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Fatherless family effect on adolescents
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Recommended: Fatherless family effect on adolescents
Juan Diego Robalino
Professor Bajorek
ENC 1102 Sec 028
2 Dec. 2017
Manly Man: Illustration of Father Absence During Adolescence in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao it shows us the Daily life of a Dominican American family and the wonderful ability of people to persevere and fight for a happy life. Oscar is an overweight guy who is trying to find the love of his life, and from a young age is hard for him to find love. Without growing with a father figure, he lacks a lot of those basic “Don Juan” skills that every Dominican guy has. Oscar’s biggest fear is that he will die a virgin. After trying to commit suicide two times Oscar moves to the Dominican Republic and falls in love with Ybon. After seeing each other several times Ybon’s
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Those social skills normally acquired from the father never existed causing Oscar hard times at making friends during his whole life. These absent role model needs to be present during adolescence otherwise can cause long-term damage. The lack of a father figure at home definitely affects children’s social skills if absent during adolescence.
Works Cited
Díaz, Junot, 1968-. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007. Print.
Beaty, Lee A. “Effects of Paternal Absence on Male Adolescents’ Peer Relations and Self_Image” Adolescence, vol. 30, no. 120, Winter95, p. 873. EBSCOhost, db25.linccweb.org/login url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9512143500&site=ehost-live&scope=site
WEESR, KHATHERINE. “Tu no Eres Nada de Dominicano”: Unnatural Narration and De-Naturalizing Gender Consruction in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. “Journal Of Men’s Studies 22, no.2 (Spring2014 2014): 89-104. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 30,
Sandra Cisneros “Never Marry a Mexican” and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are stories that reflect on the cultures in which the characters grew up in. In Never Marry, Clemencia, the narrator, reflects on her past sexual relations as well as her childhood. She speaks of her parents’ marriage and then transitions into her relationship with college professor and his son. In Oscar Wao, Yunior, the narrator, gives a second-hand retelling of Oscar’s experiences in New Jersey growing up as well as in the Dominican Republic. A person’s identity is largely influenced by their culture, this is especially the case in Hispanic cultures. The social constraints that these cultures place on social class, sexuality, and gender norms can be very detrimental to a person’s self-esteem.
Junot Diaz's Drown, a compilation of short stories, exemplifies how the high standard of masculinity within the Latino community can have a detrimental effect on males. These stories are told in the first person by a narrator called Yunior. The different stories are told against the background of The Dominican Republic and the United States. The narrator highlights the different challenges that he faces throughout his childhood and into his young adult life. During this period, he struggles to find his identity which is expected by every Latino. In the Dominican Republic, a man’s manhood is closely tied to his identity, and Yunior is no exception. While in the process of finding his identity, Yunior is challenged with abuse, poverty and the lure of drugs, which leads to his addiction and his becoming violent .…
Upon returning to the Dominican Republic after many years, Yolanda decides to take a trip across the island––something her family views as ridiculous. “‘This is not the states’ . . . ‘A woman just doesn’t travel alone in this country.” (9) This quote highlights the sexism inherent in Dominican society. Yolanda’s family is asserting that women are not individuals capable of taking care of themselves. On another hand, Yolanda’s close friendship with Mundín causes tensions as their mothers confront them about crossing gender lines. “My mother disapproved. The outfit would only encourage my playing with Mundín and the boy cousins. It was high time I got over my tomboy phase and started acting like a young lady señorita. ‘But it is for girls,’ . . . ‘boys don’t wear skirts.’” (228) This is an example of how Dominican societal norms and gender roles have impacted the sisters. Yolanda and Mundín were the only boy-girl playmates out of all the García children, yet this was frowned upon by both of their parents as to not impede the seemingly inevitable growth of Yolanda’s femininity, and conversely, Mundín’s masculinity. Moreover, this shows how societally-prescribed gender roles were instilled in Yolanda at a young age. However, this is not the only way in which women’s freedoms are
Women are seen as failure and can’t strive without men in the Mexican-American community. In this novel you can see a cultural approach which examines a particular aspect of a culture and a gender studies approach which examines how literature either perpetuates or challenges gender stereotypes. Over and over, Esperanza battled with how people perceived her and how she wished to be perceived. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza speaks of all the times her family has moved from one place to another. “Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print. The. Raboteau, Emily.
Literature has always had a powerful role in society, especially in a multicultural environment. It can serve as a documentation of history, emotionally connect with readers with prevalent themes and topics that are being discussed in the world today, and can also serve as a way to help readers understand the political problems arising in another country. Authors use multiple techniques to convey their compelling message, especially to highlight political issues to offer answers and solutions to the reader. Junot Díaz’s novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, exactly does this. The novel uses magical realism to describe the Dominican Republic’s reigning dictator, Rafael Trujillo, who still has a lingering presence today despite being assassinated
In The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz tells the story of Oscar Wao and his Dominican Family. The Dominican Republic(DR) in the 1930 to 1961 was run by Rafael Trujillo, a powerful dictator. Trujillos rule was considered one of the bloodiest eras in the Americas. His rule of the country was completely corrupt. Trujillos people would kill anyone with a foot out of line; his government had no rules. The country was run and dominated by men. The dictatorship created misogynistic, power hungry, violent licentious men. The setting of Trujillo dictatorship was destructive to the men in the Dominican Republic and encourage masculine dominated attitudes.
The role of the father, a male figure in a child’s life is a very crucial role that has been diminishing over the years. An absent father can be defined in two ways; the father is physically not present, or the father is physically present, but emotionally present. To an adolescent, a father is an idolized figure, someone they look up to (Feud, 1921), thus when such a figure is an absent one, it can and will negatively affect a child’s development. Many of the problems we face in society today, such as crime and delinquency, poor academic achievement, divorce, drug use, early pregnancy and sexual activity can be attributed to fathers being absent during adolescent development (Popenoe, 1996; Whitehead, 1993). The percentage of adolescents growing up fatherless has risen from 17% to 36% in just three decades between 1960 and 1990 (Popenoe, 1996). Dr. Popenoe estimates this number will increase to approximately 50% by the turn of the century (Popenoe, 1996). The US Census Bureau reported out of population of 24 million children, 1 out 3 live in a home without a father (US Census Bureau, 2009).
The father’s upbringing was such that financial stability was the priority. The child learned that dads are busy and do not have time to spend with their children. What a devastating realization for a child to conclude. Yet like most little boys, this one wanted to grow up to be like his role model, no matter the example. During the time from childhood to adolescent, parental influence can be either beneficial or detrimental. If the parents have a stable home, clear boundaries and open communications with their teens, the transition could flow easier. The perfect father does not guarantee the child will not rebel.
In the poem “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” Junot Diaz uses allusion and visual imagery in a very vivid way to explain the difficulties of being both male and a minority in America. He shows how often we accept as young men that bending the truth about ourselves has become almost necessary to get a date with a girl, then he engages it what appears to be a preparation of a young guy on how to organize and clean his house in accordance to with the economical status of the girl that he will be bringing home and to make himself appealing to the type of girl he is with.
Trauma is a disturbing experience that causes deep stress and possible anxiety. Traumatic incidents are thought to involve victimization. Examples of traumatic events range from witness, physical attack, emotional or sexual child abuse, to the sudden death or disabling illness of a loved one. Traumatic events in particular, possibly leads to a multitude of symptoms, including depression, guilt and obsessive thought about the victimization experience. Trauma and the body can be perceived in a literary context in Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Jean Rhys’s, Wide Sargasso Sea and Danticat’s, The Farming of Bones.
In Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, he tells the story of a Dominican family but mainly about the son, Oscar de Leon. The book opens with the story of Oscar as a child and him having two girlfriends at the same time. The older people in town see him as a ladies man and encourage him. The boy and the two girls all broke up and his life seemed to be on a steady decline since then.
Bergmann, Emilie. "Abjection and Ambiguity: Lesbian Desire in Bemberg's "Yo, la peor de todas." Hispanisms and Homosexualities. Ed. Sylvia Molloy and Robert McKee Irwin. Durham: Duke UP, 1998.
The effects of having an absence in a parental figure leads to low academic achievement, susceptible to substance use, and depression. Like Alia Asmat states “the interaction between a child and their parents develops the foundation of a child’s behavioral habits and personality” (21). With the lack of involvement from the parent the child starts to question if they did something wrong, which leads to low self-esteem. Not to mention the effect on how the child will trust others in the future. Therefore, for the child to feel as if they belong somewhere they go looking for the attention they crave elsewhere. This is where most go down the wrong
...Halevi-Wise, Yael (1997). Story-telling in Laura Esquivel's Como Agua Para Chocolate. The Other Mirror: Women’s Narrative in Mexico, 1980-1995. Ed. Kristine Ibsen. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. 123-131.