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.