Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

In Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, women in the Dominican Republic are objectified by men; they are treated as sex symbols and objects of desire. Similarly, a women's worth is dependent upon her physical attractiveness solely and not her character. Women are also chastised and physically assaulted for failing to subjugate themselves to men. What role and power do women have in the novel and is it merely limited to pleasing men? Arguably Beli more than anyone understands how important a favorable appearance is in Dominican life and especially at her new school, El Redentor. At school, Beli is already the other or an alien. She is from a lower social class, has dark brown skin, and rough around the edges to say the least. She decides to further alienate herself by being "defensive and aggressive and mad overactive" (83) which left her alone. But, once puberty hit, Beli was now "la tetúa
Beli constantly nags Oscar about his weight and yells at Lola. On the other hand, La Inca is firm and never raises her voice at the children. She understands Oscar and Lola; she just let them be who the are. In the summer, she would let him spend hours reading his sci-fi fantasy books because it made Oscar happy. La Inca’s purpose is to be there for every member of the family and she is. She saves Beli from her horrible foster parents who punished her by pouring hot oil down on the nape of her neck. Even more impressively, La Inca does not pressure Beli to speak about that time period of her life. She only tries to advise Beli on her rebellious life choices and is there to help her every time she falls. For example, when Beli is taken to the cornfield by the goons La Inca prays for Beli’s safety. It is noted that her prayers saved Beli and had some sort of supernatural element to them. La Inca’s purpose and power is prayer. It’s like the Mongoose in a sense; she always show up right on