Language in literature has always been a way to express yourself about how you feel and need to say. Language makes the world go round in order to constantly communicate with one another from different cultures and diversities. In the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, he has a mix of high and low culture, Spanish slang, and Standard English. Language and speech in the novel are all characterized so different within each character and the way that they are described. The ways that English and Spanish have to do with culture make the reader learn new vocabulary and methods of writing for the everyday basis.
Instead of Díaz straightforwardly advising the story to the reader, he makes a different approach by talking through
…show more content…
the novel's storyteller Yunior. Yunior or “The Watcher” gives examination and analysis to the occasions he is handing-off in the novel. As Yunior's code changing implies a battle between his Dominican character and his way of life as an author, code exchanging amongst Spanish and English are key to the account itself of the book, as characters switch back and forward in the novel. Spanish and English are constantly being intertwined creating Spanglish that has really become a sort of a particular form of language that it being heard constantly everywhere. If the reader speaks Spanish as a second language and learned the language formally, they might in a way mistaken the two languages and make mistakes all the time and get confused. As for some who knows both or one language all around tend to mix the two to make it their own style and talk as if it was normal for them. As for Diaz, he uses Spanglish in his novel “In a bilingual format that reflects his non-assimilationist approach as a Latino author whose use of Spanglish is indicative of his anti-colonial “lucha” or struggle against linguistic imperialism from within two major languages of the Americas, Spanish and English. By refusing to italicize and translate Spanish, Diaz's writing refuses to smooth out differences in order to make his work easily digestible for Anglophone readers who simply want easy, already clarified exposure to other, "exotic," cultures (Rodríguez)”. So Diaz does some certain things in this novel on purpose to basically catch the reader’s attention and give some different and simple ways of looking at his text as he says. This gives the readers some confusion but it can make them to understand more of the cultural aspect when and if they decide to search the words that they do not understand. The portrayal of the book moves from Yunior to another character at a few minutes in the story. In part two, Lola portrays her own story in second person. The start of section two additionally includes the use of second individual portrayal, hardly utilized as a part of writing. Lola makes it feel like the viewers are stepping into her shoes and she is talking to them as they read this chapter. Lola’s tone makes it relatable to most majority Latina females that have been yelled at like Lola in a different language like her mother did for example, “Hija de tu maldita madre” or “hija de la gran puta” have been said to Lola and she makes it clear in what tone her mothers says it because she had done something bad for her to say it and majority of the time when something bad happens in the book her mother is always speaking in Spanish to make her point across and you get a feel of how she was raised herself. Although Lola’s mother is really mean to her she cares for her in a way that does not really show love but protecting her and raising her to be strong is what she wants for her. In the novel “The Watcher” is Oscar's friend, Yunior. As Diaz expresses Yunior name is pretty odd because majority of the time it is with a “J” His name is spelled Yunior keeping in mind the end goal to force the reader to claim his name the way the general population in his culture would. The reader must go into Diaz's reality or not experience the book by any means. Yunior seems like he serves as a peacemaker of what is going on. While portraying how physically weak Oscar is he gives character to him and tries to be friend with him and even help him get a girlfriend or as they portray in the novel, “to get laid.” The fact that Diaz really does not tell the story in his point of view makes it feel like he uses Yunior to give the impression that the story is relating in all different proportions of characters. For example, the titles that are in chapter one “The Moronic Inferno”( Diaz 19), “Oscar is Brave” (28), “Oscar Comes Close” (33), “Amor de Pendejo” (36), and “Oscar in Love”(40), gives the story from Yunior’s perspective about the love life of Oscar and it is as if so Yunior was there with him the whole time and can tell you every bit of information he uses to tell you Oscars story to incorporate the characters together. The use of Spanish can be difficult if you do not know it but Diaz does not put commentaries or clarifications of what these words mean. Diaz essentially places them in for the reader to attempt to process to look up the words. To actually look at the words makes the reader analyze and maybe wonder why the writer decided to do this on purpose. A portion of the Spanish he uses is moderately basic in his novel, for example, "Y el Dentista?" (Diaz 94) which means “And the Dentist?” However at times Diaz inserts Spanish in a key entry of expressions of feeling, for example, when Lola comes back from the Dominican Republic with a confident attitude and when she sees her mom Beli she comments, "Coño, pero tu si eres fea" (208). A straight interpretation of this would be, "Damn, yet you are terrible" yet that misses a portion of a bad significance. This is what crushes Lola’s spirit down after she has recovered her trust in the Dominican Republic. The fact that Lola’s mother said that to her made Lola feel like she was worthless and was not really loved by her mom at all. Lola always had it rough and her mother Beli always uses her Spanish for a negative connotation towards others. Even if the reader comprehends standard Spanish in their own way, the way that Dominican slang is incorporated in the novel can confuse some at one point.
At the point when Beli comes attractive in her young age and the young men begin to notice her, she gets talked about like "y ese tetatorio" and "que pechonalidad" (93). Now these are not your formal Spanish words, but rather some of the standard words like “pecho” means mid-section and “teta” meaning areola or bosom can be interpreted in different ways of talking about a woman’s parts. It does not make a difference that the reader really will not understand these words but will get the idea of what they talk about with the context clues around the word. Diaz uses the slang to try to have the reader connect them to the characters and give them life. The fact that Diaz did not try to have a definition for each slang or Spanish word is to help the reader experience something that they might of never experienced before and actually make them research the words and explore.
Even if the slang is part of different cultures, the way that Oscar in the novel has his cultural believes is through the Fuku and Zafa. Having a culture or a belief of something consist of a lot of things that include your religion, experiences, beliefs, values, and most likely how you were raised as a child. We all have different beliefs and values we go by and so do Oscar and Lola in this
novel. The footnotes in the novel allow for the reader to find more information about any words or history that Diaz provides. It makes the reader feel like they can rely on some history of the novel for reference and try to figure out what he is trying to get with the intro of the novel. For example, in the beginning of the novel Diaz starts off with giving the reader some background information about the history of Trujillo also known as “El Jefe” (Diaz 2) and “ For those of you who missed your mandatory two seconds of Dominican history: Trujillo, one of the twentieth century’s most infamous dictators ruled the Dominican Republic between 1930 and 1961 with an implacable ruthless brutality” (2). Diaz gives the reader the feeling that he puts these footnotes for them to read in order to give the narrative more depth. Also the reader can understand a bit more about the narrator and where he came from and the things he might have gone through and just put the people he knew into characters in play. In an interview Diaz did they ask him, “What made you decide to put footnotes in the novel? How does the presence of "factual" footnotes affect the fiction of the novel, in your mind?” and Diaz answered with “The footnotes are there for a number of reasons; primarily, to create a double narrative. The footnotes, which are in the lower frequencies, challenge the main text, which is the higher narrative. The footnotes are like the voice of the jester, contesting the proclamations of the king. In a book that's all about the dangers of dictatorship, the dangers of the single voice—this felt like a smart move to me” (O'Rourke). The way that he answered the question and actually put the footnotes in the novel made it very appropriate because the reader can now understand what Diaz is talking about and it serves a purpose to make the narrative more elaborated without actually putting all the information unnecessary in the actual text. It is easy to find at the bottom of the pages and a reader how is not fluent in their Dominican slang and history or even Spanish can take a glance at the footnotes and understand the context better after reading them. Also the way that he said that he wanted to the book to have the dangers of a single voice could mean that he wanted the story to be told about culture and lives through one person who will not give a stereotype about their own race. Trying to achieve a well-rounded person who will not be judged and can be trusted by the reader.
In the essay “ ‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” is an effective writing style to persuade his audience because Rodriguez shows the reader how ironic people are in many different situations. For example, “There is something unsettling about immigrants because….well because they chatter incomprehensibly, and they get in everyone’s way. Immigrants seem to be bent on undoing American.” This reveals how Rodriguez shows verbal irony due to the fact that he is saying it but he does not really mean it for example in this quote Rodriguez said it but he is not the one who believes that while the white people are the ones who really consider immigrants as “Chatter”. To add on, Rodriguez shows this to display how the white people is just trying
Jimmy S.Baca use of metaphors, similes, imagery, diction, tone and mood are used in a very effective way in his essay Coming into Language. His use of metaphors and similes really give the reader a visual, helping develop imagery. Baca’s use of imagery paints pictures in the reader’s head but also develops a type of emotion by the use of diction. The word choice used provides the reader with an understanding of where the author is coming from leading us into tone and mood. The author’s tone starts off very low but by the end of the essay you will feel very satisfied.
Style refers to the distinctive form in which a writer arranges his or her words in order to achieve a particular effect such as narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive, tone is the author’s attitude towards the people, situations and events in their story while irony is a figure of speech which is a contradiction or incongruity between what is expected and what actually occurs. Three types of sarcasm are verbal, dramatic, and situational. In this paper, I intend to look at the style, tone an irony used by Junot Diaz’ in "How to Date a Brown girl, (Black girl, White girl, or Halfie)" and its differences and or similarities to the styles, tone and irony learnt in this course.
The most notable instance of diction is the Spanish phrase, “los gringos”. The choice to use Spanish exemplifies the author’s heritage. It both shows the author’s knowledge of the Spanish language as well as providing evidence to the fact that English is not the author’s only language. “Spanish seemed the language of home” demonstrates the way the
What the author is doing is letting the reader foreshadow. A technique which creates suspense, a vital element in any action story. The author then explained what was being hinted at;
of the native tongue is lost , certain holidays may not be celebrated the same , and American born generations feel that they might have lost their identity , making it hard to fit in either cultures . Was is significant about this book is the fact it’s like telling a story to someone about something that happened when they were kid . Anyone can relate because we all have stories from when we were kids . Alvarez presents this method of writing by making it so that it doesn’t feel like it’s a story about Latin Americans , when
Her foundation of love for The Gangster started in a peculiar manner. It started with Beli throwing her drink at a guy who grabbed her arm at the nightclub after he offered to buy her a drink. Oddly enough, she returned a few nights later and asked to dance with him. It’s apparent that The Gangster is not a good man, “Skilled our Gangster became in many a perfidy, but where our man truly excelled, where he smashed records and grabbed gold, was in the flesh trade. Then, like now, Santo Domingo was to popóla [slang for female genitalia] what Switzerland was to chocolate. And there was something about the binding, selling, and degradation of women that brought out the best in The Gangster; he had an instinct for it, a talent – call him the Caracaracol of Culo [Trickster of Ass]” (Diaz 121) yet Beli still falls for him. Their relationship is complicated to say the least and starts having adverse ramifications on Beli’s life. La Inca isn’t very happy with everything that Beli is doing and sees her lifestyle as disrespectful to her Beli’s parents. After The Gangster gets her pregnant, she is ecstatic, thinking that she can get married to the goon. The Gangster does not reciprocate this same attraction but he continues to play her. Her obsession over The Gangster leads to Beli getting kidnapped and nearly having her baby forcefully aborted. She is
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
The language used portrays the characters thoughts and emotions for example she goes into great detail about her surroundings (her life) and the events which had taken place there .She talks about her environment as if she is closely connected with the associations to which she describes.
...ing, symbolism, and the ageless dilemma of communication problems provides an excellent dialogue, giving the story an interesting twist indicative of his style
Julia Alvarez was an example of how a Latina writer identified herself in a new culture outside of her comfort zone. She, as a Dominican Diaspora, had to reinvent herself as she migrated into a new scenario. Her assimilation into the United States culture allowed her to understand and relate to the reader’s needs and points of interests. After all the effort, Alvarez kept in mind that she could not comfort to all the reality that she lived in, so she re-reinvented herself all over again to process her thoughts and beliefs into her life. She put her perspective on her writing so that the new wave of readers, even if they did not understand, could relate in some way and appreciate the differences. The sole purpose of her writings was for everyone to change their perspective from “walk to the other side of the street in order to avoid sharing the same sidewalk” to “I do not know them, but I do not avoid them because I do not know them”. She instilled in her reader’s mind how ordinary events were viewed differently through other cultures’ eyes. Her story Snow was a great example of how she portrayed her technique.
Momaday forces upon the reader the idea of language as a remedy for sickness; not only of the mind, but of the heart, also. If a speaker can reach a listener and show the listener what she means, then that is the most honorable achievement. Momaday wants the reader to know the importance of word weaving, of weaving the words to form a beautiful picture that can heal souls if spoken correctly. Momaday believes that the Native Americans who never bothered to learn to read and write, those who depend on their words, are those whose words are most powerful. The love for words, spoken with passion, makes them take on a three-dimensional quality. The words become the images and show a listener instead of telling, making the moment an experience instead of just a moment. The listener can feel what the speaker is trying to say; there is no need for interpretation, everything is already understood. Momaday convinces the reader that the spoken language goes beyond what words are being said; the words become their meaning, transcend into complete understanding and clarity. The experience should be remembered as one of self-revelation and understanding, not a moment filled with monotonous words. Momaday does not think it should be about memorizing the words for intellect, but about seeing the image they create. He wants the reader to know how important the woven web of words is so that the reader is able to understand how Native American tradition has lasted so long without words being written; that it is not the remembrance of words, but the remembranc...
I would also include a set of rhyming cards, letter cards, and number cards. These can be used for memory match, and other games. I would include rhyming and letter cards because rhyming and letter recognition are helpful in developing a child’s literacy. This allows them to be able to read, listen, and become more familiar with a variety of words and sounds.
In this essay, I have compared the different types of language choices and how they conveyed their two similar plots but extremely different respective themes.
During the course of this class, I have had the opportunity to read literature from authors who come from different backgrounds and places in the world. Some of the stories and poetry we read were straight forward while others were confusing and sometimes required a second look. But one thing is clear, it changed the way I think about literature in a few ways that I wasn’t expecting. Three works in particular stand out in my mind. “ I Wont Let You Go” by Rabindranath Tagore, “To New York” by Leopold Senghor, and Pedro Peramo by Juan Rulfo all had an impact on my thinking for similar yet different reasons. They all incorporate their cultural backgrounds into their work through the setting of their pieces. They also compose their pieces in a way that makes you want to research their history to find the deeper meaning. Finally, a couple of the authors write about things they are emotionally connected to. Some of the examples we will look at, really opened my eyes to going beyond a superficial understanding of literature.