that she does not a want a life planned by her mother, yet in turn like Lola and Oscar after her she will fall pray to the naive ideas of freedom. As she is soon engulfed by the treacherous lifestyle of her boyfriend The Gangster, and in turn looses more freedom then if she were to work under La Inca. What is odd is the similarities that occur both in the mother and daughters choices in life. Perhaps this is Juno Diaz’s way of communicating to us the unbareibilty of likeness we share with our parents.

Oscar is not effected by the vicious cycle that both Lola and Belcia have placed upon themselves unknowingly. Instead he is a victim to his mothers delusions and ailments, and Lolas thirst for personal freedom. Rather he is trapped inside himself in his vortex of role play games and sci-fi. This is his own way of finding freedom from his mothers prejudices and his Dominican neighborhood, a way of expressing himself. He detaches himself and ultimately tries to find freedom through his strong didactic urges for women, yet in all honesty women seem to exist as a false hope to him. Indeed, his interests act as a reflective metaphor, he is alienated trapped and feels separate from the world he lives in, just as the characters in his comics and sci-fi novels, are supernatural and disproportional from reality. This seems to echo and narrate how Oscar feels trapped in the confines of his small Dominican neighborhood, as well as it helps him relate to himself and find bearing in the world around him.

Response 5

'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' offers almost no footnotes except for when it comes to history. Within this historical language, which consists of dates, names, and facts, there is also slang, science fiction references, and Spanish. I think the author largely incorporates historical footnotes to keep the reader from being too lost. The narrator also offers an explanation when he talks about how Balaguer was boiled alive and adds, “Although not essential to our tale, Balaguer is essential to the Dominican one, so therefore we must mention him” (90). Each glimmer of history is a necessary glimmer into Oscar.

The narrator may not be speaking much Spanish in the footnotes, but he speaks in the inconceivable language of brutality. On page two, the author states of Trujillo, “He was...so dreadful that not even a sci-fi writer could have made his ass up.” Diaz's historical language sometimes loses me because it is rushed, like history in the form of striking lightning. Sometimes the footnotes read like a slightly more hip listing of significant of events that probably deserve more explanation than they are given and which I should look up later. It is understandably overwhelming because it was certainly overwhelming for those who lived through it.

The author seems very aware that his audience will be American, as he shows in his decision to footnote his historical language. For the first time, Diaz translates a Spanish word (pariguayo) into “party watcher”(19). The word “pariguayo” is about American marines who occupied the DR. The author writes, “Don't worry, when you have kids they won't know the US occupied Iraq either” (19). Because America's imperialistic history has often been hidden from history textbooks and by our own apathy, we need a footnote written by a Dominican about a Spanish word to explain America to Americans. The narrator conveys how sadly foreign we are to our own history, and how foreign future generations will be to our present.

At one point, Oscar is incorporated into a footnote, as though he is a part of history. On page 21 the narrator speculates, “Where this outsized love of genre jumped off from no one seems to know.” He then jumps into a number of theories, as though speaking about a legend filled with holes because it was passed down for generations. By placing Oscar in a footnote that incorporates a story-telling orator voice, the author makes an ordinary man seem as wondrous as the title implies.

In contrast with the author's agenda to transform the reader into a lost alien, his agenda to educate the reader with history initially felt odd. However, on closer examination, the author must know that history of one country will leave an outsider without the ability to completely understand another's past. In this way, I was still a lost alien. On another level, the histories also show that Oscar may not be wondrous in his life by page 170, but he certainly is wondrous simply because he managed to be alive despite the political climate of the Dominican Republic throughout history.

Response 5

Vanessa Hernandez

20 October 2010

The American Dream. Oh how magnificent and grand of an image, looming over the heads of the third world people. Like a carrot dangling over a yearning donkey, it tells people that with hard work anything can happen. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juno Diaz depicts a realistic version of the American experience by using Oscar as a tragic example. Simply, the American Dream is unachievable, no matter how much you work or save up, racial issues limit anyone from fully climbing up any ladder. Sure you can have a bite of the carrot, but not the whole vegetable garden.

Oscar is a complete outcast; comic book reading, video game playing, babe fantasizing, awkward mustached nerd. Not only is this bad, but he is much darker than the pale porcelain skinned nerds of America who prosper in the light of society. Oscar’s African heritage forces him to live in the shadows of culture because he chooses to submerge himself in one that just still withholds boundaries.

Even in the Dominican Republic, where the majority of people tend to have dark skin, Oscar sticks out like a sore thumb; however, I feel this is mainly due to his choice. Though Oscar is presented as a tragic character (never fully feeling accepted in any aspect of his life), he forces this upon himself by choosing to reject his culture of fuku and mysticism to embrace the commercial pop culture of America, a culture that won’t embrace him even though Uncle Sam says he will.

Response 5

by Alora Young

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao begins with poetic imagery that is beautiful and formal, and that creates emotion in us instantly:

“They say it came from Africa, carried on the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Tainos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles.”

The next paragraph, however, starts with “ain’t” and “shit” and how “Everybody knew someone who’d been eaten by a fukú”. This complete change of tone is just one demonstration of how Díaz uses language in this novel. He also commonly uses Spanish words and phrases, “big words [Oscar] had memorized only the day before” and sci-fi and comic book references, which, let’s be honest, are a language of their own too. Then there are the constant changes of tone. What we read about Oscar in Chapter One has an entirely different tone than what we read about his sister Lola in Chapter Two. Both, are again, very different from the tone we hear when learning about Oscar and Lola’s mother Beli in Chapter Three. This can be explained by the fact that each of these sections has a different person telling the story.

Oscar’s section is told from our narrator’s point of view. He achieves a somewhat informal tone, what with the swearing in both English and Spanish and all the ‘like’s and mostly casual footnotes. It’s a conversational tone that manages to stay just on the right side of charming. He makes the otherwise unlikeable Oscar likeable, poking fun at him in a way that shows he genuinely cares and worries about him, which makes us care about him. Then we move onto Lola’s story, which is written in first person. We assume that this is because Lola told our narrator the story this way, and he knew that conveying it to us the way she did to him would provoke the intended emotions. From Lola’s point of view, the swearing all but ceases to exist, while the Spanish continues to serve as a cultural reference and device in character development.

The different vernaculars used in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao not only establish character and setting and convey emotion, but they also serve the purpose of slightly alienating the reader. In an interview, Junot Díaz said that when reading this book you’re supposed to feel like an immigrant, as the characters are. It creates a connection that many people throughout the world, let alone white American readers could not find otherwise. Also, since this book is in a large part about a love of reading, Díaz commented that it highlights our ability to skip over things we don’t understand in books and just continue on, because that is a large part of reading. I think this use of language is very clever, and it has certainly given me a greater appreciation and desire to read this book through to conclusion.

Response 5

Jenna Wilhelmi

Junot Diaz

Oscar Wao 1

Language and ‘Idioma’

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz uses many different languages to tell his anti-hero’s story. Initially, I only noticed the change from English to Spanish. I know no Spanish, so the transition – with no translation in sight – was jarring at first. However, most of the phrases or words were put in a context where I could figure out basically what had been said. Apart from showcasing the rich heritage of the Dominican Republic that surrounds Oscar, the use of Spanish added a certain flavor to the book. All books have a certain feeling about them which is determined by its material as well as the language used in it. The Spanish in Oscar Wao gave the text that little extra flair and culture that would leave a gapping hole in the text if it were to be taken out.

The use of Spanish also served to put me in an immigrant’s shoes. Most immigrants come to America with broken English and have to forcibly learn the language of their new home. So, like me as the reader of this book, some characters in the book don’t always understand everything that is said around them.

Apart from the Spanish of the text, there are also a couple mirco-cultural languages being used. First, there is the slang used by the people Oscar’s age. This gives me a feel of the environment Oscar is in. The dropping of the ‘g’s’ and slurring of certain words creates a casual atmosphere, but one with certain standards of masculinity in it, the ‘muchacho’ language if you will. Second, there is the ‘nerd’ language, which mostly manifests in J.R.R Tolkien and Marvel comics references. Even when describing the fuku or curse of the DR there is a reference to the aforementioned cults. “But be assured: like Darkseid’s Omega Effect, like Morgoth’s bane, no matter how many turns and digressions this shit might take, it always – and I mean always – gets its man.” The use of these references, especially in this quote, makes the fuku, the bully, or the girl into a sort of fantasy characteristic instead of a thing of reality. Diaz probably did this to show how Oscar lives in a fantasy world rather than facing the reality of his dull life.

The last notable show of language in the first half of the book is the subtle changes in sentence style. In the different sections different manners of speaking are used to show that the narrator, a currently unnamed entity, is getting his information from an outside source and that he is coping the manner of speech of his source. This is why Lola’s section is in 1^st person, because the narrator heard this section strait from Lola herself. Then in the section about Oscar and Lola’s mother, the voice shifts again to a more loving tone. This is most likely the voice of La Inca, their mother’s mom. If Lola had been the reference for this section, based on the fact that she and her mother do not get along, the tone would have been anything but loving. Tone of voice, as well as use of vocabulary, can drastically change the way something is read. It is the difference between “He realized his f***ed-up comic-book reading, role-playing-game-loving, no-sports-playing friends were embarrassed by him” versus: “Now fully, ahem, endowed, Beli returned to El Redentor from summer break to the alarm of the faculty and students alike and set out to track down Jack Pujols with the great deliberation of Ahab after you-know-who.” Obviously, apart from the swearing, these two sentences sound as though they came from two rather different people. But in this case, these two voices work together to weave the whole story of Oscar and his family’s life.

Words, tone of voice, inflection, language, and cadence all add to the feel of a story. No two books, if they could be characterized with a color and flavor, would be the same. There are similarities, but nothing is exactly the same simply because there are too many ways in which they can differ. In this way, authors are almost like chefs. They try to tantalize you with plot the same way your mother taunts you with the smell of fresh cookies. I have often heard people describe a book they didn’t care for as though it didn’t sit well in their stomach. If I were to characterize Junot Diaz’s, based on the language, I would say that it is a peanut butter and banana sandwich with chips and salsa on the side. They are two things that don’t really go together if you think about it too much, but are strangely satisfying all the same.

Response 5 Oscar Wao

Chelsa Lauderdale

Intro to Writing and Literature

10/20/10

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Part 1

Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, has a great deal of superstition and also the main character deals with a lot of issues of self identification. Diaz uses different devices to get across his message in this story. One device that he uses is different types of language. The book is written in English but is integrated with Spanish words and phrases that add to the multicultural aspect of the story. Not only that but he uses a mixture of slang, nerd words, intellectual and lyrical language and also some casual and historical language. These are a great addition to the story because it helps the reader identify with one or more aspects of the complicated main character Oscar.

Though he seems simple externally, Oscar is actually a very complex character. Most of this comes with his inherent inability to identify with a specific culture. He doesn’t traditionally fit in with his Dominican heritage because he is not macho or a ladies’ man, two of the things that it seems, in this story, all Dominican men must be. He also does not fit in with the American portion of his background because in American society he is categorized as a nerd who does not exercise, plays a lot of video games and reads a lot. Due to this, Oscar seems constantly confused with who he’s supposed to be. He does not fit in with any of the stereotypes associated with American or Dominican society.

Another major aspect of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is the ever-present fúku. It is said that the fúku came from Africa to the Americas with Christopher Columbus. Since Christopher Columbus is like the spirit of colonialism in America, it’s safe to say that the Dominican consider the fúku the curse of colonialism. The Dominican dictator Trujillo was said to be an instrument of the fúku, or perhaps the way around because anyone who would oppose him would be cursed in an awful. The fúku is an important part of the story because it sets the tone for the piece. As it is introduced in the beginning of the story, the reader can assume that it will be an underlying theme of the piece. Oscar believes himself cursed by the fúku and as we can see through the progression of the story, it is easy to understand why. It certainly would seem that Oscar would live a cursed life because throughout the first half of the story his situation seems to be going from bad to worse.

Until I read the second half of the story I won’t know if Oscar is actually cursed or he just thinks that he is, but seeing that his mother grew up in the Dominican Republic and was a rebellious youth, it was quite possible that she somehow invoked the wrath of this fúku upon her family. The curse in Oscar’s case would just be the pronunciation of the falsity of the American dream. When Oscar’s mother moved to America to chase her adventurous dreams she didn’t quite get what she bargained for, and thus that unluckiness became her curse and the curse of her family.

Response 5

In the first half of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, the author uses many different techniques to make us understand where the characters are coming from. The first half of the book is split in three different parts: “Ghetto Nerd at the End of the World,” “Wildwood,” and “The Three Heartbreaks of Belicia Cabral”. Each part is about a different character, and each is narrated quite differently.

In “Ghetto Nerd at the End of the World” we learn about Oscar’s perspective on the world. But we don’t learn this through first person but in omniscient yet centered third person. Meaning it is all about Oscar, but there are parts where the narrator tells us what others think about him. And people think a lot of different things about him. Since Oscar is different than most lower class Latin boys. For one, he is not super ghetto. He actually is a white washed nerd. You know, the kid with all the comic books, sci fi, who does not have much luck with anyone, and likes books more than people. I can relate to Oscar, but I have never been lower class. My family back in Mexico are the kind of people that can pay for private school, but I am going off track. This paragraph is given to Oscar and how the diction used in the part shows how big a disconnection there is between him and everyone else. While everyone else is using there grammatically incorrect Spanglish, Oscar is using big words that only makes people hate him. And in a lower class Latin community it’s strange for someone to act like they’re not Latin. I know no one believed me when I told them I was Mexican, because not only was a light skinned but I was really educated and white washed. They did not know how to take it so they ignored me and went back to their ghetto lifestyle. A lifestyle I will never too fond of, but like Oscar there was a time in my life where I tried to be like them. It went horribly. Pretty much because of the diction I understood how Oscar felt, how the community he lived in affected him, and how Americanized he truly was.

Next there is “Wildwood” which is in the perspective of Lola, Oscar’s sister. This part is extremely different than the other two, because it is actually in first person. Because of this we see how she takes in all the things that were only hinted to in Oscar’s section. In this one we get of the feel of the mother and daughter relationship between Lola and her mother. And we understand what caused Lola to go into her rebellious stage. Since their mother was not any easy person to live with, and the cancer did not make her any easier. That actually really reminds me of my father because he was the same way. You know, hardworking and just tough. Then he gets in an accident and he can’t do anything he used to. So he lives on the couch and does not want me grow up. But the mother is this story is far tougher than my father, and far smarter. Like that part where the mother was chasing Lola and pretended to have gotten hurt, but was just playing. That’s my favorite part, because it just a perfect picture of how both of them are. The mother is just so tricky and such a stubborn woman, and the daughter is like most girls at her age who are just trying to run away. But no matter how far they run away they always go back. Anyway in this passage we learn a lot more about all the characters. We see how shy and awkward Oscar really is. How evil the mother is. How differently they all take in the mother’s illness. And then we see how La Inca really cares about all of them. How different Lola lives in her mother’s old home, and how it changes her by bringing her back into her Latin roots. The dialect during that part of that passage just lifts us into this third world country. It makes you understand where they are all coming from

Then there’s “The Three Heartbreaks of Belicia Cabral” which really connects to the past sections because it shows you why their mother is such a bitch. It also shows you how she lived while in her home country. This part returns the voice to the narrator, but only more focused on Beli. But the narrator seems like someone who was told this story from Beli, and this makes me wonder if this narrator is Oscar. The diction used in this passage shows the naivety Beli had in her youth. It shows you how completely infatuated she was with idea with love, but it also shows you how much she loved attention. Then the diction used by everyone else makes you believe they are who are told. Like the Chinese girl and how she barely knows Spanish. My favorite part is why she ran up to Beli when she purposely was showing assets and buttoned her shirt up for her while “You showing.” This section makes you understand how she became one of the darkest characters in this book. She is the character that is like most people those who come to America: bad youth, hard workers, and dreamers of that American Dream.

All of these parts may be different but they obviously connect and have similar qualities. Like how they are all coming of age stories about these three main characters. They all show how these characters grew up and how they became who they are. Then two of the major techniques that are used are how the author uses Spanish in the dialect and footnotes. By using the Spanish not only do you get a bigger feel about how they were raised and how they are lower class Latin Americans, but you are also completely put inside their life. And I am assuming that Diaz did not just write this for lower class Latin Americans. Since not all Latins are like the Wao kids, and that is pretty apparent in this book. So because Diaz knew who his audience probably was going to be he had to make the situations more realistic to those who could not completely relate or understand. That must also be the reason he adds in the footnotes, because in our history classes we don’t learn about the struggles of third world countries. They hint some things in the history books, but unless you live in the Dominican Republic or are Dominican all of that is alien to you. And if he did not add those footnotes a lot of us would be majorly confused.

read on, write on...

As an American-Mexican, I struggle with learning a new Spanish word or phrase everyday. Thus, reading Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was intellectually fun to read as well as challenging. But, there was still street slang, comic book lingo, and even academically profound English words I could not initially comprehend without reference. Nonetheless, I was able to read on. It’s a good thing Díaz uses footnotes as a biographical tool to introduce the world to persons and events of the Dominican Republic’s dictatorial history. I really enjoyed reading this novel because of it’s complex use of language: spanglish sentences, untranslatable phrases, science fiction references, colloquial vernaculars, superstitions and curses, sarcasm, historical footnotes, and even the impressive English vocabulary. Not only do I learn about true events in our world, as well as brush up on my Spanish, but also, how to use the structure of language in the content of the story.

In an interview with Junot Díaz, he says that he wrote the book so the reader could feel like an immigrant “unable to understand huge chunks of the language…which provokes action to want to know.” As Oscar and his sister Lola, as well as their mother Belicia (and the narrator, as we later find out), immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic, so shall the reader. I want to know what these Spanish nouns mean, I want to learn the slang, and I also want to read the science fiction novels Díaz keeps referencing. Also in this interview he states that it takes “enormous imagination and tremendous patience and strength to pick up a new language.” I guess I had to write this down because it struck me as similar to how I feel when reading his book. It takes incredible conditioning to learn something new, especially of a different culture. And this is where Oscar is- in between America (in his comic books) and the Dominican Republic (in it’s fukú curse on his family).

Since this novel strongly evokes a constant state of “otherness,” or double consciousness, an alienation from both cultures, the reader can’t also help but to feel cursed for not understanding every word and phrase Díaz throws out, making us an immigrant to his book. I understand what it’s like to be here- standing on the border of Mexico and America- not knowing which way to bend at times. So having this awareness for it, I can feel comfortable relating this Oscar. I have also gotten lost in reading Science Fiction. As a writer, my first passion is reading. It think this is one of the most important messages in Junot Diaz’s novel, “I write because I love to read.” Oscar reads and writes to escape into a Nerdland outside of the curses and cultures of the real world. It is ironic, however, that he chooses to write mostly apocalyptic stories which can be a reference to the state of the Dominican Republic after the fall of Trujillo’s dictatorship.

There is a lot to connect as a writer and a reader, but also as someone conscious of two different cultures within me. I love how Díaz uses many different types of languages to evoke this concept of unintelligibility and thus, build a strong dependable relationship with the reader. I hope to be able to understand these techniques better as I read on and write on.

Response 4

by Alora Young

Pricksongs & Descants (Part Two):
Of Babysitter Horror Films and Non-Refundable Magic Shows

Of all the short stories in this week’s half of Robert Coover’s Pricksongs & Descants, it was the final two that I enjoyed the most – ‘The Babysitter’ and ‘The Hat Act’.

The first was more of Coover’s insanely confusing, extremely captivating metafiction like ‘The Elevator’ and ‘The Magic Poker’, in which we are presented with scene after scene of possibles, some terrifying, some funny, some utterly mundane, but none definite. As I read, it occurred to me what an incredible artsy horror film an adaption of this story would make. In places it reads like a film script in prose form – especially the last few pages, where the writing practically flies by, like a scenes done in very quick montages as we build up to the climax. After I read it the first time, I went back and reread it straight away, thinking the whole time how each snippet could be translated into film. All of my favourite writing inspires me to be creative myself, and so this short story quickly added itself to my ever-growing list of favourites.

‘The Babysitter’, like all of the pieces in this collection, and no doubt in the rest of Coover’s work, is full of literary elements that could be, and have been, picked apart and analysed again and again. The element that stood out to me most, though, was the motif of the television shows. The connotation of each show genre directly relate to what is happening in the story at the time, as do the actual plot snippets we are shown reflect what is happening in the story. We even end, after the party’s host reveals that Dolly’s husband, children, and babysitter are all dead, with the television, as Dolly states, “Let’s see what’s on the late late movie.” Coover did this, I think, to draw attention to narrative – as he has both subtly and blatantly throughout the whole of Pricksongs & Descants – and how our entire lives and everything we are presented with in life is narrative.

All the narratives we’ve been presented with in Coover’s work this week and last week could very well be compared to segments of a magic show, and that is probably why Coover chose this as his closing metaphor. He is certainly a magician, awing and disgusting us alternatingly, sometimes simultaneously. The lack of closure that ‘The Babysitter’, and the rest of Coover’s pieces in this collection provide, is somehow perfectly provided with ‘The Hat Act’s final words:

THIS ACT IS CONCLUDED
THE MANAGEMENT REGRETS THERE
WILL BE NO REFUND

This is Coover’s version of stating, ‘The End’, as the fairy tales, that he so often reinvents, are fond of doing. They literally spell the ending out rather than ensuring the plot and character elements give us closure, sometimes leaving us utterly unsatisfied. We are unable to get the time wasted on these stories, the narratives that society uses, as Jack did back in ‘The Door: A Prologue of Sorts’, to teach us about reality and inevitably limiting our knowledge of the world by ensuring naïveté. Coover plays on this, stating that our precious time won’t be refunded by him either, no matter how unsatisfied he may have left us – no matter how many “lovely assistant”s he accidently killed, or how much “Weeping, moaning, shouting” and “retching” we readers may have committed.

After the whirlwind that was Pricksongs & Descants, I find I don’t want a refund, however. This may be because I truly am satisfied with this ending, and I did genuinely learn so very much from reading Coover’s work, as I’d like to believe is the case. Perhaps, it is also because, deep down, I’m simply too exhausted to laugh, whistle, applause, boo, scream, shout, or vomit any longer. It was wonderful, and it was awful, and it was entirely worth every bit, and yet, I can’t help but be glad that it’s over.