The effect of an outsider telling the story of Oscar Wao - Essay Example

The book will also discuss why the author revealed the name of the narrator much later in the book instead of doing it at the very beginning of retelling the book. Oscar’s story starts with the description of Oscar’s childhood years. It shows readers how folks were proud of Oscar as a child for his unique ability to draw attention of the girls all time round. Right from the start, the story has a pinch of Spanish. Spanish was introduced into the story to give it a Dominican rusty style. In fact, while reading the story reader can come across lines such as Ese muchacho esta bueno!

(That boy is good) or Gordo asqueroso (Disgusting Fat). Diaz incorporates these few words of Spanish with one single objective - to light up the bullied Dominican emotions of Oscar. Diaz does not reveal the identity of the narrator (Yunior) till we read half of the book. Only after half of the book is over reader has a chance to see the narrator. While some would refer to this technique of hiding a real narrator as stupid I would say that the author had reasons use such technique. This technique is brilliant for two reasons.

Reason number one – such tactics enabled author to focus the attention of readers on the emotions and experience of Oscar and his close friends rather than on personality of narrator. Second reason – Diaz had a choice not to include Yunior into the story. However, if the story had been narrated by someone from Oscar’s family, readers would have only one choice - to concentrate their attention on the narrator rather than on the story itself. In this case Oscar will have no other choice than to include Yunior in the list of his friends.

Desire to arise the feeling of curiosity is the main reason why Diaz chooses to have an outsider as the main narrator of the book. This measure helps the author to keep the main focus on Oscar as well as on his family and friends. The book reveals reader a lot of important information about Oscar’s identity. When you’re about halfway through the book, you have a chance to reveal additional information about narrator’s identity. This identity is best expressed through Oscar’s words. Once narrator’s identity is revealed, the author adds Yunior to the story.

Yunior is represented as Lola’s (Oscar’s sister) boyfriend. This kind of representation helps Oscar to bring Yunior closer to the family. This measure is taken in order to give reader a chance to get an insight into what is going between these two people. The book has a mesmerizing impact on the readers due to a number of reasons. The main reason is that this book keeps readers engrossed in the book all the time. The story is portrayed in such a manner that it grips attention of the audience from the very start.

This grip lasts till the very end of the book. Oscar meets Yunior at the point of life when he has reached a certain level of identity development. At this level of identity development Oscar no longer worries about people who make fun of him or calling him name. This is so largely because Oscar he has made peace with all these things. After a period of communication with Oscar, Yunior starts to change his attitude to Oscar. Yunior even catches himself at the point when he starts to like Oscar for his inner character.

The story takes a dramatic turn when Yunior starts