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Oscar Wao Analysis
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a heartwarming story of a, young obese nerd called Oscar Leon who is a Dominican immigrant living in New Jersey. Critical acclaim and awards are being heaped upon the book, and the novel deserves each one of them for its realistic portrayal of a ‘not so good looking’ boy’s craving for a romantic relationship. This is the first novel of Junot Díaz and it received the coveted Pulitzer Prize for the year 2008. The book deals with the protagonist’s quest for love and sexual pleasure and more importantly his quest for a place which he could identify as his home. This is the very theme this essay aims at analyzing. The following part of the essay will focus on how Diaz has handled the theme of identity crisis in his novel, and how through Oscar’s life story, the author has brought into fore the sociopolitical struggle of the vastly underrepresented Dominican immigrants of the New World.
“the surprise of being called Huáscar by everybody (that was his Dominican name, something else he'd forgotten), after he refused to succumb to that whisper that all long-term immigrants carry inside themselves, the whisper that says You do not belong [].” (Diaz, 276)
As the above quote describes Oscar neither belonged in America nor in his homeland. His character from the beginning always searches for his place in his society - as an American, and as a Dominican. He searches his place in his family and social circles. Sometimes among strangers, sometimes among his kin, but the search is always there. In the chapter titled ‘the Moronic Inferno’ the narrator, Yunior states that if Oscar was successful in hiding his nerdiness like him, he would have been more sociable. Thus, it was not the character of Oscar which was the problem but his inability to mask it was. Through this Diaz highlights how pretence is an ingredient of an immigrant life. Whatever character that would stand out as an odd one and would not confirm to the common societal norms, need to be suppressed for a person to be accepted by the society, especially if he is an immigrant.
Lola and Yunior, the other post modern immigrant characters found in the novel, have been portrayed to be handling the racial issues better than Oscar. They both too have the same upbringing, with their Dominican cultural roots pitted against the culture of the American society that surrounds them. The only one who among Diaz characters shows some kind of signs of being a community activist is Lola. But that too in some rare occurrences like when she says unapologetically that she saw the cancer of her mother as her escapade.
“If you didn’t grow up like I did then you don’t know, and if you don’t know then it’s probably better you don’t judge. “ (Diaz, 55)
Most of the times the characters just play their role, struggling through their life and problems, without explicitly voicing for the community they represent. But this aspect adds more authenticity to their identity crisis. Yunior’s characterization in many ways is the exact opposite of Oscar. He is a typical macho Dominican who has many girl friends, and seems to be a capable navigator of the American and Dominican cultures. He exhibits an attitude that he could not care less about the White people’s interests and literature. He knows how people perceive him, as a Dominican immigrant, and he unapologetically acts his part, and thus he gets a better recognition from the society than Oscar.
As Shansey opines luckily for Diaz his novel has come out at a time when in the first time in the history of America, the largest minority group of the country is an immigrant community – the Latino Americans. The huge popularity enjoyed by the novel is heavily influenced by this fact. As Shansey further adds, the process of assimilation poses a unique problem for the Latino community, because of the fact that their ancestral history and cultural heritage is easily accessible to them thanks to the technological innovations that serve as a constant reminder of their roots. In a seemingly pluralistic American society there are unseen walls that separate the Latino population and keep them in the back rooms of restaurants and hands them over the most menial jobs of the society. (Shansey, 2010) And Diaz through the life of his characters holds a mirror in front of the Latino immigrants to view the unique problems faced by them.
Reference
Diaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar. USA: Faber & Faber, 2008. Print
Shanesy, Kelsey. Anxiety de la historia: Understanding the Roots of Spanglish in the Texts of Junot Díaz. Macalester College English Department, April 18, 2010. Web. November 29,
