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The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz

894 Words4 Pages

What a Dictator Wants vs. What a Dictator Does Not Want What silence is to a reigning dictator, corruption is to government officials. When citizens are in fear they tend to be silent and never lash out at their rulers as great or fatal consequences can result. On the other hand, silence can stir up resistance to the power of a dictator ending their rule. In the book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, the setting takes place in the Dominican Republic where the crude dictator Trujillo rules and installs fear in his people. Trujillo does as he pleases and has many personal "eye witnesses" to back him up if needed. The ''eye witnesses'' report back to Trujillo if anything unacceptable was said about him. Dr. Abelard, …show more content…

Dr. Abelard suspects Trujillo's intentions once word gets around about the attractive young lady. "Young Women have no opportunity to develop unmolested in this country, he complained.'' page 220. Dr. Abelard tries his best to hide his daughter by not taking her to Trujillo's parties and keeping her in the house, so the repulsive leader could not touch her. Dr. Abelard succeeded by resisting the perseverance of Trujillo but ultimately ended up paying for his decision on suppressing his daughter away from Trujillo. Later in the book, Dr. Abelard comes into an encounter with one of the secret spies Trujillo has so he can sustain power and supposedly says something that is unlawful. What DR. Abelard said one night out drinking landed him in prison. Abelard mentioned to his friends about possibly having a full trunk of dead bodies since Trujillo killed a mass number of Dominicans in the same car model Abelard had. When Abelard opened his trunk, it was clear of mess and bodies he then said, "Trujillo must have cleaned them out for me." All of Abelard's words are according to an ''eye witness'' of …show more content…

Silence is a major part of keeping a regime afloat and the key action to destroying that power is to defy it. In the article, "Resistance to Authority'' by Michael Schrekiner, Schrekiner brings forth a very important detail in the balance of people and their autocratic leaders. "Those in power view obedience as a virtue and disobedience as a vise since obedience is absolutely essential for maintaining that power.'' Once a successful resistance occurs, the silence dims to a roar of anger fueled by the received cruel treatment. Voices raise, petitions are signed, pickers raise their posters and signs high because they can no longer remain in the self-torturing silence. Even Leonardo da Vinci, who painted the Mona Lisa, understands that "If you remain silent then others will take your silence as acceptance". Cited from "Nothing Strengthens authority Such as Silence." Fear creates the silence which when drawn out too long creates

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Óscar Arias Sánchez was the president Costa Rica, from 1986 to 1990. He was born September 13, 1940 in Heredia, Costa Rica. Óscar Arias Sánchez born into one of the wealthiest coffee bean growing families in his country, Costa Rica. He went to schooling at the Saint Francis College in the capital city of San José. After concluding his schooling there he then went to the United States and enrolled in Boston University

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It provides a role in character development shown predominantly in Patrias character. It shows the extent of Trujillo’s actions against the Dominican people by showing Patrias desperateness for her son. These examples depicted in the book show how the theme of religion has an impact on In the Time of the

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When applying Marxist Criticism to the novel, readers can see that one way Trujillo is able to maintain his power is by convincing women to live in his homes. Trujillo owns many homes and has a woman live in each one. He uses his power to manipulate women to live secluded from their friends and family. The only thing that Trujillo gets out of doing this is having a fling, but he is able to show

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The four Mirabal sisters were Patria, Adela “Dede” Antonia, and Minerva. These women are now all seen as symbols of resistance to feminist roles in the Dominican Republic, in addition they are seen as huge advocators for the revolt against Trujillo. Minerva Mirabal was a prime model in the rebellion against dictator Rafael Trujillo’s rule in the Dominican Republic. This woman stood up against the president for her morals and self respect by denying his romances and gambling against him in order to be able to study law which had never been done in the country before. However, once Minerva denied Trujillo’s advances he incarcerated her father and once he was released he targeted her constantly.

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After she heard those stories she never looked at him the same she hated him...literally. One day she and her father had to go into questioning with Trujillo because they found Leo’s paper and they made a deal that if she rolled a high number he would send her to law school and she did so the deal was made and her father went to jail and when he was released he died from being tortured. When Minerva finished law school she was upset because she didn’t get her license to practice and she knew Trujillo had something to do with it so she came up with an idea to start a movement against him to help everyone get freedom and it worked but in a tragic way, her and her sister Mate were in this movement which caused both of them to go to jail.

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The idea that those who participate in these “everyday forms of resistance”, choose not to bring attention to themselves is also reinforced multiple times throughout the text. All these examples bring along questions that need to be answered: Where does power lie? Is this power narrowly or widely distributed? And, is power about formal political institutions or does it reside somewhere else?

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