The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, By Junot Diaz

The Importance of Masculinity The novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” by Junot Diaz, is one of the most known books about a dystopian society. Junot Diaz discusses the importance of masculinity in Dominican Republic society. Masculinity is explained as:

“All men are influenced by their upbringing, experience, and social environment which play a big role in determining one’s view of masculinity and manhood. This means that masculinity is going to be different for everyone. Some particularly influential factors in shaping one’s idea of manhood are race, class, ability, sexual orientation, and gender. Social justice advocates view these social identities as the most salient factors in society that determine who has power and privilege

For instance, in the novel, Yunior says, “Did I try to help him with his girl situation? Share some of my playerly wisdom? / Of course I did. Problem was, when it came to the mujeres, my roommate was like no one on the planet” (Diaz 173). This suggests that Yunior was like a teacher to Oscar. The reason is throughout the novel, Diaz writes that Yunior not only has a number of girlfriends, but he also cheat on them, which shows that Yunior is a regular masculine Dominican man. In contrast, Oscar was not masculine like other Dominican men regarding the having a girlfriend. In addition, Oscar has almost no friends, except the two. “Al and Miggs, his only friends, called them-sported an unappealing trace of mustache on his upper lip and possessed a pair of close-set eyes that made him look somewhat retarded” (Diaz 20). Al and Miggs were also not good masculine enough; however, they think that Oscar is boring and loser. According to the royal college of psychiatrics, “If you are alone, have no friends around, are stressed, have other worries or are physically run down, you are more likely to become depressed” (Timms). This illustrates that during high school Oscar was depressed. Due to all the depression Oscar has, Diaz writes that Oscar

Often this overly controlling behavior of men may worsen and become a domestic violence against women. For example, Marysol W. Asencio, an associate professor of human development and family studies and Puerto Rican and Latino studies at the University of Connecticut, states that “some of these same young women identified their boyfriends as a major source of violence” (112). Particularly, one of Asencio`s men interviewee states that “[a] girl needs to be taught not to be a slut. That's why you keep her under close control. If you don't, she be like a guy but the opposite goes for the guy. If you treat him like a girl, he'll never be a man (116). This depicts that many Latin American men, including Dominican Republican, are taught by their fathers. However, it is evident that Oscar was soft and non-violent comparting to other men regarding his relationship pursuit techniques, which is thought to be non-masculine in the society. On the other hand, Yunior says, “But what could she do? Beli was a girl, for fuck’s sake. She had no real power…” (Díaz 81) to show that Beli was still not strong enough to subdue man despite the fact that she, strangely, was one of the toughest girls in the novel. Therefore, being a dominant and violent man in a relationship with women is a crucial part of masculinity in