The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

The Need to Fit in and Belong The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, is about a Dominican boy named Oscar, his sister Lola, and his mother Beli. Throughout the novel, Oscar is constantly complaining about how miserable his life is and he constantly falls head over heels with many girls, even if he had only seen them once. His mother lived a difficult life as, in which she fell madly in love with a gangster and that led to serious consequences. In order to fit in, both Oscar and Beli both think about their sexual lives as a way to feel accepted. In addition, they both intensely crave the love and approval of someone, to the point to where they are willing to do anything for that person. Due to their need to fit in and feel like

In the passage where Oscar wakes up in the middle of the night, he wakes up Yunior and asks him if there has ever been a Dominican male that has died a virgin and Yunior tells him that it is against the law of nature for that to occur. In this passage it says, “That, he sighed, is what worries me.” This reveals that Oscar is constantly thinking about not being able to have sex, even to the point to where he cannot sleep because of it. He is constantly being told how a “normal” guy his age should be and what he needs to change in order to be successful as a man. Moreover, Oscar mentions to Yunior that he was told that, it is unnatural for a Dominican man to die a virgin and this worries Oscar even more. Oscar is made to feel isolated by those who surround him because they are constantly making him feel like it is rare for someone to be the way he is and that it is not okay. In addition, the tone of the passage is one of concern in Oscar. This lets us see how much Oscar is being affected by the expectations forced upon

However, this has lead to bad relationships in Beli’s life. For example, in the passage in which Beli visits the gangster one last time, he still does not care about what happened to her. One of the quotes states, “She tried to talk about the dead baby but he waved the diminutive ghost away with a flick of his wrist and proceeded to remove her enormous breasts from the vast armature of her bra. We’ll have another one he promised.” The language of the passage reveals how Beli allows herself to be treated as a sexual object, in order to please the gangster and in hopes that he will continue to be with her. Words such as diminutive and flick contest to how little he cares about her feelings. Furthermore, Beli allows this to happen to her because the gangster has made her feel like she belongs, by making her feel good about her looks. Her skin color for example is one of them and this is one of the things that Beli has been judged on by many. This passage also reveals how in love she is with the gangster and that she is willing to do anything for him. Although he allowed his wife to do what she did to her, Beli is still willing to forgive him and still believes in all those promises he makes, such as having more