Jeffrey fisher final paper professor peterson trujillo and the brief wondrous life of oscar wao the brief wondrous life of oscar wao is not a happy book. The author, junot diaz, does a great job fooling the reader into believing the story is about the de leon family, specifically oscar who is an over weight nerd trying to find the love of his life, but due to a family fuku or curse oscar is having a lot of trouble doing so. Instead, the story actually portrays the dark history of the dominican republic under the dictatorship of rafael trujillo. Upon reading the stories of oscar’s relatives the reader feels a powerful message of fear and oppression due to the actions of the trujillo regime. Even after the demise of trujillo, people were so accustomed to the lifestyle they had to live during his regime, that trujillo’s practices and dictator concepts still existed and is portrayed by oscars run in with the captain after his relationship with ybon. the brief wondrous life of oscar wao won the pulitzer prize for fiction in 2008.

The narrative relates the characters experience of being dominican in both places. It also relates the characters personal experience of the dictator trujillo’s regime, and explores the oppression and violence they experience as a result. Rafael leónidas trujillo molina was the dictator of the dominican republic from 1930 – 1961. During that time, trujillo maintained complete control of the military and he appointed his relatives and friends to important offices within the government, and political opponents during elections were secretly murdered. Trujillo garnered control over almost every aspect of dominican society and the economy at the time. While trujillo was able to bring the country to a point of economic and political stability, he was unable to help all people under his rule, and many remained in poverty.

Because of the country’s stability, other countries, including the united states, invested in the dominican republic and ignored the horrors of the regime. Trujillo promoted an anti haitian attitude, and in 1937, trujillo had haitian migrants massacred. When trujillo was assassinated in 1961, his heirs and followers tried to continue where trujillo left off, but were not able to maintain the same level of control. His discussions of trujillo are colloquial and full of contempt, and all with a tone of authority.

Yunior specifically focuses on trujillo’s rampant sexual desire, his egotistical personality, his orders to assassinate dissenters and opponents, and trujillo’s close relationship with fukú. Yunior 39 s character was drawn from the same character that narrates the stories in drown. The yunior of drown is a semi autobiographical character he parallels díaz’s immigration to the united states at a young age, and díaz drew on many other details from his own life to characterize yunior’s adolescence.

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In the brief wondrous life of oscar wao díaz gives us the same yunior, but more grown up. In an interview with tiphanie yanique, díaz says he used yunior as a narrator because oscar’s story needed an indirect approach. Even though yunior participates in action, the book does not deal with many of his issues because the story is not necessarily about him. The novel explores the rich history of the dominican republic and its diaspora by detailing the curse that has plagued oscar’s family for three generations. The book focuses on oscar’s quest for love and sex, and more deeply, his quest to find somewhere he feels at home. Lola and belicia are on a similar quest for a place where they feel comfortable, thus raising the larger question of where does an immigrant call home? through oscar’s story, the narrator delves into the history of the cabral/de leóns, exposing the many ways in which the curse of the new world has manifested itself so deeply that it travels with the family from the dominican republic to new jersey and back again. next section the brief wondrous life of oscar wao summary buy study guide

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Cite this page we are changing each and every day in our life as we grow older. At youth, most of us are happy because we don’t know anything and there isn’t much to worry about. The way we think, the things we want, and the life we are chasing after for has caused our desire to grow and point of view to change. Junot diaz’s novel, the brief wondrous life of oscar wao , described the life of oscar from youth to death in different point of view. In elementary school, like most kids in this age, oscar was a happy boy who always gets all the attention and is always trying to kiss the girls diaz 11.

But as we grow up and the world around us becomes more complicated, the innocent way of thinking that a child does, is gone. In adolescence, we demand for more, we seldom feel satisfied, and because of that, we are unhappy. Just like oscar, in many ways his situation and point of view have changed as he grows older. The changes in oscar’s life from happy childhood to nerdy adolescence, and ended as a lonely and worthless poor oscar is a taste of what many people around us go through. discuss the differences and similarities between being an immigrant, an outsider, and a hero. suggestion: in the novel, the characters often embody all three descriptions in one way or another belicia and yunior have immigrated to new jersey from the dominican republic, oscar and belicia are outsiders at school, and lola has the constant desire to be outside of wherever or whatever she is doing. The role of immigrant, outsider or hero are related because they are all roles that make the character different from the whole. The immigrant is literally outside of his/her country of origin, while at the same time he/she differs from his/her new environment.

The outsider, in a broad sense, is someone who does not fit into whatever whole to which they want to belong. The hero, on the other hand, often differs from the rest of the population because he/she has power and strength that others do not have. Therefore, while the immigrant and outsider often have negative connotations, the hero has positive connotations.