Oscar Wao

In Drown, women are simply perceived as objects. The Dominican Republic culture lets gender norms dictate behavior of both men and women, encouraging the practices of machismo. Machismo is defined as a strong sense of masculine pride. Diaz details Yunior’s journey in dealing with masculinity as well as the misogyny women face through the stories “Aurora” and “Edison, New Jersey”. Critics would argue Diaz should be assessed for the sexist portrayal of women in Drown. However, in Drown, Diaz acknowledges the deep misogyny within the Dominican Republic society; thus he cannot be criticized for the portrayal of women because he simply depicts a vivid reality.

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

In several cultures, women are seen as archetypes more than men. The proposition of women are instantly idealized and glorified and instantaneously ignore the true complexity of a woman. Countless of these superficial images can be seen across various cultures where the societies within these cultures define what it means to be a female and what type of behavior is and isn’t acceptable within those parameters. The persistent restatement of these stories throughout these generations reinforces the gender system. Women who step out of the norm in these societies are then held punishable for their actions. Alicia Gaspar de Alba pinpoints the three archetypal roles that are given to the women in the Mexican and Chicana cultures. These are,

It is not just the language of the Dominican culture that we find characters struggling to hold onto in Díaz’s Drown. We also find that the characters walk a fine line of defining themselves as newly Dominican American, and it seems they feel pressured to leave behind their old ways and traditions to join their new society. In the short story “Fiesta, 1980,” we find many examples of the family being torn between their Dominican customs and assimilating to their new American life. This story begins with the explanation of Papi’s most prized possession: a brand-new, lime-green, Volkswagen van. Much to Yunior’s chagrin (due to the fact that he gets sick every time he rides in the vehicle), this van means a lot to Papi, because to him, it represents an American family. According to John Riofrio (2008), “it[the van] is the embracing of the American way which has reenabled Papi’s masculinity,” (p. 33). After arriving at their Tia and Tio’s home for the party, Yunior sneers at his relatives’ apartment stating, “the place had been furnished in Contemporary Dominican Tacky” (p. 32). It seems as though Yunior, after only a short period in America, is already feeling embarrassed by his culture’s traditions. This chapter of the book also discusses the betrayal of Yunior’s father to his family, by having an affair with a Puerto Rican woman, whom

Stereotypes are dangerous weapons in our society. “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” is a short essay in which the award winning poet and professor of English, Judith Ortiz Cofer, wishes to inform and persuade the audience that labels and stereotypes can be humiliating and hurtful. The author targets the general public, anyone that doesn’t understand that putting someone in a box because of a stereotype is wrong. Cofer starts out the essay by telling the reader a story with a drunk man who re-enacted “Maria” from the West Side Story, and how angry that made her feel. She continues by explaining how she grew up in the United States being a Puerto Rican girl trying to fit in, but always being labeled as an island girl. Cofer carries on by explaining why Latin people get dressed and act a certain way. Then she recalls some more stereotypical incidents.

Based on Cisneros’ works of literature, gender roles in a Hispanic culture revolves around patriarchal rule. The repercussions of a patriarchal rule includes the limitations of female liberation and development. Cleofilas’ abusive situation exemplifies the limitations of her independence and development as she can not make her own decisions and has to solely depend on her husband. This situation is illustrated when Cleofilas explains that the towns are “built so that you have to depend on husbands... You can drive only if you’re rich enough to own and drive an own car. There is no place to go” (Cisneros 628). Cleofilas reveals that men are the dominant gender and have more authority, and that women are compelled to depend on them in her society. It is an exceptionally rare case that a woman can afford her own car, for the men usually control the finances in a household. Additionally, Cleofilas has nowhere to seek refuge from her husband. Although she yearns to return to her father’s home, she decides not to due to the social standards imposed on her. In her society, the act of returning home after marriage is socially unacceptable. She understands that her family will be viewed in a negative light if she were to return home, as seen when Cleofilas refers to her town as a “town of gossips” (627). Similar to other men in the society, Juan Pedro’s authority is shown through his abuse. Cleofilas recalls, “He slapped her once, and then again, and again; until the lip split and bled an orchid of blood” (626).

During the Mexican Revolution, Mexico as a nation torn in many directions, people gave up simple farming lives to take up arms against causes that many of them did not fully understand. Gender roles during the period in Mexico were exceptionally degrading towards women. Having little more rights than slaves and treated as trophies or property more than human beings, women role in society was nothing near that of a man’s. In The Underdogs, Mariano Anzuela highlights the issue of gender roles by continuously illustrating the punitive role of women and their mistreatment. Augmenting Anzuelas work with citations from Oscar Lewis and Stephanie Smith will paint a picture of the degrading gender roles for women during the Mexican Revolution. Highlighted points brought up by Azuela are how men speak with and treat women, women’s place in society, and general disregard for women’s feelings.

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the reader gets a sense of what the expectations are of Dominican men and women. Junot Díaz uses Oscar in contrast to the other male characters to present the expectations of the Dominican male. On the other hand, Díaz presents the women in the text, especially Belicia, La Inca, Lola, and Jenni, as strong characters in their own rights, but the male characters, with the exception of Oscar, have a desire to display their masculinity to maintain power over these women. It would be unfair to say that the women bring the abuse unto themselves, but rather it is their culture that makes the abuse acceptable and almost to a certain extent—expected.

One thing all human beings, have in common is the struggle for self identity. Children are raised by parents or guardians who have struggled and fought for their own identities. In many cases, parents are still trying to figure it out, while raising their own children. Such is the case with the characters in Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The theme of identity is conveyed through the characters’ Dominican culture, social standing, and in finding love. Oscar, Lola, and Yunior are three central characters in Oscar Wao, who’s Dominican cultural and family expectations were major obstacles as they struggled to establish their identity.

Trouble began to brew because of the woman, and it seemed logical to any normal person to discontinue the pursuit; but Oscar’s stubbornness that was frequently depicted in situations throughout the novel led him to his death. In this novel there was no other way for Oscar to die logically; he needed a big bang to bow out of his eccentric life and what better way for him, than to die for love. True love, what Oscar had been searching for his entire life and finally found, had killed him.

As it unfolds in "The Golden Age" section, Oscar is part of a Dominican-American family that lives in Paterson, New Jersey. As a child he is pushed forward to the opposite sex by his mother, which is very proud about his early signs of virility. This is seen as one of the standing characteristics of Dominican males. Further on, we watch the decline of Oscar's success with women as he gains weight and he deepens himself in literature and isolation. This is caused by Maritza's rejection which affected him profoundly.

Growing up poor in the Dominican Republic strongly influenced the choices Yunior makes later in his life. In “Aguantando” Yunior recalls about how poverty was a part of his life. Díaz writes, “We were poor. The only way we could have been

Due to the fact that the Dominican male is known to be a sex symbol, they’re known to being powerfully dominating over the woman, the theme of misogyny is very much entitled in the novel. The women in the younger generation experiences misogyny as well, however, they know how to deal with it and to rise from this concept better than the old generation. In the old generation, Belleci is targeted by men throughout the novel “Was there a time for a rape or two? I suspect there was but we shall never know because it’s not something she talked about” (Diaz 147) this shows that men domination and viewing women as objects is by far a very common theme . However, after a generation of a woman having experience bad luck with men, Lola’s generation

Diaz progresses into detailing the necessary steps the young man must follow to get an actual date with a woman dependent upon her race and background. The young man is led to believe that for each type of girl he must present himself differently to not offend her or her parent’s fragile sensibilities and receives instructions on how to properly illicit a date “The directions were in your best handwriting, so her parents won't think you're an idiot” (256). Clearly, careful psychological manipulations of a girl’s parents are a vital component in achieving dating success. To this point, the young man has only received instruction and it is here that the reader receives some insight into which type of woman the young man is wanting to date “The white ones are the ones you want the most, aren't

Throughout his writing, he degrades women and immigrants escaping the tyrannous regime in the Dominican Republic. Fremio Sepulveda, a literary critic, works to analyze Junot Diaz’s novel from an immigrant perspective as he analyzes The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in terms of its racial and gender stereotypes. According to Sepulveda, Diaz incorporates a male narrator who, “degrades women to foreground his own masculine identity ” showing how Diaz’s writing style can challenge many of his readers. For example in the novel, Diaz writes, “[he] was actually partying with Johnny Abbes sucking whiskey out of the navels of underage (expletive)”(Diaz.122). This quote shows how Diaz incorporates inappropriate wording and references to develop his storyline making the book unsuitable for high school students. Although Diaz may be incorporating this style to develop the plot of the story, it would be illogical to implement it in a school curriculum due to its controversial nature. Also, Carlin Romano, writer of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: It's Hard Going, But Stay With It,” criticizes much of Diaz’s book for his “irritating prose,” “badly written passages,” as well as “a hodgepodge of repetitive riffs on teenage sexuality,” which goes to show how much of an impact Diaz can have on high school students reading his book and the teachers teaching the book as well. Although some teenagers may be able to handle the suggestive nature of Diaz’s writing, many teenagers would find the explanation of certain details and descriptions to be uncomfortable and gorey. Those teenagers that are able to read through the book may find themselves unsettled at the end, despite the fact that they are able to get through the harsh discrimination and unsettling topics like racial and gender bigotry. The tendentious topics Diaz chooses to bring up can have a