Despite the recognizable writing styles in Oscar’s story, there are insertions of other characters’ writings under Yunior’s authority. The significant subtitles, “La Inca Speaks” and “Ybon, As Recorded by Oscar” clearly state that one of the passages is from La Inca and the other is from Ybon, presenting two contradicting opinions. In comparison La Inca’s passage incorporated Spanish words, whereas Oscar described on’s thoughts all in English, resembling the clash of Dominican and American culture in the novel. La Inca claimed, “He didn’t meet her on the street like he told you. His cousins, los idiots, took him to a cabaret and that’s where he first saw her. And that’s where ella se metio por sus ojos” (Diaz 289). From La Inca’s point of …show more content…
view, we learned that Oscar met Ybon in a cabaret, though earlier Yunior declared that they bumped into each other as they were walking. The two different versions of the story: Oscar’s version is more of an innocent coincidence rather than La Inca’s version, thus far there isn’t a correct version as they are both biased. Oscar might make up his version to prove that there’s another side to Ybon, instead of a prostitute in the cabaret. On the other hand, La Inca and his mother were enraged by Oscar’s choice and only considered her as nothing more, but a prostitute, which led to La Inca’s belief that the one possible way to meet a prostitute is in a cabaret. La Inca’s bitter and contemptuous tone revealed her dislike and disapproval towards Ybon, Oscar’s belove. Ybon shared how she first chose not to come back to Santo Domingo, but after seeing more of the world she knows she can get used to anything. Both spoke in their own voice briefly, yet both greatly differed from how Yunior has previously described Ybon’s circumstances. Likewise, other characters’ voice is occasionally shown through the dialogue or sometimes in the apprentices that would clearly point out —“([Yunior] read in [Oscar’s] journal)” —the credit of the information (Diaz 200). The truth alters depending on the person, as Yunior illustrates Oscar in a variety of angles. Every flashback about Oscar’s family member is a part of the larger story Yunior is telling, a part of Oscar himself. Essentially, the end of the novel after Oscar’s death is the final piece of the puzzle when Yunior fully reveals himself and his purpose of writing the book using first-person narration.
The death of Oscar and his mother Beli marked a new beginning: Yunior tries to face his own issues and focus on his own emotional baggage by building a family, working as a teacher, and similar to Oscar, writing as an emotional outlet; Lola has a lovely family and a young daughter named Isis, the fourth generation of the de Leon’s family. Isis is expected to be the one who puts an end to the curse fuku, “I’ll take her down to my basement and open the four refrigerators where I store her tio’s books, his games, his manuscripts, his comic books, his papers...And maybe, just maybe, if she’s as smart and as brave as I’m expecting she’ll be, she’ll take all we’ve done and all we’ve learned and add her own insights and she’ll put an end to it [the fukú]. That is what, on my best days, I hope. What I dream” (Diaz 330-331). The collection of Oscar’s work are evidence and documentations for Oscar’s life, simultaneously offers the knowledge to fight against the curse. Yunior hopes that Isis will come to visit him some day and that he will be able to share the history of her family with her, thus she can add her insights and become aware of the curse. It resolves the tension between the characters as they hope for a new start. The ultimate purpose for constructing the narrative is for Isis to overcome the curse and for literal readers to take actions against the various forms of oppression in the narrative. These goals, however, are Yunior’s desire, not the actuality. Later on, the quote from Watchmen suggests that “nothing ever ends”, a paradox that undoes the finality of Isis’s ending of the curse (Diaz 331). As much as Yunior wants to break away de Leon’s family and every other Dominican family from the curse, he is afraid that the quote speaks the truth, everything continues in a cycle.
The end relates back to the beginning by mentioning fuku, while he invites the readers to participate in the narrative and leaves the end unanswered for the readers to construct. From the scattered puzzle pieces in the beginning to the final completed puzzle at the end, readers have been able to understand the brief yet wondrous life of Oscar Wao. Oscar didn’t live until his hair turned gray, eyes became blurry, and legs unable to move, instead he experienced profound and meaningful friendship, recognized the beauty in literature, and learned to be romantic. Through his letters later arrived in the mail, it seems that he preferred to focus on the non-sexual aspect of his relationship with Ybon as he understood the beauty in love isn’t simply the physical attraction. Readers can conclude that his life is full of tragedy and harmful aspects, after examining the image on the completed puzzle. Oscar’s last words calling “The beauty! The beauty,” as he judges life, humankind, and love to be beautiful despite all the messiness of the Dominican life and the pain he has faced to get here (Diaz 335). By adding Oscar’s writing at the end enhanced his characters and his actual thoughts which tie an end to the journey of his life. In order to portray Oscar’s brief and wondrous journey, each piece of the puzzle captures a unique story. Starting from his childhood leading to his death, at times the story is told backward, while it moves forward. Perhaps his life can be wondrous after all.
In the essay of Mr.Gary Soto, we learn about his experiences about falling in love with someone of a different race. Ever since he was young, he would be lectured that marrying a Mexican women would be the best option for his life. Gary’s grandmother would always proclaim: “... the virtues of marrying a Mexican girl: first, she could cook,second, she acted like a woman, not a man, in her husband’s home” (pp.219). Being conditioned into the notion that all Mexican woman have been trained to be proper women, Mr. Soto set out on finding his brown eyed girl; however, what love had quite a different plan. This paper will cover three different themes Gary’s essay: The tone, the mindset of the character’s mindsets, and the overall message of the
In 1949, Dana Gioia reflected on the significance of Gabriel García Márquez’s narrative style when he accurately quoted, “[it] describes the matter-of-fact combination of the fantastic and everyday in Latin American literature” (Gioia). Today, García Márquez’s work is synonymous with magical realism. In “Un Señor Muy Viejo con Alas Enormes,” the tale begins with be dramatically bleak fairytale introduction:
They both admire her mother’s beauty. Her grandmother begins to reveal certain aspects from her mother’s past and the nagging feelings gets stronger. La Inca explains to her that she is very similar to her mother. She tells her about why she had to send her mother to New York; she also had fallen in love with the wrong man. At the end of this story, we see Lola go through this internal change. I think the author did this to show that maybe Lola couldn’t understand her mother because there were many things about her she didn’t know and that their story was so very similar. We don’t get to see anymore of the conversation; therefore, we don’t see if this revelation serves a purpose, but I would like to believe it
Both authors write about the confidence the main characters receive from their culture. Rodriguez talks about his “private language” being spanish; A language that makes him unique. He is adamant in his pride of not belonging to the public society of the “gringos”. In Tafolla's poem, Richi is introduced as a boy who is strict about the pronunciation of his name. By making sure that others pronounce it with the intended accents, he gives the impression that he is not ashamed of his hispanic background. Rodriguez and Ri...
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
Growing up poor in the Dominican Republic strongly influenced the choices Yunior makes later in his life. In “Aguantando” Yunior recalls about how poverty was a part of his life. Díaz writes, “We were poor. The only way we could have been poorer was to have lived in the campo or to have been Haitian immigrants…We didn’t eat rocks but we didn’t eat meat or beans either” (Díaz, 70). This depiction of Yunior’s early childhood sets the stage for what is to come. Yunior’s choices as an adolescent proves that he either chooses not to or cannot better his situation instead he turns to drugs and alcohol. Yunior’s decision to partake in drugs and alcohol shows that people in poverty have nothing to live for and just live for the next best thing.
As a young child, Rodriguez finds comfort and safety in his noisy home full of Spanish sounds. Spanish, is his family's' intimate language that comforts Rodriguez by surrounding him in a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed using the Spanish language. "I recognize you as someone close, like no one outside. You belong with us, in the family, Ricardo.? When the nuns came to the Rodriquez?s house one Saturday morning, the nuns informed the parents that it would be best if they spoke English. Torn with a new since of confusion, his home is turned upside down. His sacred family language, now banished from the home, transforms his web into isolation from his parents. "There was a new silence in the home.? Rodriguez is resentful that it is quiet at the dinner table, or that he can't communicate with his parents about his day as clearly as before. He is heartbroken when he overhears his mother and father speaking Spanish together but suddenly stop when they see Rodriguez. Thi...
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
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...
Rodriguez would, for example, use words such as “unsettling” “cloistered” and “alienation,” to describe the beginning of his assimilation in the public English speaking world. While he would use “calm” “enchantingly” “consoling” and “intimacy” to describe Spanish. As Rodriguez is being pushed to assimilate and English is heard everywhere including his home he becomes “increasingly angry” only from being obliged from his parents and trying to participate in class he begins to feel a sense of belonging in public. Rodriguez’s diction was evident and continuous in his essay which abetted the audience to understand that the author wanted the audience to be addressed formally and be known that he wants to be taken seriously and able to connect to his background and why he made his
As a journalist in 1920 for the New York Herald Tribune, Sophie Treadwell was assigned to go to Mexico to follow the situation after the Mexican Revolution. (Mexican Revolution 1910-1917) She covered many important aspects of the Mexican Revolution during this time, including relations between the U.S. and Mexico. She was even permitted an interview with Pancho Villa in August 1921 at his headquarters. This interview and other events that she experienced in Mexico are presumably what led her to write the play Gringo. In Gringo Treadwell tries to depict the stereotypical and prejudicial attitudes that Mexicans and Americans have about each other. There is a demonstration of how Mexican women are looked at in the Mexican culture and how they see themselves. The play also corresponds to similar events that occurred during the Mexican Revolution.
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
Elena Poniatowska escrita durante una epoca de cambio en Mexico. Antes de sus obras las mujeres mexicanas eran sometidos, docil, y pasivo. En la tiempo de sus obras las mujeres estaba tratando salir de los estereotipos de antes. Esta problema social tomo un afecto en Elena. Aunque ella no viene de un movimiento literatura directamente, ella escrita con el concepto de compremetido. En su narrative El Recado ella crea un mujer estereotipical que no puede controlar sus emociones. La titula es eso porque ella viene a ver su amante, pero el no esta, asi ella escribe las cosas que sentia. La perspectiva es de un personaje y ella nunca interacta con otros personajes. En facto la unica descripcion de un personaje otro de la protagonista es de su amante Martin. Habla de otros personajes, pero solamente de sus acciones. Porque ellas es la unica perspectiva que tenemos es sencillo a sentar compasion para una protagonista de quien nombre no aun sabemos. Ella da la descripcion de toda que vea, y mas importante todo que se sienta. Tambien tropos y figuras retoricas dan un tono significante al poema. Estos sentimientos de la portagonista y el tono emocional de la narrativa transporta una tema de una mujer estereotipical y debil quien quiere ser reconocido.
Throughout the story there is evidence that the main character is ashamed of himself and his background. He hides the government cheese, which tells us that he is in a low economic class. He also takes down embarrassing photographs of his family and himself, which is more indication that he isn’t proud of his family, background, or heritage. Yunior also tells us many things to do in order to be like other people, especially white people. He tells us that you need to run your fingers through your hair and to write directions for parents in your absolute best handwriting (Diaz 236). It is also evident that he is ashamed of his background when he states “You’ll wonder how she feels about Dominicans. Don’t ask.”(Diaz 237). Also, when he is telling the girl stories about the neighborhood, he says not to tell her that his mother knew immediately what t...
War ravaged the land and tore people apart emotionally and physically. One recurrence that came about during the war was the raping and “ruining” of women. To be ruined meant that a woman was raped and/or tortured so severely that she would no longer be capable of having sex. In a culture that values the fertility of its women, this lead to the breakdown of many communities. A perfect example of this breakdown would be in the case of Salima and Fortune. Salima was taken into the bush and raped for 5 months and when she returned home her husband, Fortune, turned her away. This violence committed against Salima caused her to be forced from her community, and it also forced her to take up work at Mama Nadi’s. Here she has to endure a change of identity in order to do the work required of her and to come to terms with her past. At the end of the play, Salima dies and states the haunting words; “You will not fight your battles on my body anymore”(94). These last words sum up just how intrusive the war has become in the lives of everyone in its path and also represents a clear shift in Salima as an individual. Instead of the woman who just wanted her husband back at the end of the play, we are left to contemplate a