Summary: The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

The main character Oscar and every male in the novel The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz had sexism implemented in them at a young age by their family and culture, damaging them and women permanently, hurting their egos and potential relationships. Oscar and the men in the novel were portrayed as players or longing to be. Oscar was a little player himself at the beginning of the story. He continuously flirted with girls and was encouraged to have several girlfriends. “Look at that little macho, his mother’s friends said. Que hombre” (Page 14).He was taught to use his masculinity as a form of superiority “to be pulling in the bitches with both hands” (Díaz 2) As time passed by Oscar turned

“He cried often for his love of some girl or another. He cried in the bathroom where no one else could hear him.”(Page 25). Men typically have to hide or push back completely these feelings. For Oscar it would had been “VERY un-Dominican of him” (12) if anyone found out. Men cannot cry or show any sensitive “girly” signs. Society reinforces men to be hard, strong and aggressive. In Oscar’s case he was a very smart kid, geeky, but smart. To society that wasn’t enough. His peers and family didn’t care that he was intelligent, all that matter was that he wasn’t manly looking. Even with the pressure of his mother and sister he was not able to come to terms with the

Yunior was the exact representation of a stereotypical Dominican man. Whom constantly played, cheated and objectified girls. “But what could she do? Beli was a girl, for fuck’s sake. She had no real power…” (Page 81) Yunior viewed women as having no power and put only on earth for men’s benefit and pleasure. Yunior and the male characters followed the typical Machista role hurting their women by repressing them from power and freedom. Although he was interested and had strong feelings for Lola he repeatedly cheated on her because his own selfish male needs came first than Lola’s feelings. This masculine ideology caused the boys to become selfish, greedy and self-center. When Oscar was finally able to talk to a pretty girl in school named Jenni, instead of Yunior being happy for Oscar’s success his thoughts were “Did it kill me that he was spending time with such a fly bitch? Of course it did” (Page 184). Even when he did decide to think of others and help Oscar out, his sexual greedy thoughts surfed around his mind “What I should have done was check myself into Bootie-Rehab.” (Page