Expectations of Dominican People in The Brief Wondrous...

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the reader gets a sense of what the expectations are of Dominican men and women. Junot Dà ­az uses Oscar in contrast to the other male characters to present the expectations of the Dominican male. On the other hand, Dà ­az presents the women in the text, especially Belicia, La Inca, Lola, and Jenni, as strong characters in their own rights, but the male characters, with the exception of Oscar, have a desire to display their masculinity to maintain power over these women. It would be unfair to say that the women bring the abuse unto themselves, but rather it is their culture that makes the abuse acceptable and almost to a certain extent—expected. Oscar is the antithesis of his culture’s idea of manliness. In the beginning we meet an Oscar who is called â€Å"Porfirio Rubirosa† (21). Everyone is proud of the boy because this is exactly what he needs to be to be a Dominican man. Men from Dominican Republic, and perhaps Spanish Caribbean men, are expected to take care of their family especially their mothers and sisters, yet they are also expected to be â€Å"playboys† who have multiple women. as the first line of the story communicates, â€Å"Our hero was not one of those Dominican cats everybody’s always going on about—he wasn’t no home-run hitter or a fly-bachetero, not a playboy with a million hots on his jock† (21). Oscar is the type of man who women say they want; kind, sensitive, considerate, smart, and romantic. He truly want to find trueShow MoreRelatedJunot Diaz s Truly Does Tell The Brief Story Of The Wondrous Life Of Oscar De Leon1660 Words   |  7 PagesJunot Diaz’s novel truly does tell the brief story of the wondrous life of Oscar de Là ©on, our Dominican-American protagonist, better known as Oscar Wao. Weighing in at 245 pounds, our hopeless romantic loves comic books, writes science-fiction in all of his spare time, and, as described by our homodiegetic narrator Yunior, is a â€Å"loser with a capital L† (Diaz 17). While the title might allude that this is a story solely about Oscar, Diaz also delves deep into the lives of those closest to him. ThisRead MoreColor Tone, Gradient, Race, And Ethnicity1098 Words   |  5 Pages and ethnicity. These characteristics unite and divide humans from all walks of life all around the world. While many countries and cultures throughout the world try to downplay the role of superficial conclusions based on perceived ethnicity, usually based on skin tone, it is difficult because for many cultures, skin tone and its implications are as much a part of reality as any other cultural moni ker. The Dominican Republic is one of these countries. Since colonial times, skin tone has played aRead MoreGender Roles And Inequality : The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Written By Junot Diaz1384 Words   |  6 Pageswhile returning home from school. To this day, nothing has stopped Yousafzai from continuing to speak out about the importance of girls’ education, despite the inequality that she and many other women and girls still must endure. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao written by Junot Diaz is an exemplary text that supports reader s understanding of gender roles that are faced daily in Middle Eastern countries. Diaz’s portrayal of gender inequality and gender roles helps inform one’s understandingRead MoreContact Zone Essay1766 Words   |  8 PagesCaroline Kelly Professor Ober First Year Writing 29 September 2014 The Contact Zone The Holocaust happened because two groups of people were grappling with each and one was stronger than the other. Wars typically occur because two cultures disagree and choose to settle it, and the strong culture prevails. African American and Caucasian people used to be exiled for getting married, because they were different. There are millions of different cultures in the world today and every day isRead MoreThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juniot Diaz1577 Words   |  6 PagesIn the novel â€Å"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao† by Juniot Diaz you start to notice a cultural gender role and how there is certain expectations of them. The novel is based on a young boy named Oscar Wao and the hardships that one event has caused to an entire family. Even though the novel is focused on Oscar the author always went back to his sister and his mother. The author described the women as â€Å"real, strong women, even though they were being filtered through a somewhat dist orted male pointRead MoreAnalysis Of The Brief Life Of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz1576 Words   |  7 PagesIn the novel, The Brief Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, point of view plays a crucial role in narrating the life of the lonesome outsider, Oscar. The novel is narrated in first person, but Diaz chooses to disclose who the speaker is until later in the book. As the story progresses, there are clues that hint to the reader who the outside source narrating Oscars life is. Diaz uses Yunior to narrate a majority of the novel. This point of view lets the readers understand the Dominican culture throughRead MoreThe Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao : Gender And Identity1837 Words   |  8 PagesThe Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: Gender and Identity Gender and identity are both unique features that make up a person. Society has expectations on how everyone should act, especially when it comes to a person’s gender and gender roles. In â€Å"The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao†, the character Oscar is conflicted with his identity and with his masculinity. The people around him are constantly attacking him for not living up to the standards that society has put into place. Gender and identity are themesRead MoreComparison Of Abrego And Diaz s Life876 Words   |  4 PagesI was laughing at how relatable, how real, how honest it all felt. â€Å"This is how you treat your mother? . . . And this is how you treat your daughter?† (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, p. 55). This was a phrase that constantly echoed throughout my family home. The parallels were amusing but soon became uncomfortably similar. The transnational family, the machismo, the self hate that lived within children of color, Whiteness, the trauma from living in an impoverished country with a corrupt governmentRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s The Tempest1266 Words   |  6 Pagesspends her entire life on her father’s island without any possibilities for romance, until Prince Ferdinand crashes there. Miranda immediately falls in love with him and he reciprocates those feelings, ending in their marriage. Another example of a young adult character that struggles with romance is Oscar in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Differently from Miranda, Oscar falls quickly in love with nearly every woman he meets. He has certain expectations for himself as a Dominican man, includingRead MoreThe Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao1357 Words   |  6 PagesJunot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, set in the late 1900’s, tells a story of Oscar Wao, an overweight Dominican â€Å"ghetto nerd†, his mother and rebellious sister who live together in Paterson, New Jersey. Throughout the novel Diaz incorpora tes many different stories about each character that show acts of resistance. One of the most prominent stories of resistance in the novel is through Oscar’s mom; Beli, who is prompted by great tragedy, known as the Trujillo curse, to love atomically