Bibliographic Details:
Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007.
Summary:
Junot Diaz brings the reader into the life of Oscar and his family. We watch Oscar grow from a little boy to a young man, understand his sister Lola’s reasons to protect her little brother, and why his mother Belicia is just so mean to her children and everyone around her. The family begins to unravel its secrets, as we come to terms at the end of the novel with fukú, a curse, which has been placed on the family for centuries.
Oscar is an awkward boy, whose family is from the Dominican Republic. Life wasn’t always such a difficulty for him, when he was young he was a great dancer, made the best jokes, and was very good with the ladies. As he began to hit puberty, he gained a hundred pounds, stopped having people laugh with him and begin laughing at him, and lost his skills to get the girls. He became your classic quirky boy, misunderstood by society wanting nothing more than to fit in. He realized that his true best friends, and the only ones who would listen to him for that fact was his beloved pen and paper. With these two by his side he was unstoppable, creating new worlds, superheroes, and his own sci-fi collection. Through his high school years he became isolated from the boys his age, and his best friends, because while they were off with their girlfriends he was either moping about his lack of a relationship, or reading. Life didn’t get any easier when we went off to college even when he stayed with one of his sister’s best friends. Oscar still managed to fall madly in love with a beautiful young girl, who “cheated”, though they weren’t in an exclusive relationship, and broke Oscar’s heart. His reaction to this pain was an attempted suicide, but thankful as he attempted to jump of a bridge he landed on to the boarder of the lane where there was a strip of grass. A few years later Oscar is sent to live in Santo Domingo where he gets himself tangled in another mess. He has fallen in love with a prostitute, Ybón, and writes love letters to her daily. One day, Ybón’s boyfriend his friends come and take Oscar to the cane fields and beat him senseless. Not knowing better Oscar still does not stop loving Ybón, she tries her best to protect him by telling him things such as not to kiss her in public because someone will tell her boyfriend. The lovers never stop sending each other secret letters, which brings her boyfriend back to Oscar’s doorstep, drags him back to the cane fields. The men, Ybón’s boyfriend and his friends, as Oscar what is the word for fuego in English, automatically Oscar says fire, and just like that he is dead.
Oscar’s sister Lola, basically raised herself, Oscar and their mother Belicia. Belicia was a single mother, working three different jobs at a time trying to provide for her family. As badly as she wanted the best for her family, she mistreated her children greatly, especially her only daughter Lola. Belicia would verbally and physically abuse her, but Lola would put with it, believing there was nothing she could do. Then one afternoon her mother calls her into the bathroom and tells her that she has breast cancer. For the first time Lola is sad, and feels bad for her mother. This does not last long, soon after Lola and Belicia get into another huge fight, resolving in Lola chopping all her off, and runaway away to the Jersey Shore to live her boyfriend. As the months go, life with Aldo, her boyfriend, begins to get difficult, as well does her yearning for home. She makes a risk decision in calling her baby brother Oscar, asking him to come down and see her bringing her a few things from home. The next day she is ecstatic to see her little brother, but without warning she sees her mother who does not a moment pass by without attacking her. Eventually Belicia decides to send her children to live in the Dominican Republic for six months with her mother, La Inca. With La Inca the children feel truly excepted and part of a family.
Beli was one of those poor souls, which loved to be loved. La Inca, her grandmother, had gotten frustrated with her but never gave up the hopes that one day she would make something good of her life. Beli on the other hand did not want anything to do with her grandmother, she stopped going to school and got a job at the Chinese restaurant in the center of town. Here shade made many friends and became independent. One of her many friends at the restaurant Constantina decided to bring the lovely Beli to one of the best clubs in town. Here Beli began to fall once more. He never told her his name, everyone knew but “The Gangster”. She loved him though with all her heart. They would spend weeks together just the two of them, making love and talking about life. Almost as quickly as she did when she was back in school, she fell for her beloved gangster. One night he came back from one of his many trips and took her to another side of DR. Here they spent three weeks together. Be the end of the trip she found herself in a state she had never been in before. Pregnant. Was he there for as he had promised? No way, not only did he send the secret police after Beli in hopes to get rid of her, he left her scared and alone. La Inca not knowing what else to do had to do what she had always dreaded; send Beli to live in the United States and start a new life over. Many years later, when Oscar is writing love letters to Ybón, and then killed, Beli cannot go and mourn for her only son and retrieve his body, for her cancer has reached its worse. Beli is then left to die alone.
After Oscar’s death Lola and her best friend Yunior finally believe that the fukú is true. Lola moves to Miami, weds and has a daughter of her own. Her daughter now wears a necklace around her neck which is suppose to protect her from the fukú. One day many packages and letters arrive at Lola’s home from Oscar before he died, one including a message describing that a cure to the fukú is in the mail and is going to arrive soon. It never does.
Quote:
“He told them that what they were doing was wrong, that they were going to take a great love out of the world. Love was a rare thing, easily confused with a rare thing, easily confused with a million other things, and if anybody knew this to be true it was him. He told them about Ybón and the way he loved her and how much they had risked and that they’d started to dream the same dreams and say the same words. He told them that it was only because of her that he’d been able to do the thing that he had done, the thing they could no longer stop, told them if they killed him they would probably feel nothing and their children would probably feel nothing either, not until they were old and weak or about to be struck by a car and then they would sense him waiting for them on the other side and over there he wouldn’t be no fatboy or dork or kid no girl had ever loved; over there he’d be a hero, an avenger. Because anything you can dream (he put his hand up) you can be” (Diaz 322).
Reaction:
This is a powerful moment for Oscar, if not the most important. These were his final words, just before he was shot to death. You would see something like this written in history books just before someone noble dies, which is actually the way Oscar wanted to be remembered. Oscar declared then in his finally moments what his life has taught him, even though it was so short and horrible. When he referred to being “able to do the thing that he had done, the thing they could no longer stop” he was talking about being strong and dreaming. He was talking about learning to love and love and love again! He was talking about looking life in the eye and not blinking. He was talking about he had learned, and that they could never ever take that way from him, even if they killed him. Oscar to me was the strongest in this moment more than any or the point in the book. In my mind I did not envision a big nerdy guy shaking with weak knees, I saw a strong man standing straight looking his murder right in the eye, with such a power and presence. Oscar did not die a weak boy, but a valiant man.
