Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

1952 Words4 Pages

Love and Violence
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz covers the issue of Love and Violence thoroughly throughout the book, and shows how anger and love influence the impulsive and reckless decisions the characters made. Searching for Zion, by Emily Raboteau on the other hand shows that love comes in different forms and may be easily misunderstood. Abelard, Belicia, Lola, and Emily show love can be a devastating force if not handled carefully and, could be very dangerous. As others commonly have, Oscar confuses passion or lust with love, which in many ways can be critical when conveyed in violence. Similarly, Emily doesn’t fully understand the love that she shares with her father and it leads her to dangerous encounters.
In the Cabral and de Leon families, violent love is the only love they know. Abelard who was an extremely intelligent man wasn’t smart enough to avoid the tragedy which is love and violence. Beginning with Abelard and ending with Oscar the only love the family could relate to was one that included violence. In Abelard’s case, he was protecting his daughters out of the love he had for them. Trujillo was fixed on having his way with Abelard’s eldest daughter, Jacquelyn. But Abelard went through great lengths to avoid Trujillo and the curse with him as well. This is where the curse first crosses paths with the Cabral and de Leon families. The curse takes the lives of everyone in the Cabral family except for young Belicia. Abelard’s love for his daughter leads him and his family to tragic and violent deaths which can only be credited to the fact that the fuku curse goes wherever love is.
In Oscar’s voyage in search of passionate love, he continually falls under the deadly, friend zone or as it’s u...

... middle of paper ...

...d kill immediately but if acted upon quickly the violence could be avoided. Abelard started this whole mess but the love of his family was too strong and, he would rather his family broken up than together and possibly miserable. Lola’s problems with mother-daughter love roots from Abelard breaking up the family and Belicia problems with La Inca as a child. Finally Emily, she never felt the love she actually had because she was very conscious about what was going on around her, she would just form an opinion and stick with it stubbornly. Love comes in all different ways and was the clear cut reason why anger and love influence the impulsive and reckless decisions the characters made in their lives.

Works Cited

Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.
Raboteau, Emily. Searching for Zion. New York: Grove Press , 2013.Print

Show More
Related

  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Juinot Diaz

    1635 Words  | 4 Pages

    When you see someone characterize someone else as a nerd, what do you generally think about this person, what if this same person is characterized as a geek? Most people generally hold a negative connotation with one of these titles, some see it as the geek and some see it as the nerds. Oscar De Leon and Yunior from Juinot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao can be classified as members of either of these groups in some ways. There are ways that they fit in and ways that they don’t but first, in order to see how Oscar and Yunior fit into the geek or nerd classifications or not the criteria must be defined.

    Read More

  • Interpersonal Conflict Between Noah, Allie and Anne Hamilton in 'The Notebook'

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Notebook (Cassavetes, 2004) is a love story about a young couple named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun, who fall deeply in love with each other. The Hamilton’s are financially stable, and expect for their daughter Allie to marry someone with the same wealth. Noah on the other hand works as a laborer, and comes from an underprivileged family. Throughout the film there were several negative behaviors, and interpersonal communications within the context of their relationship, which relates to chapter nine. This chapter explores relationships, emphasizing on affection and understanding, attraction, and the power of a relationship. The focus of this paper is the interpersonal conflict with Noah, Allie and her mother, Anne Hamilton.

    Read More

  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Theme Of The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    We may believe were not in no form of isolation from a single thing but we are all in isolation without notice. In the book “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar wao” by Junot Diaz, he shows isolation in every character in a very distinct way but still not noticeable. Throughout the Brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao, Diaz conveys that there is isolation in every person through his characters that are all different in personalization but are still isolated from something.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

    2349 Words  | 5 Pages

    By examining the narrative voice as well as the cultural restraints placed on them, readers can see the sexist culture in the novel and that the novel itself does not necessarily advocate this misogyny. Yunior, a Dominican man, is the overall narrator of the novel, so readers essentially see everything through his masculine eye. When discussing a brief fling with Lola, Oscar’s sister, Yunior says, “Even those nights after I got jumped she wouldn’t let me steal on her ass for nothing. So you can sleep in my bed but you can’t sleep with me?” (Diaz 169) His question suggests that it is his right to sleep with her, and his discussion of Lola herself objectifies her by noting only her body and her refusal to use it. This objectification is clearly sexist, but it is a reflection of the narrative voice, Yunior, not of Lola. Yunior will casually refer to a woman as “a bitch” (Diaz 183), which is clearly demeaning, but it is a man’s view and does not reflect on the substance of the women. It shows readers the culture he was raised in, not an actual portrayal of the women, illustrating a misogynist society but not a misogynistic novel. In the Dominican Republic, gender-based violence is the fourth leading cause of death, hinting at the overall problems caused by the hyper-sexualized nature of the country. Sociologist Denise Paiewonsky

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried and Araby

    1351 Words  | 3 Pages

    The idea of love is very complex and can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Both “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “Araby” by James Joyce portray the lives of two individuals who are in love. “The Things They Carried” is about a young lieutenant named Jimmy Cross during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Cross was incapable of focusing on the war because of his constant thoughts of the girl he loved, Martha. “Araby” is about a boy who is infatuated with a girl he has never had a conversation with. Although both protagonists in “The Things They Carried” and “Araby” eventually realize that the girls they loved didn’t feel the same way about them, Lieutenant Cross tried to move on by destroying everything he had that reminded him of Martha, while the boy in “Araby” was left disappointed.

    Read More

  • As I Lay Dying And Beloved Comparison Essay

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example, Sethe’s love would cause her to act out in grotesque ways and therefore cause her children to become isolated and fearful. In contrast, Addie’s love is shown without words but it is still very strong to her children. Her love is so strong that once she dies her children struggle identifying who they are without

    Read More

  • Theme Of Resistance In The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beli resisting La Inca portrays her downfall because Beli makes choices against La Inca’s desires that will harm her. She is unaware of her history and background of the Abelard family, other than the fact that La Inca continuously tells Beli that her father was a doctor and her mother was a nurse. Abelard Luis Cabral was Oscar and Lola’s grandfather, the man who said something bad about Trujillo, thus eventually sending the fukú curse down to Beli. Diaz writes “In those long days-before delincuencia and bank failures, before Diaspora- the Cabrals were numbered among the High of the Land “(211). The Cabral’s held a high place in society, but it was not until Abelard Cabral upset Trujillo that he was sentenced to the curse of Trujillo’s reign. The power of Trujillo is so strong that it ruined not only Abelard Cabral’s life, but also his wife and three daughters’ lives as well. His two daughters died abruptly and Beli suffered later in life with her love. Trujillo’s power is able to especially affect Beli because she knew nothing about her history. Diaz describes Trujillo by writing, “You might roll your eyes at the comparison, but, friends: it would be hard to exaggerate the shadow of fear he cast over the Dominican people and the shadow of fear he cast throughout the region” (224).

    Read More

  • The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although it is ultimately revealed that Oscar and Yunior are close with each other, Yunior’s pure embodiment of the Dominican masculine is the complete antithesis of Oscar’s character, who is the opposite of anything that could describe Yunior. One good analogy to the hyper masculine identity of Yunior is to that of the personality of Trujillo, the repressive dictator of the Dominican Republic who oversaw the Haitian parsley massacre. Trujillo had a strong lust for women and a rather apparent tendency for violence, and as some sources (i.e. Masculinity after Trujillo, by Maja Horn) argue, the modern conception of masculinity in the country came to full bloom after his rein. Interestingly this was the period of time that Beli grew up in, and a substantial part of her childhood experience was suffering at the behest of Trujillo’s suppressive regime, and consequentially this contributed to her hefty and dominant

    Read More

  • The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes, author of The Death of Artemio Cruz, has used his novel to show how Mexico has been transformed and molded into its present state through the use of his character Artemio Cruz. Fuentes uses Cruz to bring together a historical truth about the greedy capital seekers, robber barons, if you will, who after the revolution brought Mexico directly back into the situation it was in before and during the Revolution. Fuentes wrote the novel in nineteen sixty-two, shortly after the Cuban Revolution. Fuentes is able to express his disappointment from the Mexican Revolution, the revolution by the people of his native land. The revolution seemed to change nothing for the average person in Mexico; the change that took place was merely a shift in power.

    Read More

  • Love and Destruction in Alice Hoffman's Here on Earth

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dangerous love was an attraction for March in Alice Hoffman's Here on Earth. The story suggests that her love is pure from the beginning and that she could only love her counter part Hollis. The twist and turns that this novel brings shows the doom that falls upon March and Hollis's relationship. The affection grows to lust and then to a need for their bodies. March and Hollis's need for the love of each other lead to each of their destructions.

    Read More

  • Love and Destruction in City of Boones by Cassandra Clare

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cassandra Clare, author of the best-selling novel City of Bones, once wrote, “To love is to destroy, and to be loved is to be the one destroyed”. As an author of a series of young adult books, Clare wishes to send a message to adolescent readers regarding the destruction that young, passionate love can lead to. A similar theme is explored in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where two adolescents from feuding families fall in love with one another. When they first see each other on the night of the Capulet party, they quickly fall in love and are soon married by Romeo’s friend and mentor, Friar Lawrence. Their love, being full of passion in its quick course, faces many trials such as Romeo’s banishment from their hometown of Verona, as well as Juliet being forced to marry Paris, kinsman of the Prince. The affection they feel for one another, being all consuming, often leads them to want to sacrifice everything for each other, including their own lives. Their self-destructive, rushed love ends with their deaths, occurring just a multiple days after they first met. In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, many characters such as Friar Lawrence, Romeo, and Juliet illustrate that young, passionate love is a powerful force that leads to destruction.

    Read More

  • "Romeo and Juliet" and "West Side Story": A Thematic Comparison

    1190 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...easurable and choices you never thought that you would make are made. Romeo and Juliet decided that they would marry- until death do them part- they loved one another so much that even then they did not part. They committed suicide to be together- together in a place, hopefully, where they could be free from prejudice and hate. Tony and Maria never got the chance to run away and live together in this place, either. While both stories chronicle how hatred, prejudice, forbidden love and stereotypes change a person, neither mention what really made their lives impossible- revenge. A revenge that ran so deep, it ended lives. This was a revenge that didn’t solve any problems, but simply led to more, bigger problems. So, maybe while love can do miraculous things, like help you forget how to hate your enemies, even it is not fully capable of eliminating revenge.

    Read More

  • Summary: The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ana Obregón, Oscar’s first love of the novel, showcases his hyper involvement with women who want nothing to do with him. In spite of her on again, off again relationship a man twice her age, Oscar continually deludes himself into believing that she might choose him over Manny. While his feelings grew, without “even realizing it he’d fallen into one of those Let’s-Be-Friends vortexes...plenty of misery guaranteed and what you got out of it besides bitterness and heartbreak nobody

    Read More

  • The Broken Circle Breakdown Movie Analysis

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two of them go through the anger stage at a similar time. When they start to blame each other for Maybelle’s illness, the two of them are angry over more than what they are yelling about. They really don’t blame each other. It isn’t anyone’s fault that their daughter died. They just need a place to channel their ...

    Read More

More about Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Open Document