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The brief wondrous life of oscar wao allusions
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An essay on character development
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Throughout the The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, the terrors of dictatorship are intertwined with Oscar Wao’s lonely life. It is extremely interesting that Díaz is able to display factual information about the Trujillo dictatorship while delving deep into the life of a nerdy, overweight adolescent. I like how the author strayed away from the Dominican stereotype and made the protagonist more unique. Díaz did not want his main character to be similar to the ones created by other Latino writers. Additionally, since he took 11 years to create the book, he had the ability to fully develop the character of Oscar Wao. Furthermore, I find it interesting that Díaz used Oscar Wao to represent the start of a dictatorship and then the …show more content…
Firstly, the narrator did not seem to be a specific person in the story. However, when he was introduced as Yunior, Oscar’s roommate, we understood how some of Oscar’s stories were so deep and detailed. By having Yunior tell the story, Díaz is able to better connect us with Oscar Wao. He also states that the survivors of an apocalypse are often the ones to tell the story rather than individual who was devoured by it. Through Díaz’s interview, I learned that his main motive was not only to entertain the reader with a funny story about a nerdy boy named Oscar but also to inform us about Trujillo’s dictatorship. Díaz was always drawn to dictators and needed a negative force in the novel. Therefore, he used Trujillo to demonstrate all of the dangers of …show more content…
Díaz had to write certain chapters or parts of the story 20 times before it seemed to work in the novel. I was never truly aware that some authors altered their writing this much before producing the finished product. It truly demonstrates how writing can never be perfected. No matter how much time one spends on a piece, edits can always be made to enhance it in some fashion.
Furthermore, I learned that writing a novel and short story are completely different tasks. Díaz states that he felt like he was in two different worlds as he wrote The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and his collection of short stories titled Drown. Slate also asks about Díaz’s use of “Spanglish” throughout the novel. I learned that since Díaz intertwines the two languages in his speech, he did the same in his writing of the novel. He also encourages the reader to pick up a dictionary when the Spanish gets heavier in portions of the novel. Once again, the use of Spanish terms immerses the reader in Dominican culture and better connects us to the story. Díaz also wanted there to be some level of incomprehension as the United States comprises large Spanish-speaking
Rodriguez views the same as a public and private language. He explains that the term “private” relates to Spanish language, while the term “public” is the kind of English language he speaks outside home. As he writes “… I wrongly imagined that English was intrinsically a public language and Spanish an intrinsically private one…” (513). In addition, Rodriguez’s reference to the English language as a gringo sound gives an impression of a child’s resentment towards said language. The term gringo in Spanish means los gringos which is a “derogatory term for English-speaking Americans” (512). When Rodriguez parents stopped communicating at home in Spanish, the laughter at home faded along with his private language. This further supports Rodriguez’s statement that “… as we learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents” (515). Thus the end of a once full of laughter home, yet the beginning of Rodriguez’s mastery of the English language. Similar to Tan’s experience, the writer’s rebellious nature challenged her critics by proving that Asian’s skills are not limited to Math and Science. Thus, the decision behind to shift from pre-med to English major. As Tan writes, “I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me” (510). Hence Tan’s strong conviction to resist the convention of
Diaz is of Dominican-American descent. He grew up with his mother and grandparents, while Diaz’s father worked in the United States. In Nilda, the main characters are Dominican-American, who live in poverty, in broken homes. Diaz confesses, “I can safely say I've seen the US from the bottom up...I may be a success story as an individual. But…I would say my family….Tells the story of enormous poverty, of tremendous difficulty” (Wikipedia). Diaz was an avid reader and would walk four miles just to get to a library. Against all odds, Diaz received his BA from Rutgers College and eventually obtained an MFA from Cornell University (Wikipedia). Similarly, Diaz’s main character, Yunior, is described as having “an IQ that would have broken you in two” (Diaz 31) and he too eventually leaves the neighborhood to attend college. Yunior’s outlook for a brighter future than he currently finds himself in is indicative of Diaz’s own “success story as an individual”
Author’s Techniques: Rudolfo Anaya uses many Spanish terms in this book. The reason for this is to show the culture of the characters in the novel. Also he uses imagery to explain the beauty of the llano the Spanish America. By using both these techniques in his writing, Anaya bring s the true culture of
(134,219). The author and main character Rodriguez are one in the same person. At a young age Luis Rodriguez started writing about his life story which becomes a big feat for him because of not getting education in school, gang related problems, and being a leader in school for his fellow classmates. He clearly goes against a stereotype he faces which is Hispanics are illiterate by, writing a book despite getting without help in his circumstances and writing becoming very popular throughout the years. As a result of his hard work he put into his stories and poems, thanks to one of his teachers Mrs. Baez, the stories and poems were edited and sent to many literary contests.
In Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, he is telling 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 break up and his life seemed to be on a steady decline since then. He grows up to become a nerdy, fat, and awkward adolescence with few friends and even less interest from girls. This phase persists throughout his life and he never develops out of the nerdy boy he was as a child. The Dominican Republic was a hostile and poor place during the time of the novel. The dictator Trujillo controls the lives of the people in the country. This influenced the de Leon family’s present and future. Diaz develops the story by using the superstition, the cane field, and male dominance of the Dominican men
Rodriguez would, for example, use words such as “unsettling” “cloistered” and “alienation,” to describe the beginning of his assimilation in the public English speaking world. While he would use “calm” “enchantingly” “consoling” and “intimacy” to describe Spanish. As Rodriguez is being pushed to assimilate and English is heard everywhere including his home he becomes “increasingly angry” only from being obliged from his parents and trying to participate in class he begins to feel a sense of belonging in public. Rodriguez’s diction was evident and continuous in his essay which abetted the audience to understand that the author wanted the audience to be addressed formally and be known that he wants to be taken seriously and able to connect to his background and why he made his
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print. The. Raboteau, Emily.
Junot Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is focused on the hyper-masculine culture of the Dominican, and many argue that his portrayal of the slew of women in the novel is misogynistic because they are often silenced by the plot and kept out of the narration (Matsui). However, Diaz crafts strong women, and it is society that views them as objects. The novel recognizes the masculine lens of the culture while still examining the lives of resilient women. In this way, the novel showcases a feminist stance and critiques the misogynist culture it is set in by showcasing the strength and depth of these women that help to shape the narrative while acknowledging that it is the limits society places on them because of their sexuality
To convey this moral, Marquez employs distinct writing techniques. He paints a vivid picture of the setting through his descriptive language. However, not all of his stories are the same, which makes them a delight to read.
Junot Diaz's short story “Fiesta, 1980” gives an insight into the everyday life of a lower class family, a family with a troubled young boy, Yunior and a strong, abusive father, Papi. The conflict, man vs. man is one of the central themes of this story. This theme is portrayed through the conflicts between Papi and his son. Papi asserts his dominance in what can be considered unfashionable ways. Unconsciously, every action Papi makes yields negative reactions for his family. Yunior simply yearns for a tighter bond with his father, but knows-just like many other members of his family-Papi’s outlandish ways hurts him. As the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the conflicts between Papi and himself-along with conflicts between Yunior and himself-affect not only them as individuals, but their family as a whole.
Firstly, in the author’s childhood, he felt ashamed of his parents poor English. To support this experience, Rodriguez shows his embarrassment by saying, “I tried not to hear anymore… I
She says that Diaz’s fiction he claims he is writing about is actually his own internal and external conflicts. Reyes pulls in examples to support her claim. “There’s a reward for those who heed the plea. Diaz’s strength lies in his weakness. He is all too human, betraying his emotions with the poignant vulnerability of a cheater,” says Reyes. She is very strongly against his writing style and it almost seems as though she dislikes him as a person. This goes to show that different people have different interpretations and appreciations regarding short
... cultures, have different rules. You need to be brave and smart with your plan to go through. Also when he talked about white girls, and how they are really easy going. This story was a great example of a multicultural text, which brought all the cultures together. Making jokes always brings joy and laugh to people but making fun of their cultures is a different thing. Jonat Diaz used that element to make his story better by making connections between himself and his audience. By making fun of them he tried to get closer to them. Now days this is how we get closer to each other. It is a brutal world which making fun of each other makes us closer. But overall he made a lot of points by bringing the cultures together and making a multicultural text.
Not all elements are necessary when writing a story and some are more relevant than others. It takes thought to analyze what an author is trying to share with you and using these elements help them achieve their goals without saying it directly. The elements of fiction are the foundation of a great story. Díaz produced a powerful story showcasing social sensitivity, which left thoughts and appreciation for his writing skill, to grasp attention and showcase so much meaning using some elements more than others.
Kim. (n.d.). The Annotated Oscar Wao: Notes and translations for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Retrieved 05 07, 2011, from The Annotated Oscar Wao: http://www.annotated-oscar-wao.com/