Junot Diazs The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao - Book Report/Review Example

Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz’s The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao symbolizes the new aesthetic of a globalized discussion. It is a story concerning a Dominican immigrant family and their hardships throughout the decades. Oscar stays in New Jersey with his mother Beli and his big sister Lola. He is a fanatic of comics and science and due to this, he has no luck with women. In this culture, Oscar is expected to be highly masculine and a sexual dynamo. Instead, Oscar prefers to live his life with his comics, dungeon and dragons. The males in the Dominican culture are portrayed as having power, charm, and are active when it comes to sex. Additionally, they are brutal and attractive physically. Oscar’s main aim in the book is getting a woman who would love him back. However, he lacks the power and desire to get involved or to stomach any kind of violence. As a result, due to lack of masculinity, he fails to find the love of his life until the end of the book. On the other hand, Yunior is the true version of Dominican masculinity since he has sex with so many girls in his life. Additionally, Rudolfo also portrays some kind of masculinity just like Junior since he gives advice to Oscar on how to do it. But Oscar does not yield to his advice. This story is about the Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and the atrocities he does. Diaz internalizes the turmoil done to the Dominican persons so that he can easily make jokes and play with the facts. Therefore, this generates a natural narrative that mirrors the dialects and the discussion of that time at the same time educates the reader about the history of Trujillo. The disintegration of the history lesson shows the tragedy than ancient times immigrant narratives. On the other hand, while most of the authors have taken into account the dominant discourse of the official culture, which relies on value judgment of language and information, Diaz brings all the references and story so as to create a collage that reflects the multicultural world. This is no longer hierarchical first world narrative but a new aesthetic. The marginalized community set out vernacular and slang to express their unique reality and hence create another one. Subsequently, the marginalized community has invented new words to replace the older words. Communities form a second language which detaches from the dominant primary language. Thus, the dominant community often takes the marginalized community language for entertainment. This utilization can be seen in the use of African American slang in popular media today. As such, those who use vernacular are taken to belong to a lower culture and are thus detached or separated and are seen as outcasts. This illustrates that categorizing individuals according to the use of vernacular enables the dominant society to retain their power (Tocqueville, 2013). Power should be divided among the weaker or marginalized in the society such as women and the blacks. Lewis (2008) argues that when power is divided among the relevant parties, it will be checked unlike when power is entrusted into the hands of a select few. Those who are able to produce similar conversations are considered intelligent and worthy while the others who use a different vernacular are alienated from the society. In fact, society losses the benefit of double perspectives when those who do not match up to the standard language are overlooked. This is because, the language acts as a tool for promoting oppression of minority communities. Hence, the struggle for power is seen throughout the language practices of the society. There is subversion of the power hierarchy of knowledge. This is because Diaz does not favor the reader in any way. Therefore, he forces the reader to decipher the meaning from the stories at the same time see into his reality. Spanish and slang are all written into the same part without necessarily privileging one over the other. Rather than being obsessed with Oscar’s outsider status, who is the victim of the immigrant story, Diaz has asked for the truth. His reality is the central story. Thus, due to use of multiple languages, it makes the novel a story of redemption and re-appropriation of power and agency for Dominicans. In another instance, Diaz gives an explanation about the history of turbulent relationships between dictators and journalists; this is because dictators and journalists had a sour relationship. Carnage (2014) argues that this sour relationship is not good for business. For instance the Fantastic Four and Galactus, the X-Men and Brotherhood of evil mutants, Sammy and Sergio(97). Thus Diaz uses a number of references that at least the user can understand one of them, however it still confuses the reader. This portrays how the immigrants were confused when they were coming into a new world and a new region. Instead of utilizing references that the readers know, he uses models or icons from all the cultures. Thus he does not make one of these references to appear more important than others.therefore,this breaks the hierarchical structures put in place that rank the high and low cultures. Feminine sexuality is also associated with power; Belica and Lola are seen as sexually attractive. Belica’s power is emphasized by her breasts. Consequently, the beginning of adolescence and being a woman is portrayed as form of power. This is because she has the ability of controlling the male species with her sexuality. On the other hand, the legs of Lola and her hips also portray some form of power. She can easily bring traffic to a standstill when she puts on the shorts. Thus she is knowledgeable about her power and utilizes it so much. Belica utilizes her attractiveness to gain love while Lola utilizes hers to get escape. Silence is also seen as a form of power. In many instances, there are many blank spaces or gaps in the novel, the main reason being the writer wants the reader to interpret for herself the story. The next reason is that the dictatorship of Trujillo did not permit them to keep records. Further, love and violence also portray some form of power mainly because love is directly connected to violence in the story. The theme of power runs from domestic violence. This is due to the fact that there is a strike back for loving too much or whereby an individual loves the wrong person. On the other hand, Lola experiences a different type of love. For instance, her mother is too violent, but at the same time she really loves her. As such, she cannot split her mother’s love and the violence that she experiences from her mother. Hence, love has the power; it is actually a strong emotion. The only thing that counters love in the novel is anger. Anger and love contribute to the decisions made by the individuals in the book. Another instance that portrays power is the supernatural and genre fiction. The novel entails a variety of supernatural elements. The most popular one is about fuku who makes the reader think bad things are happening because of him. Another instance of supernatural power is found in the novel of mongoose which reveals itself to Belica and Oscar during the time of necessity. The prayer by La Inca in order to rescue her daughter is also portrayed as a powerful force. Moreover, the power of Trujillo is also seen as supernatural, thus the one narrating the story usually challenges the reader to think that Trujillo really has a supernatural power because he is from the world of super naturals. Also, the genre plays a part in creating a form of power, where Trujillo is linked to the lord of rings among others. Genre is also linked to the status of Oscar as a nerd. Further the novel associates the immigrants with heroes. Another instance that portrays the theme of power is the individual verses the nation. The book deals with the ideas of Diaspora from Dominican Republican. The individuals are in some way associated with the state. This can be through politics, love affairs among others. On this theme, Diaz repeatedly goes back to the history of the Dominican Republic. He utters that “those of you who missed your mandatory two seconds of Dominican history” (2). In an interview, on NPR, Diaz explains how he really read many books concerning Trujillo regime and also asked the Dominicans about the local stories. He goes further and says how he had to internalize all of their stories as if they belonged to him so that he could be able to play and joke with the facts. To explain atrocities to the characters was one thing, but the characters to be so used to dictatorship that they joke about killing and torture is another more powerful concept. He refers to Trujillo as a failed cattle thief. This because Trujillo’s attempt to kill the Venezuela president failed (110). Additionally, Diaz uses fantasy and comic book reference so as to create a picture of Trujillo. Since the atrocities which he committed were very horrifying, the only comparison can be taken from the world of fantasy, the science world and the fiction word where there is absolute evil and good. Pfeiffer (2010) implies that the weak tend to move away from those in power. This is the best ways to refer to the dictator. Diaz thus explains that the incident was just a reflection of what Trujillo did to the Dominican Republic. Diaz, therefore, legitimizes the pop culture and shows what is right and what is not. Trujillo is also compared with Doctor Gull from hell. As a result, Trujillo is seen as an evil character with evil intensions.However; Oscar’s world is real since it reflects the collage of images the modern person takes daily. The picture illustrates a cartoon-like image juxtaposing for evil. Hence, the one reading the novel can actually see and understand the horror of dictatorship. Conclusion The concept of power takes a central role in Junot Diaz’s The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao. Although everybody craves power, very few people can have it. In the novel, Trujillo has the most power. As such, he influences all the other book characters. Through his power, Trujillo also influenced negatively the lives of most Dominicans. In fact, he is so powerful until some of the book characters imply or believe that he possesses supernatural powers. Additionally, the theme of power is also incorporated or associated with Dominican male masculinity. A Dominican male is characterized as possessing charm and power. Without masculinity, a man is powerless. On the other hand, Lola and Belicia use their sexuality as a form of power. Thus, the theme of power is central to Junot Diaz’s The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao. Reference Carnage, Dale. How to Win Friends And Influence People. USA: Simon & Schuster, 2014. Print Díaz, Junot. The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao. Penguin, 2007. Print Lewis, Jason. Power divided is power checked. Minneapolis: Bascom Hill Publishing Group, 2008.Print Pfeiffer, Jeffrey. Power; why some people have it and others don’t. Manhattan: Harper Business, 2010. Print Tocqueville, Alexis De. Democracy in America. Chicago: University of Chicago press, 2013. Print Read More