Oscar Dino Character Analysis

Oscar’s Legacy Often times, people let their guilt control their actions and change the course of their lives because of the devastation they feel for their mistakes. If not dealt with properly, a guilty conscience can ruin a life or stop a person from thinking clearly. Throughout the novel The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, Oscar attempts to live his life in accordance to what is expected of him, but cannot seem to please his demanding Dominican family; much less live up to Yunior’s high standards. The pressure Oscar feels from Yunior makes Oscar live his life with the sole purpose of wanting to become a true Dominican man. When Oscar dies, Yunior confuses his guilt for Oscar’s death with the guilt he feels for betraying
Yunior, specifically, realizes this attitude in Oscar, especially since he is the narrator and unsympathetically writes, “for four days Oscar resisted any attempt to pack him up in a plane, which says a lot about this fat kid’s fortitude,” (Diaz 303). Throughout the course of the novel, Yunior does not speak endearingly of Oscar, showing his lack of affection and immorality to him. The only reason Yunior tolerates Wao’s nerdiness is because of his love for Lola. Instead of letting Oscar live happily, Yunior flies down to the Dominican Republic with Lola to bring Oscar back to the states, telling him that he will get himself killed if he stays. Yunior writes, “Did I fly down? Of course I did. With Lola. Nothing brings a couple together quite like catastrophe” to which Oscar alludes to Shakespeare by saying, “Et tu, Yunior?” illustrating the ironic and hypocritical nature of Oscar’s life (Diaz 319). Wao refuses to leave Santo Domingo for the States because he loves Ybon too passionately to ever leave her again. If Yunior ever took the time to realize “that it was only because of [Ybon’s] love that [Oscar] had been able to do the thing that he had done” which was to still stand by Ybon after his life had been threatened,
At the end of the novel, Yunior makes it known that the remembrance of Wao only brings back memories of Lola and vice versa, which scars their relationship. Yunior only feels guilty for Oscar’s death because, by losing Oscar, he also lost Lola. Although Yunior thinks he has life all figured out, it is Oscar who ends up teaching Yunior the most; to appreciate what he never did and to appreciate what Oscar always wanted and what Yunior never received. It takes Yunior “ten years [to realize]…until [he] finally woke up next to somebody [he] didn’t give two shits about, [his] upper lip covered in coke-snot and coke-blood and [he] said, OK, Wao, OK. You win” (Diaz 325). Realizing that Oscar was not as far out in his ideas as he thought, Yunior carries on Oscar’s legacy by writing Wao’s story and keeping his manuscripts. In actuality, Yunior’s guilt stems from never telling Lola how he actually feels and he pities himself because once he loses Lola he realizes it is too late “to say the words that could have saved [them]. ____ ______ ____;” I love you (Diaz