Summary: The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

The sun like a compass provides a focus that permits an object to journey various directions without losing its epicenter. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz concentrates on the life of Oscar Wao, the title character. However, Oscar can be described as a decoy protagonist. While the story focuses on him, he is the midpoint that allows Díaz to explore multiple themes such as the history of the Dominican Republic, hyper masculinity and identity, and the effects of diaspora. Oscar only exists to provide a focus as the story travels in various directions, making the novel not about Oscar Wao, but the stories that have influenced the lives of every person around him . The novel travels back and forth from the past to the present

This leaves Oscar in quite the conundrum because although he lacks friends and love, he refuses to change himself. Resulting in his therefore confusion about identity and what a man should be versus what he is. Yunior hides his love for writing, his intelligence, and his “nerdy” pleasures as he accepts the Dominican stereotype. This idea of hyper masculinity creates men who cannot accept themselves and constantly hide hobbies in fear of what society might say about them. Opposite to this, the novel explores the hyper sexualization of women in “machista” cultures. Beli before puberty and transformation into a young adult, “But what could she do? Beli was a girl, for fuck’s sake; she had no power or beauty (yet) or a talent or family that could help her transcend…” views herself as powerless among a society that gives attention only to “sexy” women, if they receive any attention at all. (60) These toxic ideas of what a man and woman should be, Beli hands them down to Oscar and Lola. Lola listens to her mother, her insults, and attacks because that is what a woman “should” do, “From ages two to thirteen I believed her and because I believed her I was the perfect hija. I was the one cooking, cleaning, doing the wash, buying groceries, writing letters to the bank to explain why a house payment was going to be late, translating.” (47) While Lola cannot conform to submissive roles, Beli also cannot understand Oscar’s lack of masculinity. This comes as a shock because Díaz brings to light the venomous cycle that is not limited to Hispanic and Latino cultures. A woman is taught to be submissive and accept a man’s dominant role and when this man crushes the spirit of the woman, she goes on to teach the same tired ideals of hyper masculinity and female sexualization to her children. On the other hand, sexualization does not only affect