Summary: The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

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

Lazarillo de Tormes is a famous work of Spanish literature published anonymously. The novel is written in the first person. Lazarillo de Tormes is known as a picaresque novel in that the novel is written about a character of the lower-class instead of a hero or upper-class character. The novel has several themes, but the theme that is constant throughout the novel is appearance versus reality. A rhetorical device is a use of language that is intended to have an effect on its audience. The author utilizes several rhetorical devices in the novel which add emphasis to the story. For the purposes of this paper, the following rhetorical devices are analyzed: satire, simile, hyperbole, double entendre and parody. The novel, which was banned by the Spanish Crown during the time of the Spanish inquisition, is the story of the birth and life Lazarillo as he serves various masters and his struggle for survival. His struggle is real. Many of the rhetorical devices serve to add humor to the novel as well.

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.

“FUKÚ” is an atavistic deadly curse that follows the De León family, and everything that can go wrong for them does. However, I believe that the fukú is only a consequence of their actions and a way for them to rationalize their misfortunes. The characters are using fukú as a crutch in place of taking responsibilities for their own actions. This is because they don’t want to accept the fact that things don’t always go the way they want them to. So they choose to blame the fukú for making their problems happen. So when fukú strikes a mongoose appears it comes as a character of a guardian angel with a sanguine presence. A mongoose is a weasel like animal that appears in the near death experiences of the characters. When it comes it shows a

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.

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.”

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.

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is arguably the most important novel of the Mexican Revolution because of how it profoundly captures the atmosphere and intricacies of the occasion. Although the immediate subject of the novel is Demetrio Macias - a peasant supporter of the Mexican Revolution -, one of its extensive themes is the ambivalence surrounding the revolution in reality as seen from a broader perspective. Although often poetically revered as a ‘beautiful’ revolution, scenes throughout the novel paint the lack of overall benevolence even among the protagonist revolutionaries during the tumultuous days of the revolution. This paper will analyze certain brash characteristics of the venerated revolution as represented by Azuela’s

The conclusion of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz is satisfying because the ending revolved around Oscar’s death, the separate stories of the novel now intertwined because of him. His transformation and new personality was ultimately the cause of his death, but in a sense it can be considered happy because it seems just right. Oscar becomes a new person and breaks free of his nerdy and rejected persona. Diaz seamlessly weaves the ending of Oscar Wao’s story and all the characters around him due to their natures and the preceding actions. The ending of this novel is convincing and logical because of Oscar’s new transformation which led him to do things which he would have not done before. These things that he did, most specifically pursuing a woman he should not have, led him to his death. Despite the morbid ending, it is not unreasonable; it is certainly logical and therefore satisfying to the

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.

Past history reveals the various tragedies of many lives lost while under the rule of the dictator, Trujillo. “The Farming of Bones” and “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” were two different stories of innocent characters who lived and were affected during Trujillo’s reign. These stories targeted the central problems that the characters went through and the amount of impact it caused them through this cruel leadership. During that time, many were oppressed and were forced to cope with the life style that Trujillo created. Oppression played a significant role in the characters because it led to a loss of identity; however, the two stories shared the various characters’ power of hope, belief, and silence as a means of reconstructing

Thus, for practical as well as literary reasons, Díaz focuses on the psychological and emotional despots stemming from one political dictatorship?that of Trujillo . But Díaz, again, is disciplined: He structures the plights of the Cabral-Wao lineage as the history of fukú: Fukú began with Colombus's step onto the sand of the West Indies and, as a V, expanded to the crushing poverty and political unrest abounding in Latin America today, the plights of the Cabral-Wao lineage began with Trujillo and expanded with each generation, culminating in the doomed-to-sorrow, dictatorship-riddled life of Oscar Wao.

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, Diaz explores two male characters, Oscar and Yunior, in relation to their compliance with the ideal Dominican masculinity. Oscar appears to be as far away from the image of Dominican masculinity while Yunior appears to the poster child for it. For most of the story Oscar really struggles with his identity and believes his lack of masculinity will always be a source of struggle and pain for him. However, Yunior is extremely stereotypically within the idea of Dominican masculinity, but in the end is perhaps not as happy as he might have been. The end points for both Oscar and Yunior illuminate the idea that there is more than one way for Dominican men to act in society and none of them are stuck to a single way of behaving that equates to having a happy life.