The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao: A Summary

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Recommended: Diaspora and cultural identity

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz tells the story of a family of Dominican immigrants, focusing primarily on the life of Oscar de León, a descendant of the diaspora that directly experienced the horrors of the Trujillo regime of the mid 20th century. The de Leon family can’t seem to escape the fukú, the seemingly eternal curse that has afflicted the new world for centuries. In order to tell Oscar’s story, Diaz uses the postmodern narrative to weave a story that is not only emotionally potent, but most importantly as a tool to depict the unique, nuanced perspectives of a generation of youths whose identities are both divergent from their parent culture, while simultaneously deeply rooted in its ideals and inescapable history.

Post-modern narratives are those that challenge the conventions of traditional storytelling as a way of representing reality. Diaz utilizes the post-modern narrative mainly through the style of his narration. Through the lens of Yunior, he presents a narration that is not necessarily trustworthy and often openly aware of its lack of omniscience. Also, his narrative doesn’t unfold in a linear fashion. Diaz tells the story of Oscar, and intermittently takes the time to flesh out the lives of Lola, Belicia, and Abelard, with which the details of their lives are all intertwined.

One of the largest implications of the horrors of the Trujillo regime is the diaspora that resulted after his fall. The generation that includes Oscar, Lola, and Yunior is the first to be raised as a part of the diasporic communities in North America, particularly in Paterson, New Jersey. Due to their parents, who are natives of the Dominican Republic, the children are still entrenched in their own Dominican cultu...

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...ar Wao." Between Here and There: Aspects of the Diasporic Experience in the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .

Ashcroft, Bill, and Gareth Griffiths. Post-colonial studies the key concepts. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.

Hall, Stuart. "Cultural Identity and Diaspora." (First published in the journal Framework (vol. 36) . N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .

Hanna, Monica. ""Reassembling the Fragments": Battling Histiographies, Caribbean Discourse, and Nerd Genres in Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ." Callalo 33.2 (2010): 498-520. Print.

Klages, Mary . "Postmodernism." Untitled Document. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. .

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