Junot Diaz

A ghetto nerd who can never find a girl until he reaches his grave, a punk chick who found nobody on her side but herself. Is this the fukú that Columbus had brought to this land hundreds of years ago? And what is this fukú phrase, a mysterious curse from the other dimension? Or rather, the inequality that had inherited from generations to generations?

These two individuals mentioned above are Oscar and Lola, they were from a country that is not too far from us - The Dominican Republic(DR). They came here in order to have a better life(Or simply ‘getting as*’, as Oscar once said) just like most people who travel across sky, land and sea to come to this country, the United States. Where opportunity is open for everyone and every dream will

He was born and raised in the same place where Oscar was born and raised. Both Oscar and Díaz went to the same university(Rutgers University). Base on these similarities we can draw a conclusion that Oscar is the representation of Díaz himself. However, that does not seem to be the case:

‘Oscar was a composite of all the nerds that I grew up with who didn't have that special reservoir of masculine privilege. Oscar was who I would have been if it had not been for my father or my brother or my own willingness to fight or my own inability to fit into any category easily.’2

As Díaz said in one of his magazine interviews, rather than himself, Oscar is a symbol of people that Díaz knew who did not ‘make it’.Based on his diction ‘all’, we can interpret that this is not about a few individuals. Not all people, or should I say, all the immigrants can be as successful as Díaz. We can prove this claim by look into Oscar’s life: He’s nerdy, doesn’t have much friend (If you count Yunior, his roommate. If you don’t, then he doesn’t have any.), try to get a girl but failed miserably every single time and eventually got himself killed. What was more disturbing was Oscar’s hobby: He likes science fiction and fantasy, which were also a favorite of many other American kids. Why can’t he fit in? If we despite the the ‘curse’ that Oscar blames for, then the only option left is clear: He does not belong here. No matter where

The record states that DR residents in U.S have a lower median income than the overall foreign-born population, and the poverty rate of DR immigrants was also higher than the overall population. This contradicts with the picture mainstream media had given us where every immigrant will eventually find where they belong and live in prosperity. Fact is, a lot of immigrants out there still can not speak English, still don’t have a college degree, and still can not leave the bottom class of the society. Our protagonist Oscar did not get a decent job, although he finished college and wen to the other 14 percent(the rest DR immigrants don’t even have one ), everyone still hates him. This reflects that the lives of these immigrants are still not in a satisfactory state, they are still suffering in one way or