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The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

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From the very first pages of the novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz, the readers are deliberately shown an overview of fuku, a bad curse. It has caused many tragic consequences to Cabrals family; especially to Oscar. He is the main character of the story who is an overweight nerd trying to find the love of his life, but due to a family “fuku” or curse Oscar is having a lot of trouble doing so. In addition, the story actually portrait the darkness time of Cabral's family under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo’s regime. As Diaz mentions that “anyone who plotted against Trujillo would incur a fuku most powerful, down to the seventh generation and beyond”(3), Oscar’s family always unfortunately face tremendous situations …show more content…

He incidentally gets his final chance to change his life during his last summertime, he meets Ybón Pimentel, a “semi retired puta,” and deeply falls in love with her even though he knows that Ybon is already seeing the captain of the National Police. He considers that his relationship with Ybón is “the start of his real life”. As he “knew he loved her like he’d never loved anyone. Knew what he should be doing-making like a Lola and flying back. Fuck the capitan, Fuck Grundy and Grod. Fuck everybody” (306). This is when Oscar recovers after being beaten almost to death and he was forced to stay in the U.S, he thinks and finds the way to go back to Dominican Republic, to get back to his beloved Ybon. The important point in the history of Cabral/de Leon family is Oscar's decisions after coming back to the US. Unlike the previous generations of his family who would run away from traumatic events in life, Oscar faces them. He resists the cultural forces until the end of his life. Oscar understands that he is not bound by his embodiment of multiple histories and cultures; thus, it results in Oscar strong resistance to the burden of simplistic historical and cultural models. Even though his decision costs him his life, his decision benefits future generations of his family: they are free to be who they are, and they are not bound by predetermined cultural and historical boundaries of their

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2. This passage from Junot Diaz’s Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao is significant because it initiates the growing tension between Oscar and his love for comic books. Oscar is fascinated by the idea of superheroes which developed his interest to write comic books. Oscar only had a wish to have a girlfriend, but the fact that Oscar’s love for comic books and sci-fi animes was not allowing him to have a girlfriend. These comic books and animes in a way distract him from seeing that what is happening in the world which makes him ill-informed about the world.

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is an extraordinary tale that takes you into the lives of Oscar Wao and his family members who are burdened with a terrible curse called fuku. The fuku spell began with Oscar’s grandfather, Abelard. Abelard angered the Dominican Republic dictator, Trujillo, after he allegedly made a joke about the dictator that turned into a crime. However, the real reason behind Abelard’s downfall was his refusal to introduce his daughter to Trujillo, who had a sexual appetite for young women.

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He often would have his men take any good-looking women in order to satisfy his sexual needs. Trujillo is the ideal incarnation of machismo, or being a man in Dominican culture, “…fucking every hot girl in site… thousands of women” (Díaz, 2007, p. 2). This idea of having many women, as Yunior often emphasizes he has, is encouraged through this dictatorship while Oscar has different ideas of being a man. This adds to the bildungsroman structure, or a coming of age novel, that The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao seems to follow. The bildungsroman is centered on Yunior’s story rather than Oscar’s.

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “There was only one way to prevent disaster from coiling around you, only one surefire counterspell that would keep you and your family safe. Not surprisingly, it was a word. A simple word (followed usually by a vigorous crossing of index fingers). Zafa... If the Yanks commit an error in the late innings it 's zafa; if somebody brings shells in from the beach it 's zafa; if you serve a man parcha it 's zafa.

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