Oscar Wao is the Zafa to the Fuku

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Oscar Wao is without doubt the Zafa to the Fuku and let me tell you why. In the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, Oscar lives a life full of regret, sorrow and hopelessness. As Dominican male, getting girls is not just a fun thing to say around friends. It is part of the Dominican lifestyle. If you can “get girls,” you are respected and are living the so called Dominican way. For Oscar, he thought he had it all when he was young. He had the girls and the confidence. That is, until, he hit his teens...Oscar suffered a very tough breakup that would not just affect him for a week or so, but for about the next fifteen years of his life. Oscar turned to Science-Fiction, help him get through. He loved everything from Batman to Star Trek, and everything in between. For Oscar, life at home was tough. His mom was never helping his confidence, with her negative attitude and dull outlook on life. Oscar felt like he was already doomed to the Fuku at young age. His main desire in life was to love a girl, and that is what drove him.

In the beginning of the novel, the Fuku is introduced. It is believed to be a curse of doom, that was brought over by the Europeans when searching for the New World. The novel is set to be a story of a family cursed by the Fuku as told by the narrator. The only way to get rid of this whirlwind curse is to say the word “Zafa.” The novel soon transitions into the story of Oscar, and we all know what a mess his childhood was. Oscar tried hard in school and eventually made his way to Rutgers University. There, it was tough for him to make friends, let alone have a girlfriend, due to his unattractive lifestyle. By this point, Oscar was overweight, unattractive and had little motivation to do bet...

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... the box contained a letter from Oscar to Lola about a vacation he and Ybón were able to take. The vacation was a weekend spent at the beach from the knowledge of el capitán. For the first time Oscar had sex! He had finally felt the feeling of somebody actually loving him. Oscar wrote, “It was the little intimacies that he’d never in his whole life anticipated”(Díaz). The climax of Oscar’s life! Oscar ends his letter saying, “If only I’d known. The beauty! The beauty!”(Diaz). Oscar stopped the curse with this letter. Not only did Oscar give Lola reassurance that he didn’t die completely dreadful, but having the Fuku curse on you would never let you die with your only lifes goal accomplished. I believe this quote from Díaz exemplifies Oscars story in way which defines Oscar as the Zafa. “Success, after all, loves a witness, but failure can't exist without one”(Diaz.)

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