Yunior, the narrator of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is portrayed as a “true Dominican male”. Oscar seems to be the antithesis of that, being characterized as the “GhettoNerd at the End of the World”, but the two boys aren’t as far apart as one might think upon first read. Díaz does a fantastic job in characterizing the people in this book, and how they tie into both the Trujillo regime and the fukú of the de Leon/Cabral families. Through symbolism in superheroes, characterization in pop culture references, and historical and political ties, Junot Díaz demonstrates both the similarities between Oscar and Yunior, how Yunior is a tour guide through a long-forgotten history, and how love is the driving force of it all.
When it comes to certain topics, multiple interpretations can be revealed, as an argument progresses. Sometimes it may be hard to tell which side is in the right. Subsequently, opinions continuously fly back and forth between individuals who can’t seem to stop disagreeing with each other. Moreover, internal conflicts occasionally arise as well, within each individual, due to new information that develops from their personal trials. Finding a piece of literature where the reader can relate to is a great fortune.
In the altar’s center is “a plaster image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, quarter-life size, its brown Indian face staring down on the woman” (Paredes 23). The implication of the stare is of criticism as the Virgin, symbolic of an ideal Mexican womanhood, looks down on Marcela, whose Anglo features starkly contrast with the Virgin’s, and whose actions are in opposition to the values that she represents. This carefully constructed scene is meaningful. Marcela’s lifeless body lies between the bed and the altar, and opposite to the altar is Marcela’s shrine dedicated to Hollywood movie stars. These are the visual images of the opposing forces that characterize the Mexican-American struggle for resistance against American cultural hegemony.
She poses more questions and introduces more concepts which leave the reader with this bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. In part three she touches on the subjects of genealogy as it pertains to desire. She extrapolates form the ideas of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Psyche to argue how the Oedipus complex has left its imprint on Chicano/a cultures. She juxtaposes four “cultural bodies”, Selena, La Malinche, Delgadina, and Silent Tongue, which if read from a third space feminist interpretation shifts the perspective to unveil women’s desires through their own agency. She analyses the Oedipus complex and introduce the Oedipal conquest triangle.
Discuss and analyze how and to what ends fantasy and reality are intertwined in stories you have studied. In this essay, we will discuss how magical realism uses elements of real and of magic to create the literary style. At first, we will try to give a background of what magic realism, where it comes from, and how a story can be labelled as such. Alejo Carpentier’s “Viaje a la semilla” and Julio Cortazar’s “La noche boca arriba” will be our focus.
The stories of Junot Diaz feature various elements of social and personal issues that are highly prevalent in young Latinx men, primarily the compulsion and adverse effect of machismo, the poignancy of being an outcast in one’s community, and the lack of a father figure in a boy’s life. The first set of short stories prominently feature Ysrael, a Dominican boy whose face was disfigured by a pig when he was an infant. In “Ysrael”, he is the object of Yunior’s fascination, and the victim or Rafa’s (Yunior’s brother) torment.
The novel, “There There” by Tommy Orange follows the stories of a plethora of characters, sharing many unique experiences with the readers. Themes of gender, identity, community, race, and assimilation can be seen throughout these stories, as the characters experience them firsthand. The journeys these characters experience connect these themes to the terms culture, multiracial person, and stereotype through showcasing the impact that these terms have on the characters and their stories. Culture is a term referring to the practices, arts, and achievements of a nation or group of people. Strong traces of culture can be seen throughout the novel, as the characters all have unique experiences with the same culture.
This article examines Rudolfo Anaya, Tomas Rivera, and Reyna Grande attempt to capture the cultural identity of Mexican American by interweaving the lives of their protagonist and that of their families with religion, spiritualism, myth, and mysticism. The author compares the internal pilgrimage of the young protagonist from Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, Rivera’s … And the Earth Did Not Devour Him and Grande’s The Distance Between Us: A memoir to find their shared identity as Mexican Americans by interweaving Spanish and indigenous religious figures. On The Distance Between Us: A memoir the author emphasizes on the way in which Abuelita’s Chinta role as the curandera gives peace to Grande after being indirectly abandoned by her parents.
Marco Pérez Dr. Rony Garrido The short novel, Aura, by Carlos Fuentes creates a mythical reality to reference Mexican history. He uses Aura, Felipe Montero, and Consuelo as a reflection of the past and the present, where for example, Consuelo represents the past and Felipe the present. In this paper I will explain how the love story of Felipe, Aura, and Consuelo represent Mexican history. In addition this paper will explain how myth breaks down into different elements, such as religion, legends, traditions, and beliefs, all of which are manifested in the different characters and their actions within this novel.
Dunbar’s involvement in the tribe and the relationships he forms with the people teach him and the viewer the value of intercultural communication and acceptance. Additionally, this is displayed in the recurring acts of gift giving throughout the film. Despite the friendly mood of the film and endearing way of portraying this
Works of post-modern literature raise questions about life and the human condition. The questions raised by the author not always answered in the text. Juniot Diaz’s novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is an example of this. In the novel the motif of love and violence raises the question, “How closely aligned is love or the lack of it to violence or madness?” The author provides no clear answer to this question and the questions helps to emphasize the meaning of the work as a whole.
Written by Gabriel Garcia Márquez in 1958 as part of Los Funerales de la Mamá Grande, Un Día de Éstos is a short story addressing a vast theme; that of power and how it is balanced. By constructing the narrative primarily around the two characters of Don Aurelio Escovar, an unqualified dentist, and the mayor who is suffering of toothache, Márquez uses their reactions towards each other to guide the reader into understanding how easy it is to become vulnerable, notwithstanding their social class. CHARACTERISATION The theme of power is explored through the characterisations of the two men in the story and it could be said that this done primarily through continuous contrasts between them. To start with, the vocabulary that surrounds Escovar
Pie and Religious Guilt On April 12.1952 Gary Soto was born to Mexican-American parents who lived a traditionally Catholic lifestyle. He grew up indoctrinated in his family’s religious lifestyle. When he grew older and decided on becoming a writer, he realized he could find humor and solace by looking back on instances like that of The Pie Essay. To convey to the reader how guilty he felt from his naivety he approaches the subject with an infantile and an overtaxed narration.
Throughout Miguel de Cervantes novel, Don Quixote, there is a fine line between reality and illusion that seems to vanish portraying a prominent theme in the novel. Don Quixote de La Mancha, a fifty-year-old man, has an insane obsession in reading chivalry books; he is so absorbed in reading these books that he decides to become a knight-errant himself that will set off on adventures for his eternal glory. These books of chivalry have left Don Quixote so deep within his fantasy that there is no risk of him perceiving true reality. There are a plethora of examples where Don Quixote 's perceived reality is his idealistic fantasies. Cervantes expresses these complexities so much that we begin to notice the social criticism Don Quixote receives from people he encounters.
In the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the narrator sets out on a journey to assemble the remaining pieces of truth surrounding the murder of Santiago Nasar, twenty-seven years after incident. As the narrator recounts the series of facts relating to Santiago’s death, the reader becomes aware of the emptiness, as an accumulation of these informations can’t recreate the event itself. Judging both the narrator’s desire to revisit the past and the foretold events leading up to Santiago’s death, the narrative explores the ways in which the past and the future have an effect upon the present state. The narrator uses the form of a chronicle to organize time into a confined segment, he engages in the nature of time itself and the analysis of the murder. Captivated by the murder that occurred nearly 30 years ago, the narrator continues to look for the truth surrounding Santiago’s death out of desire secure the past.
