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The brief wonderous life of oscar wao summary
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The brief wonderous life of oscar wao summary
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From the seemingly shallow, stereotypical woes of virginal Oscar Wao caught in an explicit and brutally violent society, to the harrowing journey of Yakov Bok that pushes him into a misplaced slot of fixing the falling state of Tsarist Russia, to Equality 7-2521: tall, beautiful, and the opposite of conformity and equality; one would say that they all seem to differentiate substantially not in only in journey, but in personality. However, all have one thing in common… they all encompass traits of the archetypal Emersonian genius; they individually and collectively, fulfill the following Emersonian thought, in one way or another,”To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that …show more content…
His love of women persists over the course of the novel, never wanes, and in fact, only seems to grow stronger with each woman he falls in love with. In the beginning, Oscar has a desperate need to belong. This is something that the reader realizes will never happen simply because Oscar is different, and he cannot help it. In short, he appears to be the antithesis of the Emersonian genius because the overwhelming desire to belong seems to flood Oscar’s psyche to the point where he becomes suicidal because the isolation is too much to bear. However, this quickly changes once Oscar falls in love with the alienated Yobon, a weathered and aging prostitute. In spite of being threatened and beaten, Oscar does not give up and is determined to woo Yanet. It almost seems outrageously comical and sadistic that the one woman Oscar would fall in love with would mark the beginning of his gory end that he willingly accepts. In a poignant statement made by John Izaguirre that loosely paraphrases Emerson’s ideology, “Championing one of the pervasive tenets of the American dream, Emerson claims that cultivating and realizing one’s genius comes from seeking individual freedom and truth.” (22). The reason why this quote resonates so well with Oscar’s individual journey is that it parallels the journey of another …show more content…
These events are what propel Equality 7-2521’s journey towards the direction of self-fulfillment and individual enlightenment. Though, in some aspects, Equality 7-2521 and The Golden One, appear to be shallow and encumbered by the prospect of beauty, egoistic awakening, and tendencies that border on the wee edge of narcissism. One cannot linger too long on the negatives, for when these new aspects are rediscovered, it is the start of Equality 7-2521 and The Golden One’s self-awakening and the beginning of their journey to self-fulfillment. The Golden One’s gaze in the mirror and Equality 7-2521’s gaze into the pond reflect each other’s journey. When they see themselves for the first time, they hold an almost child-like reverence that a baby typically has when they first go through the same experience. The archetypal Emersonian genius is vastly different from the antithetical Emersonian genius, and a good model to display this is Pauline, from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Though the overall tone of The Bluest Eye is different from Anthem, because it mainly explores the destructive norms of white beauty that significantly damages most girls in Morrison’s fictional society, the one underlying theme that both books have is alienation and another concept they
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.
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.
It is this dysfunctional world that Equality 7-2521 is born into. The novel begins with Equality 7-2521 alone in a dark tunnel transcribing his story. He begins with a declaration that “It is a sin to write this… [because] men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so” (Rand, 17). Equality 7-2521 writes that he was born with a curse: He is different than the other men in his society. He laments that “the learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be born with a head too quick” (Rand, 21). From the youngest age children were taught that ability is a vice, not a virtue. They were to be embarrassed of their superiority because “it is not good to be different from our brothers” (Rand, 21). Equality 7-2521 writes that he tried to stifle this fault but was unable to do so.
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
In examining the two distinct characters of Nel (Wright) Greene and Sula Peace from Toni Morrison's Sula, a unique individual soul emerges from the two women. This soul takes into account good, bad, and gray area qualities. They gray area qualities are needed because, while Nel exhibits more of the stereotypical "good" qualities than Sula, the stereotypes of good and bad don't fit the definition completely. Nel and Sula combined create a type of ying and yang soul, each half including some of the other half. While at times the two women are polar opposites of one another in point of view, they arrive at their opinions with the help of the other. The two characters need each other in order to exist to the extent that they become "two throats and one eye" (Morrison 2167). A physical example of how connected the two girls are is seen when they line up head to head forming a straight, continuous, and complete line (2124).
Main characters often struggle with finding their self-worth, but the distinction between self-worth and selfishness may often be unclear. The protagonists of both Anthem, by Ayn Rand, and Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse, fluctuate between being self-aware and being selfish. If Equality is an honest narrator, then to describe him as selfish would be an incorrect understanding, because the laws in place by Equality 7-2521’s community strips every one of their individuality and, therefore, their humanity; however, to describe Siddhartha as selfish is a more accurate understanding, because Siddhartha never lost his humanity and only strives for his own desires.
The novel ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’, by Junot Diaz gives a very entertaining insight towards many social dynamics that are relevant to Dominican culture, and it fits very well within the scope of the course; and, although it is a work of fiction, this novel is set in New Jersey, and deals specifically with the Dominican Republic experience under the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. From what I’ve learned after reading the first half of this book, there is certainly a lot that can be discussed. Thankfully the book’s versatile portrayal of vivid topics that are seldom discussed shine light upon these many issues that face such an overlooked culture, especially for the American audience.
Throughout his life Equality faces many difficult challenges in order to find his individualism especially since he lived in a society where having even the slightest individual thought was a crime. However, he manages to use his talent of curiosity to reach his goals and finds his identity as an individual when he reaches the forest where the secrets to the unmentionable times were hidden away. This is where his journey ends and his life starts with free will by first renaming himself and his
Additionally, Emerson and Thoreau both warn the reader of the dangers when individuality is marginalized. Emerson views society as a “conspiracy against the manhood of every one of...
Equality discovers electricity, one day, and through this he recognizes the importance of intelligence, determination, and most of all, Equality learns that being different is not a transgression, but an essential part of life. Equality learns that he is the only one that can say if something is beautiful, if something is good, if something is bad, if something is ugly, and no one else can form his opinion for him, because he is an individual (94).
Beauty is something that a lot of people in life strive for , because everyone has fitted in their mind what exactly beauty is. People know that it can help you out in life. But what most people don’t know is that, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Meaning that beauty should not be characterized by what people are told it is, beauty is different for everyone, what is beautiful for you may be ugly to someone else. The characters in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye are confronted with the ideal of beauty and strive for it whether they know it or not. The two characters that I think were followed the ideal of beauty in Toni Morrison’s story are Pauline and Pecola.
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
Although both novels recognize domestic violence to be culturally embedded, Kindred takes a stronger position against structural misogyny because in The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the tone suggests a more passive viewpoint towards domestic violence.
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.
In the novel Pecola questions her perception of beauty and the ideal family. She often compares her life with the life of the primer Dick and Jane. Throughout the novel Pecola tries to counter act the tyranny in her life by praying for blue eyes hoping that with this feature her life would change for the better and she would be beautiful. Within the novel the author uses the theory of Marxism. Created by Karl Marx in the 19th century, Marxism is the central analysis of the complex development of relationships between two social classes (Ollman). In the novel “The Bluest Eye” Toni Morrison questions the essence of true beauty and its influence on societal standards threw the theory of