In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, the reader follows the story of Oscar de Leon as told by his college roommate, Yunior. Although the novel is named after Oscar and depicts his life, the information given tells more about Yunior than Oscar. In many ways, however, Oscar serves as a foil to Yunior, showing the hardships of achieving masculinity in Dominican culture. While, to the public, Yunior is the typical masculine, sexually-driven posterchild of Dominican culture, so much of him is shaped by his relationship with Oscar. In some aspects, Oscar was able to mirror Yunior’s struggles, especially when it came to girls and masculinity, but he is also able to illuminate how hard Yunior struggled to fit in by being more true …show more content…
Oscar would constantly fall in love with every girl he met in fear that he would remain a virgin longer than his peers. Yunior illustrates Oscar “walking up to strange girls with his I-love-you craziness”. (176) Yunior spends so long talking about Oscar’s unhealthy obsession with girls, yet once he has Lola, whom he pined after for so long, Yunior cheats. It is up to Oscar when the two are both in relationships to ask “Why do you cheat on her…?” to which Yunior responds “If I knew that, it wouldn’t be a problem.” (313) When Yunior is teaching Oscar how to get girls, he seems to be a notorious player portrayed in a positive light, yet when Oscar no longer looks to Yunior as a role model, Oscar possesses the power to point out the bad side of Yunior’s charm and the flaws in the culture that sculpted …show more content…
When Oscar is struggling to appear masculine, Yunior looks better in comparison. Yunior explains how “after the suicide drama nobody in Demarest wanted to room with [Oscar]... Me, a guy who could bench 340 pounds… put in my application for the writing section and by the beginning of September, there we were, me and Oscar. Together.” (169-70) Yunior had used Oscar to look heroic. Once again, however, after Oscar had met Ybon, it was “his chance to win.” (283) As Oscar was no longer the fat loser that Yunior had to take care of, his persona had completely left. Yunior needed to match his struggles with masculinity to Oscar in order to feel better, however, once he outgrew the need to mold into society, he found himself stuck in these same destructive
The scene described on pages 143-152 of Junot Diaz’s The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a horrific one, yet it is essential to the novel due to its power and its effective use of language. In the pages listed, there is are descriptions of La Inca praying for Belicia and the two Elvises beating Belicia to near death. La Inca is able to gather many people together to unite in prayer in hopes of saving Belicia. Even those who were not supportive of her decisions and those who considered her to be a whore.
Life in the Dominican during the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was as bad as one can expect a dictatorial reign to be, it sucked major ass. Junot Díaz, in his book The Brief and Wondrous life of Oscar Wao, he describes this type of life in the Dominican from the perspective of a boy named Oscar and his upbringing in the Dominican. Diaz also shares different perspectives and upbringings from Oscars family members like his sister, mother, and grandfather during Trujillo’s rule. Instead of presenting a length description of the Trujillo’s dictatorship and the events that transpired during his rule, Díaz tells a story of a family and their experiences in the Dominican to give a sense of how his rule effected people’s daily lives
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz layers storytelling and meaning into its plot, with plenty of underlying messages, if the reader is willing to hunt for them a bit. From the relationships between similar characters like Lola and Beli to polar opposites like Yunior and Oscar, the reader sees different relationship and friendship dynamics play out and how such relationships are affected and looked upon by society. Oscar is a lonely, fantasy loving nerd who does not have much of a life, while Yunior has that machismo aspect that is focused on heavily in the story, from start to finish. In the story, Yunior and Oscar are both going to the same college, but Yunior has been rejected from every other residence, and when Lola asks a favor of Yunior to watch her brother Oscar, he gladly accepts since he has nowhere else to turn to. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz uses Yunior
Dictators throughout history have tried to silence those who fought to expose the truth about their regimes through fear, intimidation, and or censorship. From past dictatorships such as The Nazi’s book burnings, to today’s President, Donald Trump calling those he does not agree with as “Fake News”. The brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, tells the heart-rending tale of a ghetto overweight Dominican nerd growing up in New Jersey, who as the story tells us is a contradictory to what every “Male Dominican” is supposed to be. Who would rather write a new thrilling story about some girl he made eye contact rather than actually approaching her. Oscar’s lonely life blends tales of the horrific life under Rafael Trujillo, a dictator who has been quietly
When Oscar was younger, he was what the narrator considered to be a “normal Dominican boy” because he was good with charming women. This part of the novel implies that is it expected of Dominican men to be able pursue women with ease and to also have a number of them. “..“in those days he was a ‘normal’ Dominican boy raised in a ‘typical’ Dominican family, his nascent pimp-liness was encouraged by blood and friends alike” (Diaz 11). As a kid, Oscar did indeed fit this stereotype, being he had two girlfriends at once, but as he grows older he becomes the complete opposite. His development into a nerdy, chubby teen ruins his chance at being a “normal” Dominican man, but the masculine culture still somewhat resides within him.
Huang shaped his characters as well, although it wasn’t as subtle as Oscar’s role nor did it have the same purpose or outcome. With Oscar just like everyone else his life was started in such a way that situations created his being and problems. This seems to be the situation for Oscar, whom with no father or father-like figure in his life. With the exception of his drug abusing, alcoholic uncle, Oscar was just never, taught the importance of masculine traits. Or had the opportunity to see them on the daily basis.
He slinks back to his seat on the couch, peeps the TV, and then lets his eyes wander around the clustered apartment, making sure his handiwork in hiding the pieces of his life will go unnoticed. While he hides tangible objects like cheese and photos, in reality what he hides is himself. He hides his identity, afraid of what those who walk through his door will think; afraid of what they’ll make him feel. Yunior replaces longing with indifference, family with solitude, feelings with masculinity. While he himself does not recognize these exchanges, Yunior alludes to them throughout his story of wooing girls; what he really desires is to not desire.
We become who we are by the people around us. Junot Diaz shows us how true this saying is in his stories. The proof starts in “Fiesta 1980” because Yunior’s examples of love lead him to become the “sucio” we know in “Miss Lora” and “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”. Ramon’s ( Yunior’s father) constant cheating implants a dominant male culture in Yunior’s head. Also his older sibling, Rafa, is a spitting image of his father.
Years ago, women were put into their place by men and depicted as weak by society, but with women empowerment, women are being depicted as able to hold a family, have a high paying job, and being remarkable leaders. Author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz, tells the story of the Cabral family and their fight with the fuku, a curse that follows families. The fuku is believed to have gone through the entire family, Beli, Oscar’s mom, Lola, Oscar’s sister, and Oscar himself. Oscar Wao, the protagonist, struggles throughout his life to find love to the point where it eventually kills him, and his family’s cursed story is told by his best friend, Yunior. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Díaz uses the strong independent
Remembered how he used to…. optimistic…. More, he croaked. ”(pg.301) From then on, Oscar wanted to prove that a De Leon
At a young age Oscar wanted to be love and to have sex but this something that never happened so he becomes depress and overweight. he soon thinks that it is the curse of the Fuku that Is over him and that is way he is not happy with his love life because he has became a
Timed Writing 1 Dorian Gray, in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, experiences many changes throughout the book. The main influence of this transformation was Lord Henry, but on the opposing end was Basil. The changes that Dorian had experienced were enough to ignite a spark in him to change his frame of mind, from a young innocent man into a vain hedonist. After Dorian had determined what he was seeking was not physical, he set out to find pleasure through corrupt relations and life experiences. For a time, Dorian sets his conscience aside and lives his life according to a single goal: achieving pleasure.
A youthful, special personality lies in the heart of a man that inspires a painter’s best work. This nature is intricate, kind, pure, and a wonderful focus for portraits and paintings alike. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, a close friend tragically robs this youth and leads the man to a life that terminates because of evil. Gray, the corrupt man of interest in Oscar Wilde’s novel, has a complex personality, giving him many different companions in the story. Fatefully, he meets the artist Basil at a party due to Basil’s interest in his friend’s striking and mysterious identity.
“This is How You Lose Her” a collection by Junot Diaz is one riddled with conflict, versatile and vulgar language, complex characters, honesty and heartbreak. Diaz’s complex characters and the conflicts they face make the stories emotional, the vulgar and versatile language make the collection humorous and appreciated, the honesty and the heartbreak make it real. You will find yourself, like me, despising the main character, Yunior for his reckless and self destructive behavior, but at the same time loving and sympathizing with him for the same reasons. By the time you reached the end of the book, you will have befriended Yunior and routing for him to finally find the love he has been looking for.
Topic: Oscar Wilde uses symbolism to embody the differences in social classes in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (pages 100-101) Oscar Wilde promotes the inevitable contrast of the three social classes (lower class, bourgeoisie and aristocracy) through his novel, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, by utilizing symbolism[a]. Throughout the novel, this recurring theme is expressed by Wilde through the actions and expressions of his fictional characters. Fixating on the first two pages of chapter 10, the motif is exemplified through three characters; Dorian, Victor (Dorian’s servant), and Mrs. Leaf (Dorian’s housekeeper). The diversity of the social assortments is undoubtedly depicted within the contents of the initial paragraph itself.