The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Díaz tells the poignant story of Oscar de León, a Dominican American boy who struggles with his identity, love, and the weight of a familial curse known as fukú. Central to the narrative is Oscar's romantic obsession and his journey through the pains of adolescence, including his experiences with unrequited love and social isolation. The novel also weaves in the lives of Oscar's family, particularly his mother, Beli, and sister, Lola, who each confront their own trials under the shadow of the fukú, which symbolizes the broader historical and social struggles faced by Dominicans.
Set against the backdrop of the Dominican Republic's tumultuous history, including the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, the characters navigate themes of love, violence, and resilience. The narrative oscillates between past and present, giving readers insight into the generational trauma and the quest for a sense of belonging. Ultimately, Oscar's tragic fate serves as a powerful commentary on the intersections of identity, culture, and the longing for connection, making the novel a rich exploration of the Dominican American experience and the complexities of love and loss.
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
- Born: December 31, 1968
- Birthplace: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
First published: 2007
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Magical realism
Time of plot: 1944 through the early 2000s
Locale: Dominican Republic; New Jersey
Principal Characters
Oscar Wao,a Dominican American boy fixated on love
Lola, his sister
Yunior de las Casas, his college roommate
The Story
A horrible curse called fukú lies over the Western world, first brought by Christopher Columbus. The solution to fukú is a counterspell, zafa.
Seven-year-old Dominican American boy Oscar de León dates two girls at the same time, Maritza and Olga. Maritza tells Oscar that he must choose between the two girls, and he chooses her because she is prettier. Not soon after, however, Maritza breaks up with him.
By high school, Oscar has gained a lot of weight and feels unpopular, spending his time with science fiction and pornography and fantasizing about falling in love. His friends even abandon him when they get girlfriends. He meets a girl, Ana, with whom he falls in love, but she has an abusive boyfriend. Oscar steals a gun and almost shoots the boyfriend, but instead he confesses his love to Ana, who turns him down. Comforted by his sister Lola, he finishes high school and goes to college at Rutgers University.
Lola fights with her mother, Beli, often. One day, the mother puts Lola’s hands on her breast, revealing that she has a cancerous lump. Lola shaves her head and runs away, but Beli manages to trick her into meeting up and sends Lola to the Dominican Republic to live with her grandmother.
In 1955, Beli lives with her aunt, La Inca, in Bani, a city in the Dominican Republic, although she wishes to travel the world. Her family was killed by dictator Rafael Trujillo. She is unpopular in school because of her dark skin and poor background, and she has a crush on Jack, a handsome white boy. When she grows large breasts, she finally wins Jack’s affection. However, after she has sex with him in a school closet, she is expelled and takes a job at Peking Palace, a Chinese restaurant. She and Jack break up, and Beli ends up dating a man known as the Gangster. The Gangster is married to La Fea, one of Trujillo’s ugly sisters, and when Beli becomes pregnant with his child, La Fea sends policemen to beat her in a cane field until the fetus dies. A golden mongoose appears to Beli, saving her life. The same night, Trujillo is assassinated, and soon after Beli escapes to the United States.
In the 1980s, a man named Yunior is a sophomore at Rutgers. One day, he is badly beaten by some young men, and the only person who visits him in the hospital is Lola. When Oscar gets horribly depressed over a girl, Yunior offers to live with him. Yunior soon convinces Oscar to exercise. However, when a girl Oscar loves has sex with another man, Oscar becomes violent and then falls into depression again.
Yunior is so frustrated by Oscar that he decides to live alone the next year, and Oscar gets horribly drunk and attempts suicide. He jumps off a bridge but sees a golden mongoose immediately before and manages to survive the fall. When Yunior visits him, Oscar claims that the fukú made him suicidal. After that, Yunior confesses his love to Lola, and they begin dating.
Before all this, when Lola is in Santa Domingo after the fight with her mother, she decides she does not want to return to the United States. She starts sleeping with older men and skipping school to rebel. However, Lola does return, and her mother begins to show her some kindness.
In 1944, Beli’s own parents also struggle to find happiness. Trujillo loves young women, and when he hears that the parents have an attractive daughter, he insists that they be introduced. The father, Abelard, tries to hide his daughter from the dictator and refuses this request. As a result, he is imprisoned and tortured. Beli’s mother gives birth to Beli and two months later is suspiciously hit by a truck and killed, and soon after her older daughters are killed as well. Beli is then made a child slave and treated horribly until La Inca saves her. All of this misfortune is blamed on fukú.
In the 1980s, Oscar graduates college and begins substitute teaching, although he is miserable. He decides to go to the Dominican Republic with his mother, where he finally feels happy and falls in love with a sex worker named Ybon. She has a violent boyfriend in the police force, the capitán. When the capitán sees Ybon kissing Oscar (the first kiss of Oscar’s life), two other policemen take Oscar to the cane field and beat him severely. When Oscar is passed out, he dreams of the mongoose, and when he awakes he flies back to the United States. Not soon after, however, his love for Ybon compels him to return to the Dominican Republic.
Knowing that Oscar is risking his life, Ybon tries to ignore him, and Yunior and Oscar’s mother both fly to the Dominican Republican to try to convince him to return home. He refuses, and the capitán eventually finds him. When the policemen take him back to the cane fields, he makes a brief speech about the importance of love. They then kill him.
After Oscar’s death, Yunior and Lola break up and marry other people, although they remain in contact. Years later Yunior decides to write a book about Oscar.
Bibliography
Miller, T. S. "Preternatural Narration and the Lens of Genre Fiction in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." Science Fiction Studies 38.1 (2011): 92–114. Literary Reference Center. Web. 22 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=58693153&site=lrc-live>.
Sáez, Elena Machado. "Dictating Desire, Dictating Diaspora: Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as Foundational Romance." Contemporary Literature 52.3 (2011): 522–55. Literary Reference Center. Web. 22 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=70118670&site=lrc-live>.
Shuman, R. Baird. "Junot Díaz." Guide to Literary Masters & Their Works (2007): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 22 May 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=103331LM90149790309105&site=lrc-live>.
Weese, Katherine. "Tú No Eres Nada de Dominicano": Unnatural Narration and De-Naturalizing Gender Constructs in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." Journal of Men's Studies 22.2 (2014): 89–104. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 May 2014.