According to this novel’s view of existence, what is mankind’s relationship to religion, universe, and supernatural: Specially, what does the novel state about determinism, human nature, and the nature of good and evil:
In Oscar Wao, Diaz correlates the relationship between spirituality and mankind with race and identity. The characters in the book discuss openly throughout about ghosts, curses, and the element of fuku. I think culturally the struggle to identify whether or not these things exist and what role they should play in one’s life are especially important. Fuku plays a huge part in this novel pertaining to the view of existence. Yunior, the narrator, believes that all things come back to the spiritual and long-lived curse. He
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As far as hierarchy goes, the novel blends the supernatural with the element of power, whether good or bad power. Trujillo, “the Dictatingest Dictator who ever Dictated” (Diaz, 80), has power over every single character in the book. He also is claimed to have supernatural powers, that’s exactly how powerful he is. Trujillo challenges the power dynamic and brings up the conversation of good versus evil and how human nature can be a determining factor.
El Jefe (Trujillo) and his policies plays a significant part in the entire novel. Historically, Trujillo was a real person who actually was a dictator of the Dominican from 1930 to about 1961 when he was assassinated. As in the novel, Trujillo was in fact very influential, dangerous, seductive to women and almost supernatural in how powerful he was.
“Trujillo’s the president and you’re just a doctor. If he wants your daughters at the party you can do nothing but obey” (Diaz, 229).
In the novel Trujillo repeatedly interrupts the lives of many women because he always gets his way. Beli, for example, almost lost her life because she fell in love with a cohort of El Jefe. Likewise to El Jefe, the femme civil rights activists during his reign, the Mirabel Sisters, were referenced throughout the book. As with most activists, they were opposed to the way Trujillo ruled. This ultimately made them martyrs by getting killed in a sugar cane field, hence Oscar’s death and Beli’s brush with death in a similar way.
In the book Alvarez informs us that this takes place during Trujillo 's reign over the Dominican Republic in the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Throughout history dictators have risen and fallen all across the world. Many have been seen as evil, and sometimes good to others, but no matter what a persons view tend to be there are some who even consider them god. Due to a dictators extensive powers and complete control over every aspect of a persons life this is what comes to be. Trujillo is just the same, at first his true motives were questioned and it wasn’t apparent to all what he really was. As the Mirabel sisters grow up it becomes clear that Trujillo is in control of more of their lives than it may seemed. Trujillo leads a complete authoritarian rule over the Dominican Republic with spies everywhere, this can suggest that he trying to assume the role of a terrible god, who is always watching and ready to punish. While all
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is not a happy book. The Author, Junot Diaz, does a great job fooling the reader into believing the story is about the De Leon family, specifically Oscar who is an over weight nerd trying to find the love of his life, but due to a family “fuku” or curse Oscar is having a lot of trouble doing so. Instead, the story actually portrays the dark history of the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Upon reading the stories of Oscar’s relatives the reader feels a powerful message of fear and oppression due to the actions of the Trujillo regime. Even after the demise of
The Mirabal sisters are all considered heroines for their work against Trujillo. Three of them
All four sisters reject their stereotypical role as women in the society by standing up for their beliefs and the revolution. When Minerva said,” It’s about time we women had a voice in running our country,”(Alvarez ?Chapter 1?) shows how outspoken she is about her country. The way Minerva demands equality shows the influence that men have over women in the Dominican culture. During the 1960s, the men expected women to be housewives, and to just cook and clean. In the book when Jaimito says,” The Mirabal sisters like to run their men, that was the problem. In his house, we was the one to wear the pants.”(Alvarez, 176-177) That shows that men expect women to be below them.
Diaz strategically uses Yunior to narrate a majority of the novel. Though Yunior’s identity as the narrrater was not revealed till almost the very end of the novel, Yunior gave a very descriptive and satirical version of the life of Oscar Wao. Yunior was Oscar’s roommate at Rutgers, the boyfriend of Oscar’s sister, Lola, and the reader
Patria is exposed to the truth that Trujillo was not the god-like entity she perceived him to be. In Patria’s mind there is no separation between god and Trujillo; they are one. Patria is finally coming face to face with the problems within the Dominican Republic. This revelation foreshadows how Patria will become involved with the regime and what part she might play.
One thing the Gangster forgot to tell Beli is that he was married and the wife was Trujillo blood. Since Beli was so excited about the pregnancy, she was telling everyone about it and soon the news got to the palace and the Gangster wife was furious.
Oscar is the antithesis of his culture’s idea of manliness. In the beginning we meet an Oscar who is called “Porfirio Rubirosa” (21). Everyone is proud of the boy because this is exactly what he needs to be to be a Dominican man. Men from Dominican Republic, and perhaps Spanish Caribbean men, are expected to take care of their family especially their mothers and sisters, yet they are also expected to be “playboys” who have multiple women. as the first line of the story communicates, “Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly-bachetero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock” (21). Oscar is the type of man who women say they want; kind, sensitive, considerate, smart, and romantic. He truly want to find true
Likewise, another factor that assists in Trujillo’s persistent control of the Dominican Republic is his abuse of power. Rules are restrictions and too many rules lead to the entrapment of citizens. Julia Alvarez specifically utilizes the word “weakness” to portray the character trait that the majority of the citizens possess. In the word “weakness,” one thinks about not-strong and lack of courage. In essence, no one has the courage to stand up to Trujillo. For example, we see the common trait through the quote, “People who opened their big mouths didn’t live very long.”
As children grow up in a dysfunctional family, they experience trauma and pain from their parent’s actions, words, and attitudes. With this trauma experienced, they grew up changed; different from other children. The parent’s behavior affects them and whether they like it or not, sometimes it can influence them, and they can react against it or can repeat it. In Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta, 1980”, is presented this theme of the dysfunctional family. The author presents a story of an adolescent Latin boy called Junior, who narrates the chronicles of his dysfunctional family, a family of immigrants from the Dominican Republic driving to a party in the Bronx, New York City. “Papi had been with
Oscar de Leon from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a character that be classified as a member of many different types of social groups. He is characterized as a Dominican, a
Dictator, a word that has haunted people throughout history, it means a leader who rules a country with absolute power, usually by force. Trujillo was a dictator of that kind, he was a role model in front of his people, but a murderer in the shadows. There were those who went against him in order to gain their freedom, among those brave souls were the Mirabel sister who fought for their freedom. These radicalists were known as The Butterflies, which consisted of the Mirabel sisters. The Butterflies went through a metamorphosis just like butterflies; they transformed themselves into symbols of peace through stages in their life.
In the story, Oscar goes through difficult situations to want to interpret the role of the Dominican man. During the story, Oscar seeks a woman who gives him love and makes him feel like a man, but does not have the masculine qualities necessary to achieve his purpose. While his friend Yunior is the opposite, that is, his role in history is a man that women are always behind him by his charms, to the point that he cannot maintain a relationship with a woman because he cannot be faithful.
Throughout the novel, Pedro Paramo, the author Juan Rulfo uses imagery, conflict, foreshadowing and juxtaposition to comment on the corruption of organized religion in the world, particularly the Catholic Church. The small village where the novel is set, has become a prison for the souls who remain and the local Priest abuses his position of authority to decide who will be blessed and be released. The author juxtaposes the terrible surroundings and actions of the townspeople with the purity of the religion they believe in. The people of the town are betrayed by the one they are supposed to idolize most, sin most egregiously and yet, even when they know that they are damned to eternity, they continue to rely on their religion for salvation.
The story The President is all about a dictator who does not have pity in the country of Latin America usually known as Guatemala. Wherein in this country has no freedom or what we call totalitarian government. People do not have the ability or power to do whatever they want; they are being controlled by only one person, the president. The cruelty of life has been shown to everyone life. They are being denied to the true meaning of life and beautiful environment of the world.