Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How language and literature interwine
Exploring cultural identity 1.3
Exploring cultural identity 1.3
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How language and literature interwine
Junot Diaz was raised in New Jersey but born in the Dominican Republic. In 2008 Junot Diaz won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for the best work of fiction written in English with “The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao”. Junot was the second Hispanic novelist in receiving this honor, after Oscar Hijuelos had achieved it in 1990 with the “Mambo Kings Play Songs of love”.
Even though Diaz chose English as his medium of expression, he never aspired to create a failed Spanglish, but an English exceptionally creative, capable of assimilating the Spanish spoken in New York and using it to improve their adoptive language. None of its relators fascinates with this new language, or becomes the main topic of the novel, but rather it is used as a fun vehicle that allows him to expose his stories with admirable freedom.
The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao began with a failure, a night out in Mexico City with a few drinks and a book of Oscar Wilde. The title did not matter, what mattered the most was the Dominican Republic accent when it comes to pronounce in English Oscar Wilde. Junot Diaz, who was in a party with a few friends, said very laud; “Oscar Wao”, as clear as that, Oscar Wao. As a result; everyone started laughing but at the same time people did not pay much attention to what Junot had just said and continued chatting and drinking until the next morning. In that very same morning in Junot Diaz’s head was still resonating Oscar Wao, Oscar Wao, Oscar Wao, like an incoherent song, but essential. Despite the fact; Junot Diaz was still unaware that the importance of being Oscar Wao was such that it would lead him to the Pulitzer Prize seven years later.
Junot Diaz had a few years embarked on a novel and gripped by vertigo when he said "Os...
... middle of paper ...
...ge of a Hispanic author who writes in English and occasionally combining words and phrases in Spanish, is a lot more than that, his style is a new language that expresses a new life form. If The United States is the ground zero in the struggle between the English and the Spanish, Junot Diaz opens a window to a foreign world of confrontation where Anglos and Hispanics have to create something alive and different. The writer, a clear intellectual and linguistic poet, has become a reality full of unknown possibilities and that is probably why he has been granted with the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle.
No doubt the brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao marks a turning point in the Caribbean literature, and can be very truth that also marks a beginning for this language, infested from a different points of view with more and more followers, called Spanglish.
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 tells 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 broke up and his life seemed to be on a steady decline since then.
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
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.
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
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
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
Resistance Throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, set in the late 1900’s, tells the story of Oscar Wao, an overweight Dominican “ghetto nerd”, his mother and rebellious sister who live together in Paterson, New Jersey. Throughout the novel, Diaz incorporates many different stories about each character that show acts of resistance. One of the most prominent stories of resistance in the novel is through Oscar’s mom Beli, who is prompted by a great tragedy, known as the Trujillo curse, to love atomically and thus follow a dangerous path.
Richard Rodriguez offers an alternate yet equally profound truth: While our heritage and culture may remain forever tied to and expressed in our native or "home" language, only through the dominant language of our country (English in most cases) can we achieve a place in society that gives us a feeling that we belong amongst everyone else. The only way we can truly become a part of our community and fit in is to dominate the current spoken language. In the United States, the dominant language is Standard English. In this excerpt from "Aria," a chapter in his autobiography entitled "Hunger of Memory": The Education of Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez discusses public and private languages, and agrees that his achievements in English separated him from his Spanish family and culture but also brought him "the belief, the calming assurance that [he] belonged in public." We as human beings want to feel we belong. We search for that place in society where we are most comfortable all our lives. One should consider the benefits of mastering the dominant language of the society they live in, but should also take into account the harm of taking your native language for granted. I will attempt to explore both of these considerations and examine Rodriguez place in life now, by stating the facts of who is now by the childhood decisions that were made.
I decided to analyze the poem English con Salsa by Gina Valdes, because I can identify myself with this poem in many different aspects. Both my parents and I were born in Mexico, but decided to move to the United States on February of 2000. With us moving here, we brought along our traditions and customs. My family has a blend of American culture with Latino culture since a few of my uncles married American women and had children. I feel that Valdes poem is about finding that “in between” feelings that are brought up when two cultures are mixed together.
...ave satirized the Boom, defining it as the most exclusive club that the cultural history of Latin America has known." ) Clearly, modern Latin American writers live in the shadow of these men and their prodigious work. However Latin Americans may feel about the Boom and the legacy which it left, there can be no doubt that it also paved the way for Latin American writers in many ways by making them visible to the rest of the world.
According to the information in the Article “The Misrepresentation of Africa” many commercials, T.V shows, and magazines associate African culture with poverty, violence and HIV/AIDS. I initially believed that was accurate due to that being the only thing advertised in the media. Many people now believe the way I did before I started this research project. For someone who has never visited Africa a day in my life, could I really be the blame for my misinterpretation of the continent? Therefore, I thought this would be a different but yet stimulating topic for my research project. (Araya)
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