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If you’re not careful or if you do something bad the Fukú curse will get you. That is one of the major themes in Junot Diaz is novel, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”. The book title suggests that this is a story about man named Oscar Wao, but really the book is about three generations of Oscar’s family, and struggles’ and heartbreak each generation suffers at the hands of the Fukú curse. Oscar’s family originates from the Caribbean nation of Dominican Republic. In the book, Diaz weaves his fictional story with real life people and historic events. A major real person mention though out the book is the former president of Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo. In the story Diaz, describes how each generations of Oscar’s family have been …show more content…
Beli’s curse is she falls in love with the wrong men, first it’s a boy from school and they get caught having sex and Beli is labeled as a slut and drops out of school. The second man Beli falls for is an older married man named Dionisio and as Fukú luck would have it, he’s also the brother in law of Trujillo. Because of Beli relationship, she becomes pregnant and when Dionisio wife learns of this, she has Trujillo men find Beli and beat her so badly that she is left for dead in cane field. Beli survives but her baby doesn’t, which leaves her bitter and just plain mean. The third and fourth victims of the Fukú, are of course Oscar and his sister Lola. Her curse begins when she is raped when she was in the fourth grade, Lola curse extends to her family and has a contentious relationship with her mother, Beli. Oscar’s curse, is that no girl will go out with him, his classmates make fun of him for being a nerd. Oscar falls in love with this girl named, Ybon. She unfortunately for Oscar has a very jealous boyfriend who is also the captain of police. The captain has his henchmen find Oscar and eventually kill him, which is the worse form of the Fukú you can get. This family has some really luck, but is it bad luck or bad Fukú, or is it just bad
Without the force of love, conflict would cease to exist in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Love specifically seems to be the foundation for misfortune to occur because of how obsessed characters become with reaching for what they cannot have. Unfortunately, love or even lust at times seems to drive the plot and lead to action, most of which are disastrous. It all began with Abelard when he tried to save his daughter Jacquelyn from the wrath of Trujillo and ended up dying anyway. The theme of calamity continues nearly fifteen years later when Belicia throws away family and friends over a man. The man she loved, The Gangster, turned out to be married into the almighty Trujillo family and well, that doesn’t end so well for Beli since she
Similar themes are present in “Daddy’s Weirdest” by Rebecca Barry and “Guillotine” by Jon Bellion, but the authors used different strategies to reveal those messages.
The movie “Walkout” is about young Chicano/a activists who demand educational equality. In 1968, students living in East L.A were treated unequally. Since, most of these students were Chicanos they were given few resources. One example was presented when Paula visited the Palisades library. In East Los Angeles, bathrooms were close during lunch breaks and students were forced to janitorial labor as forms of punishment. Throughout, the movie some themes that arose were regarding identity (What is a Chicano?), walkouts as forms of protest for equality, and gender expectations. After Salvador Castro read the poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez, the Chicano/a activist’s had a hard time understanding who they were. Many Chicano/a’s identified
Love and Violence The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz covers the issue of Love and Violence thoroughly throughout the book, and shows how anger and love influence the impulsive and reckless decisions the characters make. Searching for Zion, by Emily Raboteau on the other hand, shows that love comes in different forms and may be easily misunderstood. Abelard, Belicia, Lola, and Emily show love can be a devastating force if not handled carefully and, can be very dangerous. As others commonly have, Oscar confuses passion or lust with love, which in many ways can be critical when conveyed in violence.
Trujillo use of violence and challenge of political authority demonstrated that from the very beginning he created an insurgency regime within his military ranks that oppressed his country. Which 30 years later, his own military generals and freedom fighters will be the very ones to end his reign. To this very day, some of the Dominican people whether living in the United States or Dominican Republic are hesitate to talk about it, but are glad that it is in the past and
Love is a powerful force of nature. It is a feeling of passionate and deep affection. It is patient, kind, and honest. It has the ability to consume someone’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It serves as the foundation for numerous songs, poems, shows, and novels. However, the attributes of love in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are depicted as a curse preying on the insecurities of relationships and a blessing embodying its beauty. Fukú, a curse, strikes the Dominican Republic and its inhabitants through violent acts of revenge, rage, and jealousy. The source of fukú’s power, nonetheless, is derived from the infamous dictator of the Dominican Republic, Trujillo. The dictator not only presided over all political, economic, and social
Throughout centuries man has witnessed some of this worlds greatest tragedies; the destruction caused by the bubonic plague, the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the Rwandan Genocide. However, none of these can compare to the devastation caused by world dictators. The lives taken at the hands of these tyrannical rulers is unbelievably distressing, and ex-Dominican president, Rafael Trujillo is no exception. Throughout his thirty year reign over the Dominican Republic he is thought to be responsible for the lives of over 50,000 innocent people, none of these devastating losses, however, compare to the tragedy of the Mirabal sisters; three honourable women who did nothing but have a voice. The level of political misconduct and unjustified action was unbelievable and lead the sisters to drastic measures, Patria saying "We cannot allow our children to grow up in this corrupt and tyrannical regime, we have to fight against it, and I am willing to give up everything, including my life if necessary.". In their efforts to try and overthrow the totalitarian they found themselves trapped in a situation where the lives of them and their families were constantly at risk, and in the end it was through their tragical ...
In the short story Big Boy by Jesse Hill Ford, Hake Morris allows his son, Big Boy, to play football in Somerton because he believes it will give him something to be proud of, when it in fact does the exact opposite.
It is influential to have strong people who want to fight for their rights. It is often easy to focus on oppression than it is to change it. It takes courage to be able to go against the rules of law. In both “In The Time Of The Butterflies” and “The Censors” , Juan and the Mariposas not only reveal their courage, but also develop significant symbols to the roles of each one of them during their time overcoming oppression. The Mirabal’s behavior towards their determination to fight for freedom, symbolizes the hope for freedom. The Dominicans were blessed to have four courageous women who went against the law in order to better their country for all. In the other hand, Juan role to overcome oppression resulted in his death and death to many innocent people. His behavior symbolize distrust, one cannot trust anyone, not even yourself. He was so caught up with his job, doing what he believed was right, he ended up censoring
Throughout the novel, we can see the power of fuku that Trujillo has been descend on Cabral’s family. The grand result of
Rafael Trujillo was the infamous dictator of the Dominican Republic. He was often feared by some and loved by others. Trujillo often attracted followers by utilizing his sexual intrigue. He would take advantage of woman to boost his political power and to put his subjugates on a higher pedestal . Trujillo also changed the “common Dominican household”, with this being he aided in changing the gender relations between males and females. Trujillo also utilized the infamous trait that various men from Latin America take pride, Machismo. With this being said Trujillo utilized gender relation, sexual intrigue and machismo to his favor to get the citizens to jump on his bandwagon causing them to legitimately agree with his regime.
In reference to Gollnick and Chinn, “Adolescence, approximation ages 13 through 18, is perhaps one of the most challenging times in the life of an individual and the family” (p. 244). Dazed and Confused demonstrates how confused adolescences might behave. In the movie, the plot takes place on the last day of school. Seniors have graduated from their “childlike” days into what they feel is adulthood. They celebrate by taking part in drinking, sex, and drugs. Freshman are trying to find their place in high school, so they take part in the annual initiation ritual, allowing themselves to be humiliated in front of their peers to be accepted. I thought the film did a good job enlightening us on how complex adolescence behavior can be. One of the characters that stand out to me is Pink Floyd. He is the star quarterback and has everything going for him, but he feels like his
After reading the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, we recognized different aspects of the story such as the overall theme, plot, love theme, and conclusion which tied the entire story together. We can tie these aspect together with the lyrics we hear in the music we listen today. Music is a way for artists to express emotions and/or events that occur in people’s life. For example a song can serve as a love story or a message that shows one’s emotion. Songs and novels relate because of the similar message that both try to imply. The following songs are songs that I believe best relate to the different areas of the story Anthem.
In the novel there is a curse called the fuku. The people of the Dominican Republic believe ...
The novel “The Outsiders,” by S.E. Hinton can be defined as an emotional, heart breaking, and lesson teaching story. Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade were the youngest in their gang of Greasers. They were all wild boys, who liked looking “tuff” and being known as criminals. Ponyboy and Johnny were not as intimidating as the other greasers, Two-Bit Mathews, Dallas Winston, Darrel Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, and Steve Randle. One night, Ponyboy and Johnny were both out on the street. Out of nowhere some drunken Socs began to chase and beat up the boys. One of the Socs was drowning Ponyboy in a fountain. Johnny saw the danger Ponyboy was in and pulled out his switchblade. He stabbed Bob Sheldon and killed him. The boys did not know what to do, so they ran away to Windrixville, and lived in an abandoned church. They cut their hair and Ponyboy bleached his. Eventually the boys came to their senses and planned to turn themselves in. Dallas came to pick the boys up, but first they went to Dairy Queen to eat. When they drove back to the church they noticed that the church was on fire. Ponyboy and Johnny forced themselves into the church to save the children stuck inside. Ponyboy ended up with a minor concoction and some small burns on his back. While Johnny was not as lucky, an extremely large, heavy, and blazing hot piece of wood fell on him. Both boys were sent to the hospital. Johnny remained in the hospital much longer than Ponyboy. Johnny felt weaker and weaker every day and was getting worse by the minute. After a long and depressing journey, Johnny passed away. Therefore, their group of Greasers would now be presented with how loss and grief could drive people into making illogical decisions.