Oscar's Flaws

Unfortunately, our hero lacked in physical attractiveness as well. It was stated on page 22 of the book, “sophomore year Oscar found himself weighing in at a whopping 245” (Diaz) this obesity drives him even further away from the expectations of the society, making it even more difficult for our hero to fit in. Furthermore, to be a real man in Dominican society a male has to depict an aggressive and rough attitude. Diaz makes the character of Oscar lack even this attribute of Dominican masculinity. It is mentioned on page 19, “It wasn’t just that he didn’t have no kind of father to show him the masculine ropes, he simply lacked all aggressive and martial tendencies… Oscar had like a zero combat rating; Aggression and intimidation out of the question.” The above lines show that our hero was not treading the path of nonconformity as a matter of choice; he was simply incapable of following the gender specific requirement of the Dominican

When Oscar is eighteen years old he meets an important girl named Ana in an SAT prep class. He immediately falls in love, but unfortunately also falls “into one of those Let’s-Be-Friends Vortexes” (Díaz 41). While Oscar is just one of her

Being abused as a child and nobody wanting her because of her skin color and loosing her parents and siblings in murder, and yet she didn’t do anything to deserve this. As teen years met Belicia she gained the privilege to make decisions for her self. Until then she suffers the fukú from her own actions. Moving through the generation fukú strikes Belicia’s son Oscar after he made the decision to break one girl’s heart because he was dating two girls contemporaneously. In return he got his heart broken by the girl he chose to stay with and then everything went downhill for Oscar. Gaining weight, and casting every one away Oscar lost his popularity and became a pathetic nobody with suicidal thoughts. "Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkein and, most of all, of finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the....curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, following them on their epic journey from the Dominican Republic to the United States and back again."

When we see that the people that we love have to deal with a horrible situation we try to make it better anyway we can, sometimes giving up the most important part of ourselves. In The Brief Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz argues that there are stronger forces around us. With fuku, the curse in the Dominican Republic, is present in the lives of Oscar and Beli when they both have an encounter with the

He couldn’t stop obsessing over every pretty girl he saw. Eventually, it got him killed. His last obsession, Ybon, had an angry and jealous boyfriend who was an officer. Oscar did end up dead, beaten and shot by this man, in the middle of a field. He gave up

Oscar’s end was met after he had decided to meet with a girl, named Ybon, who claimed she was single. To his surprise, she was not. Her boyfriend turned to be someone called the Capitán, who is affiliated with the corrupt government, and this meant that Oscar was to get a beating by the Capitán’s henchmen. At this moment it is described when the narrator illustrates, “Grod and Grundy yanked him out of the car. And did Ybon fight to keep him in her arms? Did she protest the rude interruption to their making out? Of course not. Homegirl just passed right out again” (Diaz 294). Oscar is on his own because Ybon is unable to help him. Oscar was left to experience this form of both horizontal and vertical violence. The horizontal coming from the Capitán’s henchmen, and the vertical being the Capitán using his power to harm Oscar. This beating did not kill Oscar, but would lead up to his death. Oscar ultimately met up with the Capitán’s men again. Right before he is shot, one of the men says, “Listen we’ll let you go if you tell us what fuego means in English” (Diaz 322). Oscar blurts out the answer, “fire”, and he is gone. The beating and his death, were all fuku. The curse followed him when everything seemed to be going good for him. The “wondrous” moments of his life were too short, and overpowered by the

““Fuku americanus” Diaz explains, is "generally a curse or a doom of some kind; specifically the Curse and the Doom of the New World." It seems especially contagious and deadly in the Dominican Republic, where "it is believed that the arrival of Europeans on Hispaniola unleashed the Fukú on the world.”” (Review: It’s a Wonderful Life 4). Fukú is shown through the many horrific events that are shown throughout. Trujillo is believed to be able to put the curse on whoever he chooses for many generations to follow. In the news article Fukú Americanus, Deresiewicz states,

Oscar is not the typical Dominican man that his family expects him to be. He is considered to be a nerd which leads to the lack of romance in his adolescence and adulthood. In an article by Joori Joyce Lee it says: “Growing up as a ghetto nerd, or "a smart kid in a poor-ass community," Diaz felt like a mutant because he found himself to be an outsider in both the Dominican subculture and mainstream white American society.” (Lee, pg 23). Oscar could never really fit in with his peers or even with Dominicans, he is always considered an outsider to them. “Everybody noticed his lack of game and because they were Dominican everybody talked about it.” (Diaz, pg. 24). His own family recognizes his lack of masculinity that a Dominican man should have. Even Oscar’s sister Lola encourages him to lose weight and to become more masculine in order to get a girlfriend. His uncle Rudolfo is a prime example of what society expects every

Díaz writes about Oscar leaving his friends to show his maturity for being able to cut ties with people, especially since it is hard for him to make friends.

Throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, past events greatly affect Oscar’s present activities, attitudes, and values. Oscar Wao must continually contend with the thought of his breakup with Maritza Chacón as a seven year old, and this specific event contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Oscar’s breakup marks a transition in his life from being a stereotypical Dominican “player” to an overweight nerd. During his high school years and beyond, he continually searches for love. However, the search for love and urge to replicate his earlier romantic years ultimately result in his death because love acts as a curse throughout the novel. Oscar’s relationship to his childhood years heavily influence his activities and thoughts

He has a full time job as a english and history teacher. He does not have good experience, his students make fun of him, he tries getting phone numbers from girls but no numbers, at least he talks to girls. Eventually, he decides to take a vacation with her mom in Santo Domingo. Oscar meets this prostitute named Ybon after a while of knowing each she's leaves for a 27 days and Oscar gets sad, starts writing her letter and fantasies about her. Ybon stared getting creeped out by Oscar so she tried to avoid him but he would not listen. Ybon knew The captain would not be happy if the saw them together he attempted to kiss her but she said “Please don't. He’ll kill us” (321) the captain threatens to kill Oscar, his mom and Lola knew there was trouble they told him to not go that he will get killed but he didn't listen. One night Oscar and Clive, Oscar’s friend are driving by Riverside, they stop at a light. Two of captain’s friend’s named Grod and Grundy get in Clive’s car and beat Oscar. They drove him to the cane fields. As soon as they got the middle of the Cane fields Oscar stood there looking at Grod and Grundy holding a gun point. Oscar gives a speech about how this was horrible and his love for Ybon, they respectfully wait until he's finished and after that they shot him and he dies. The Fuku curse has killed a majority of Oscar’s family members and just like them his life was

Oscar's family refuses to accept their relationship, seeing it disgusting and foolish. When Oscar tells Ybón that he made plans to come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas, she does not look excited. Oscar keeps pushing Ybón to see his best qualities and little by little, she starts to open up. She even kisses him. Oscar's new found love spirals down into a pit of darkness. He gets beaten up by cops, barely surviving the beating. The Mongoose, who is a magical force that opposes evil curses, leads Oscar to a cab driver that saves him. Oscar loses himself in between Ybón's drunken talks of the tragedies in her life. He gets too close to her; his risk of being enormously damaged (physically and emotionally) increases. When Ybón's boyfriend finds out about Oscar, he ends up, unfortunately, murdering him. Oscar does not die disappointed—he feels content with himself because love stems from his fingertips. By letting blinded love control Oscar's actions, he lets his reasoning go and becomes vulnerable to disasters—one of them being death. He does not comprehend that a person cannot continue to pursue love from the same person after finding out that the certain person (Ybón) is taken. People who do

Dohra Ahmad, the author of the Wondrous life of Oscar Wao book, provides the book setting in the united states and the Dominican republic. In particular, the author analyses the harsh regime power ruled by Trujillo which exposes people to hostility and violence. As a result, various characters within the book flee from their country into America. The author has used an authoritative tone to reflect on Trojan’s leadership. There is a degree of sarcasm and contempt in Ahmad voice especially when he indicates that despite his strict leadership and dictatorship, most people in Dominican Republic remained poor (Díaz,3).

The first similarity that Oscar and Lola share is that they both blame a curse for their difficult life, which they call it the Fuku. They both think that there is a witchy feeling which makes their life harder, all the bad things that happens to them, happens because of that. “And then when I was twelve I got that feeling, the scary witchy one, and before I knew it my mother was sick and the wildness that had been in me all along, that I tried to tamp down with chores and with homework and with promises that once I reached college I would be able to do whatever I pleased, burst out.” (Junot, Diaz.”Wilwood”. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Riverhead Books.

The decision to go against conformity is the only way to escape the situation that one is in, as shown in Díaz’s novel and Malala’s journey. Oscar, the main protagonist of Díaz’s novel, is frequently told by the people around him who he is and who he must be, sparking a deep conflict within Oscar. “Our hero was not one of those Dominican cat’s everybody’s always going on about ... dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him)” (Díaz, 11). From the beginning of the book, Oscar is pinned as an unfavorable choice for women. He notices this when girls reject him for the way he looks and his family members critique his lack of “improvement”. The Dominican expectation tells men they should be charming and a lothario however Oscar is neither. Oscar has the decision to conform to or reject the expectations. As it is more difficult to push the expectations away, Oscar spends his life chasing women in hopes of sex, which is also