Similarities Between Oscar And Yunior

Although Yunior cannot accurately be considered a reincarnation of a Watcher from the Marvel Universe, he and Oscar, however, share similarities with another group of beings in the same universe known as the X-Men. The X-Men, which are a race of “hybrid species” (as Joy Sanchez-Taylor refers to them in her journal), are not all that different that Dominican Americans, and, by association, Oscar and Yunior. Yunior even addresses the likeness between Oscar and fictional race himself what he writes in the footnotes “You really want to know what being an X-Man feels like? Just be a bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto” (22n6). Mutants, as they are portrayed in the Marvel comics, go through many of the same hurdles that people of color

have gone through in America. In order to successfully compare Oscar and Yunior to the race of known throughout the Marvel Universe as the X-Men, criteria must first be established that defines what it means to be an X-Man. First and foremost, they possess a mutation in their genetic code (to be discussed at a later point), and, despite whether it is hidden or not, this sets them apart from the majority of society, and secondly, they grow in some way, whether it be physical or mental, throughout the course of their life.
The X-Men presented in Marvel comics are classified with the term mutants. The DNA of a person within the universe “express[es] the “X-gene”. [Which are] Random mutations in their genetic code unlocked this dormant gene”(Hill). The mutants are oppressed by the majority of society on the solely because of their genetic code and what makes them stand out. Oscar, on the other hand, can almost be considered a completely separate race of mutant beings within a group of mutants. Oscar’s behavior and personality does not correlate with what is means to be a Dominican male in his community: he is not considered a ‘lady’s man’ as are many males that share his ethnicity, especially Yunior (this does not including the incredibly brief he, Oscar, had with women as a youth); and , whereas mutants in the Marvel Universe get amazing supernatural abilities as the result of their differences throughout their genetic code, Oscar’s ‘amazing ability’ seems to be one that leaves him ‘friend-zoned’ during most of his adult life. Although he desperately tries to conform to what it means to be a Dominican male, Oscar fails egregiously. One may ask themselves, “why is it that Oscar isn’t as popular with the ladies as he once was?”, and the answer to that is there are many factors that may contribute to this. Oscar, first and foremost, is about as nerdy as they come. He plays the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons, reads comic books, science fiction novels, and even watches anime (a Japanese cartoon), and, not so surprising, Oscar can read and write in Elvish “Do you know what sign fool put up on our dorm door? Speak, friend, and enter. In f… Elvish!” (171-172).
In addition to being “GhettoNerd at the End of the World”(11), Oscar doesn’t treat Dominican women the way that they are used to being treated, even though this is considered a positive thing, it is still fact. Dominican women, in the terms established in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, thrive on being used by men. Beli, for instance, would enter and stay in relationships with men that didn’t respect her. Her first fling, with a classmate and longtime crush named Jack Pujols, showed little to no respect for her, something that she would discover after she would be with the “Gangster” (99). The second man that Beli is with, although he tends to treat her with a bit more respect than Pujols had, is ultimately cheating on his wife with Beli, something that only ends badly for her as the gangster’s wife is Trujillo’s sister. Oscar, on the other hand, has a brief experience with this type of circumstance when he is seven, but this ends almost as soon as it begins. At the points of the novel in which Oscar does fall in love with another person, his amazing ability of being friend-zoned gets in the way and his dreams of romance are shot down, and the one time in which Oscar does “get lucky,” and loses his ‘abilities’ it ultimately results in his death, much like the mutant Pasco, who is able to generate a force field that protects him from harm. As the result of losing his powers, Pasco is killed by explosives that he is carrying (Pasco).
Oscar’s metaphorical lose of his abilities can also be viewed as his growing point within the novel. Despite dying a short while after, Oscar has broken his depression and was able to write final letters to Lola and Yunior and finally a package containing manuscripts and a long letter to Lola including his experience with Ybon. Although it was never sent, Oscar had also prepared a second package containing some of his other final writings. Throughout the majority of his life, Oscar was the mutant within a group of mutants. He does not correlate with the macho exterior and swagger that is usually very stereotypical amongst Dominican males in the way in which he treat woman and even the things that interest him.
Yunior, on the other hand, is a another species of mutant.

Whereas Oscar’s mutation can be seen by those around him, Yunior’s sort of marinades over time. Like Oscar, Yunior is also a nerd, on many occasions he admits to watching Akira, a Japanese anime with Oscar, and can even read his Elvish writing on their dorm room door “(Please don’t ask me how I know this. Please.) When I saw that I said: De León, you gotta be kidding. Elvish?”(172). This is not the only time in which Yunior inserts his knowledge of Pop culture. Throughout the course of the novel, Yunior references many different genres: from science fiction to fantasy, and Star Trek to The Lord of the Rings. Yunior’s love of things that would typically be classified as ‘nerdy’ is not the only thing that sets him apart (secretly) from Dominican culture. As the novel progresses, the reader can see that Yunior truly loves Lola, one of his ex girlfriends and Oscar’s sister. In fact, he moves in with Oscar during college at the request of Lola. Towards the conclusion of the novel, Yunior also says “I wish I could say it worked out, that Oscar’s death brought us together…[I] alternated between F… Lola and these incredibly narcissistic hopes of reconciliation that I did nothing to achieve”(324). Yunior’s mutant ability, which can only be defined by his actions throughout the novel, is actually disguising his feelings and who he is so that he may blend in with the Dominican concept of what it means to be masculine. After Oscar’s death and being too late to win Lola over, we begin to see a reemergence of Yunior, one who gets married and “don’t run around after girls anymore. Not much, anyway” (326), and that one day hopes to show Lola’s daughter the writings of Oscar’s that he has kept throughout the years. Yunior, at the conclusion of the story, has matured in many ways, much like the way Wolverine matures throughout the X-Men movies, and goes from being a “lone-ranger’ of sorts but eventually joins the X-Men in

the movie X-Men.
Throughout the course of the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the presence of the mutants as portrayed by the popular Marvels series X-Men and The Fantastic Four is too significant to be ignored. Junot Diaz’s insertion of many particular references to pop culture is ingenious in that he uses interesting topics amongst the characters in order to relate to his audience, the readers. There are some references, however, that aren’t as accurate. Despite identifying himself as a ‘Watcher’ on multiple occasions, Yunior’s style of narration is not as omniscient as the advanced beings from the Marvel Universe. In regards to this, T.S. Miller states in the journal "Preternatural Narration And The Lens Of Genre Fiction In Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao..", “[Yunior functions] as the near-omniscient narrator he truly contains multitudes, filtering through his own voice a number of other characters’ voices”(93). The topic of mutants in relation to the X-Men speaks louder than that of the Watchers in relation Yunior, Oscar, and even the Dominican American population, in that they are the minorities in their perspective Universe that fight to overcome the oppressiveness of a defective society.