Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Essay
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Many people think that boys in our culture today are brought up to define their identities through heroic individualism and competition, particularly through separation from home, friends, and family in an outdoors world of work and doing. While on the other hand, girls are brought up to define their identities through connection, cooperation, self-sacrifice, domesticity, and community in an indoor world of love and caring. This view of different male and female roles can be seen throughout In the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao novel. Examining gender roles is an extremely important way to read the text and to fully understand the characters, their roles and sexual tension throughout the book. The novel takes place both in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic, places in which the ideal “man” is oozing masculinity and is tough, suave, and able to stand up for himself while the ideal woman tends to be a bit more dependent and in less control than males. In Oscar’s family, however, this is not true at all and it is important to ask ourselves, what happens when a group of people do not conform to the roles most people want them to fit in to? …show more content…
The main character Oscar, appears to be the antithesis of the stereotypical Dominican man.
Meaning he is overweight, unable to fit in, a nerd and our narrator informs us of that, right in the very first page of the novel, “dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him)”. (Diaz, 2007, p. 11) His difference from the typical male stereotype is something that he has a lot of trouble coping with throughout his life, because he wants nothing more than to fit in. And with the fact that he is unable to, allows us to draw conclusions very early on about many of the factors of his unfortunate fate. He is constantly in love, but never able to do anything about it and therefore suffers heartbreak on a daily basis and rejection is his constant
companion.
Without the cultural identity of “Dominican-ness,” Oscar likely wouldn’t have been so depressed. Being who he was, felt like he was a failure, because it didn’t fit into the norm of his society. Díaz emphasizes sex as a key ingredient in being a Dominican male. The Dominican male is characterized as having power and charm, and is physically attractive, sexually active, and violent. Oscar’s lack of “G” is central to the novel; his goal throughout the novel is to have a woman not only sexually but to return his affection. Oscar also lacks the ability and the desire to fight or commit violence of any nature. Without the necessary masculinity, Oscar fails to reach his goal of finding requited love until the end of the novel.
Yunior, on the other hand,is the complete opposite, with him being the epitome of Dominican Masculinity; muscular and sexual, and is always sleeping with more than one girl at any given time. Tîo Rudolfo also embodies the masculinity that Oscar seems to lack, and both Yunior and Rudolfo attempt to give Oscar pointers on how to have more “G” and attract more women. Most of the time the advice he is given is so had for him to understand and was usually against his character. Meaning Oscar, failed to heed their advice.
Within the novel, love often has a direct connection to violence. This theme ranges from domestic violence to extreme gut wrenching violence that occurs as retaliation for loving too much and loving the wrong person. Beli, Oscar’s mother, experiences the violence when she loves the ”Gangster”, Oscar experiences it when he loves Ybón, and Abelard experiences it when he protects his daughters out of love. Lola has a difference experience of love and violence; Lola’s violence comes when she cannot separate her mother’s love from her mother’s violent behavior towards her. Love is a strong emotion in the novel, and it is countered by anger and revenge that fuel violence. The author leads us to question, which is more powerful. Both serve as fuel that keep the characters going; both anger and love influence the rash decisions the characters make.
The constant sexual tension Oscar has, of not knowing what being intimate with a woman, does not help him. He is not the only person breaking away from traditional gender roles, his mother and his sister are completely different from many of their gender stereotypes and, just as in Oscar’s case, it causes misery for them as well. Both Beli and Lola are extremely aggressive and are willing to do anything in order to get what they want, Beli does this so much that it was suggested that La Inca “might even have to kill her [her neighbors] said regretfully” because it was the only way to stop her from ruining herself and her family (Diaz, 2007, p. 127). They both are both so headstrong and stubborn that they are often unable to be content with whom they are with and how their lives are going.
Both Belicia and Lola are portrayed as sexually desirable in the novel; their sexuality is a form of power for them. For Belicia the power is emphasized by her breasts, reportedly 35DDDs and described in inflated terms. For Beli, the onset of puberty and becoming a woman marked the beginning of her power; she realized she could control men with her sexuality. However, she also soon realized that the control was only to a certain extent; Beli falls in love three times, but never remains in a lasting relationship.
While Beli’s source of power was her upper body her daughter Lola’s legs and hips were the source of her power. She could reportedly stop traffic when she wore shorts. An example of this is when Yunior describes Lola, he usually focuses on the amount of leg she has showing or, he'll focus on her butt, often using exaggerated descriptions. As soon as Lola recognizes her power, she ends up using it almost like her mother but in a more directed fashion than Beli. While Beli used her physical attractiveness to seek love, Lola uses hers to seek escape from her mother.
Throughout the novel we see that both sexual tension and gender roles play a major part within the novel. From the issues Oscar has with the lack of a “love-life” to the lack of him being a “real Dominican male”, to Beli and Lola and using their sexual prowess to their benefit. We see the family switch the gender roles, and knowingly use their “bodies” to create the sexual tension within the story and use it for their own benefit.
Many people think that boys in our culture today are brought up to define their identities through heroic individualism and competition, particularly through separation from home, friends, and family in an outdoors world of work and doing. While on the other hand, girls are brought up to define their identities through connection, cooperation, self-sacrifice, domesticity, and community in an indoor world of love and caring. This view of different male and female roles can be seen throughout In the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao novel. Examining gender roles is an extremely important way to read the text and to fully understand the characters, their roles and sexual tension throughout the book. The novel takes place both in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic, places in which the ideal “man” is oozing masculinity and is tough, suave, and able to stand up for himself while the ideal woman tends to be a bit more dependent and in less control than males. In Oscar’s family, however, this is not true at all and it is important to ask ourselves, what happens when a group of people do not conform to the roles most people want them to fit in to? …show more content…
The main character Oscar, appears to be the antithesis of the stereotypical Dominican man.
Meaning he is overweight, unable to fit in, a nerd and our narrator informs us of that, right in the very first page of the novel, “dude never had much luck with the females (how very un-Dominican of him)”. (Diaz, 2007, p. 11) His difference from the typical male stereotype is something that he has a lot of trouble coping with throughout his life, because he wants nothing more than to fit in. And with the fact that he is unable to, allows us to draw conclusions very early on about many of the factors of his unfortunate fate. He is constantly in love, but never able to do anything about it and therefore suffers heartbreak on a daily basis and rejection is his constant
companion.
Without the cultural identity of “Dominican-ness,” Oscar likely wouldn’t have been so depressed. Being who he was, felt like he was a failure, because it didn’t fit into the norm of his society. Díaz emphasizes sex as a key ingredient in being a Dominican male. The Dominican male is characterized as having power and charm, and is physically attractive, sexually active, and violent. Oscar’s lack of “G” is central to the novel; his goal throughout the novel is to have a woman not only sexually but to return his affection. Oscar also lacks the ability and the desire to fight or commit violence of any nature. Without the necessary masculinity, Oscar fails to reach his goal of finding requited love until the end of the novel.
Yunior, on the other hand,is the complete opposite, with him being the epitome of Dominican Masculinity; muscular and sexual, and is always sleeping with more than one girl at any given time. Tîo Rudolfo also embodies the masculinity that Oscar seems to lack, and both Yunior and Rudolfo attempt to give Oscar pointers on how to have more “G” and attract more women. Most of the time the advice he is given is so had for him to understand and was usually against his character. Meaning Oscar, failed to heed their advice.
Within the novel, love often has a direct connection to violence. This theme ranges from domestic violence to extreme gut wrenching violence that occurs as retaliation for loving too much and loving the wrong person. Beli, Oscar’s mother, experiences the violence when she loves the ”Gangster”, Oscar experiences it when he loves Ybón, and Abelard experiences it when he protects his daughters out of love. Lola has a difference experience of love and violence; Lola’s violence comes when she cannot separate her mother’s love from her mother’s violent behavior towards her. Love is a strong emotion in the novel, and it is countered by anger and revenge that fuel violence. The author leads us to question, which is more powerful. Both serve as fuel that keep the characters going; both anger and love influence the rash decisions the characters make.
The constant sexual tension Oscar has, of not knowing what being intimate with a woman, does not help him. He is not the only person breaking away from traditional gender roles, his mother and his sister are completely different from many of their gender stereotypes and, just as in Oscar’s case, it causes misery for them as well. Both Beli and Lola are extremely aggressive and are willing to do anything in order to get what they want, Beli does this so much that it was suggested that La Inca “might even have to kill her [her neighbors] said regretfully” because it was the only way to stop her from ruining herself and her family (Diaz, 2007, p. 127). They both are both so headstrong and stubborn that they are often unable to be content with whom they are with and how their lives are going.
Both Belicia and Lola are portrayed as sexually desirable in the novel; their sexuality is a form of power for them. For Belicia the power is emphasized by her breasts, reportedly 35DDDs and described in inflated terms. For Beli, the onset of puberty and becoming a woman marked the beginning of her power; she realized she could control men with her sexuality. However, she also soon realized that the control was only to a certain extent; Beli falls in love three times, but never remains in a lasting relationship.
While Beli’s source of power was her upper body her daughter Lola’s legs and hips were the source of her power. She could reportedly stop traffic when she wore shorts. An example of this is when Yunior describes Lola, he usually focuses on the amount of leg she has showing or, he'll focus on her butt, often using exaggerated descriptions. As soon as Lola recognizes her power, she ends up using it almost like her mother but in a more directed fashion than Beli. While Beli used her physical attractiveness to seek love, Lola uses hers to seek escape from her mother.
Throughout the novel we see that both sexual tension and gender roles play a major part within the novel. From the issues Oscar has with the lack of a “love-life” to the lack of him being a “real Dominican male”, to Beli and Lola and using their sexual prowess to their benefit. We see the family switch the gender roles, and knowingly use their “bodies” to create the sexual tension within the story and use it for their own benefit.