According to James Baldwin, language connects one to or divorces one from society (454). It causes the desire to be accepted by both the private world and the public world. However, acceptance cannot be achieved when both private identity and public identity are displayed at the same time. The previous statement results in complete isolation by neither displaying one’s private identity nor conforming to public identity. Another consequence of that statement is ultimate conformity by suppressing one’s private identity and true self. In the case of the protagonist in “Londonstani” by Gautam Malkani and Oscar in “A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz, their language—verbal and behavioral—reveals their isolation and conformity within their communities.
Oscar de León, the protagonist in “A Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, is isolated from his community because of his behavior that he neither proudly displays nor changes to meet society’s wants. Oscar comes from a very influential Dominican family. In his community, Dominican men are typically smooth talking, naturally social, and “woman-crazy” men. They rarely encounter a problem having to do with women or fitting in. Oscar, however, does not fit the generalization for Dominican men. He is more intellectually active than physically or sexually active. He stays in his room watching “Doctor who”—his favorite science fiction show— and writing journal entries as opposed to chasing girls. He does not suppress his actions and neither does he change them. In his community, such behavior constitutes him as an anomaly to Dominican behavior and isolates him from those who follow the typical Dominican standard.
Oscar further shows his isolation through his be...
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...goes to say that each language will very well have their own public identity which will be considered a private identity to anyone who does not speak the language. When choosing to have private identity, one must realize that the public will rarely accept it. Thus, one must be willing to accept the cost of choosing such a lifestyle—isolation. Likewise, when choosing public identity, one must give up who they truly are in order to fully conform to what the public expects. As seen through the lives of Oscar and Jas, private identity and public identity will never coexist.
Works Cited
Díaz, Junot. "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." Rotten English: a literary anthology. By Dohra Ahmad. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2007.
Malkani, Gautam. Londonstani. Rotten English: a literary anthology. By Dohra Ahmad New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2007.
The relationships between mothers and daughters is a topic that authors often call upon to tell a story. It is an important part of every culture, which makes the topic relatable to any reader who picks the book up. Junot Diaz understood the universality of mother/daughter relationships and incorporated it in his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Although the book is mainly about Oscar, an overweight Dominican boy from New Jersey and his quest for love, the book also spends a lot of time exploring the relationships between Oscar’s sister Lola and their mother Beli and Beli’s relationship with her mother figure La Inca. Junot Diaz does not write mother/daughter relationships in an honest way and focuses on the conflict in the relationships
In the novel Chulito author Charles Rice-Gonzalez creates a familiar world seen through the eyes of a young, gay Latino from New York to strip the reconstructed masculinity that is inherent to the urban Latin communities' sense of machismo and expose the realities of outdated views on gender roles and sexual orientation, and the internal power struggle against the machismo aspects that entrap its members in a cycle of poverty and violence. The majority of young Latinos growing up in impoverished areas of urban society think machismo is necessary for survival and acceptance within the community. Rice-Gonzalez reveals this to be an oversimplification by the members of the community of the social dynamics that are at work behind the scenes and,
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
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
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print. The. Raboteau, Emily.
On analyzing a symbol as a literary convention used by author, Junot Díaz makes a way to identify the purpose of the device. In his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), the mechanism is used to develop a specific character and point of view. The symbol is a sensory image that holds rich implication that holds either a narrow or broad connotation. However, on occasion the reader is cast off by the author with an unknown meaning of the symbol and is forced to create his own interpretation. The latter principle is intentionally carried out by the author as a literary hook to draw the attention of his audience to keep reading. Moreover, in combination with the symbol is the calculated method by the author of his utilization of pathos as a way of arousing the emotions of his readership. Consequently, the author effectively brings into existence an impetus by which the reader will be controlled. The use of a symbol as a literary convention in a novel creates a hidden significance. A literary convention, a symbol of faceless men, is used by Dominican-American writer, Junot Díaz to give significance and shape to his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
When reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, written by Junot Diaz, the constant element of violence and its impact on the characters is impossible to overlook. As Diaz writes, he explains that a portion of the novel takes place in the Dominican Republic under Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship, and how the violence that is seen in the other parts of the novel, which take place at a different time, can be viewed as a lingering effect of the mass amount of violence that procured during his reign. Although majority of the novel takes place in America and many years after Trujillo’s dictatorship, the effects of violence that were orchestrated throughout his reign continued to affect those of Dominican descent, which is depicted through the mother-daughter relationship of Beli and Lola and the sexual assertiveness of the male characters, such as Oscar and Yunior.
The novel ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’, by Junot Diaz gives a very entertaining insight towards many social dynamics that are relevant to Dominican culture, and it fits very well within the scope of the course; and, although it is a work of fiction, this novel is set in New Jersey, and deals specifically with the Dominican Republic experience under the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. From what I’ve learned after reading the first half of this book, there is certainly a lot that can be discussed. Thankfully the book’s versatile portrayal of vivid topics that are seldom discussed shine light upon these many issues that face such an overlooked culture, especially for the American audience.
A reoccurring them in the novel of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is sex which is viewed as a rite of passage. Sex is extremely apparent in the book which shows the importance it has within the Dominican culture. According to the narrator Yunior, sex is tremendously engrained in the Dominican culture so much that accordingly to legend “No Dominican has died a virgin” (??). Since sex is culturally embedded into their lives, Oscar is considered an outcast compared to the more
He is trying to say that different groups of people, even those who speak the same language would speak differently based on where they come from and I agree with this statement. He shows how slaves came to America and the white people weren’t interested in educating them because they thought they didn’t need an education. That’s why blacks developed their own language to communicate. The author states “merely, the adoption of a foreign tongue, but an alchemy that transformed ancient elements into a new language.” This was used to have a connection among them and to identify who they are their true identity. He even states “[Language] is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal
In the article, “Public and Private Language”, Richard Rodriguez argues that bilingual education delays learning a “public language” and developing a public identity”. I can relate to Richard’s story because my family and me moved to America when I was young and we also had the same struggle learning a new language. I agreed with Rodriguez when he expressed that he didn’t feel like a true American until he mastered the English language because English is the first and main language in America.
Tan’s essay does more than just illuminate the trouble with language variations; her essay features a story of perseverance, a story of making a “problem” harmonize into a “normal” life. Almost like a how-to, Tan’s essay describes an obstacle and what it takes to go above and beyond. Mirroring Tan, I have been able to assimilate “the [world] that helped shape the way I saw things” and the world that I had to conform to (Tan 129). Life is a struggle, but what makes it worth it is the climb, not what is on the other side.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a fictional story loosely based on the experiences of author Junot Diaz, a Dominican American. The novel follows the relationships of the main character, Oscar, the narrator, Yunior, and the women surrounding them with sex, family, and trauma. Diaz’s novel has been praised as groundbreaking and is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize. However, the allegations made against Diaz regarding misogyny suggest that Diaz instead may be regressive in his treatment of women both in real life and within the novel by failing to understand and productively tell their stories, compared to those of men, through crude descriptors focusing on female bodies. Additionally, Diaz’s well-crafted male characters fail to take accountability
This essay is based on the reading of two literary plays, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and Willy Russell’s Educating Rita. Language and identity are two expressions that need to be explained. English is the official language in several countries; Chinese is the language spoken by Chinese people and Danish is how Danes speak. But languages could also be described as different ways of talking due to social background, education, profession, age and sex. A person’s language is connected to his social situation. Eliza, the cockney flower girl from the gutter does not speak the same language as professor Higgins, even if English is their common mother tongue. They speak differently because they belong to different social worlds. Identity can signify the very special characteristic of a person, something that makes him differ from others.
As a Hispanic woman, Beli faces not only economic exploitation but also systemic discrimination rooted in entrenched prejudices and power imbalances. Her experiences serve as a poignant reminder of the pervasive inequalities that permeate every facet of society, perpetuating a vicious cycle of oppression and marginalization for those deemed outside the purview of the dominant power structures. In essence, Chapter 4 of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" serves as a powerful indictment of the structural injustices inherent within capitalist societies. Through Beli's narrative, Diaz offers a searing critique of a system that perpetuates exploitation and inequality, while also illuminating the resilience and fortitude of those who resist and persevere in the face of adversity. Although "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar'' by Junot Diaz is primarily analyzed through the lens of Marxist literary theory, it also exhibits elements of queer theory, adding depth and complexity to its exploration of identity, marginalization, and power