Introduction
In his novel, ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’, author Junot Diaz portrays two of the main characters differently. To achieve this, he employs the approach of love and the ability to get it to narrate a fascinating set of events. Through a series of events and exercises, Diaz succeeds in explaining how self-perception (appreciation) and self-esteem play a significant role in defining what one becomes. There is no doubt, whatsoever, that Yunior is Oscar’s foil. In every aspect, Yunior is everything Oscar is not, the inverse holding true. Through their love lives, the two are portrayed as being polar opposites. For Yunior, he can get as many girls as he wants. Yet to him, the aspect of fidelity and true love is a mere theory. The same does not apply to Oscar, who holds love in high regard above everything, yet finds it difficult to have a girlfriend. It would be interesting to analyze how the two differ.
How Oscar’s background shapes his miseries
Partly, the problems and challenges that Oscar faces can be traced back to his origin. Born in The Dominican Republic, Oscar is hit by the ‘fuku’ curse. This curse of doom was introduced to The Republic by Christopher Columbus, and its consequences cannot go unnoticed. As a matter of fact, the curse affects almost all Dominican families, as its mode of spread is strange. The narrator highlights that by virtue of one knowing an individual whose life was changed, the curse descends (Boyden et al., 12). To this, it becomes virtually impossible that a member of any Dominican family will survive the curse. This contradicts the general expectations; that Dominican boys ought to be playboys. Indeed, Oscar was once a playboy as expected, but things changed drastically. A keen analysis of the novel shows that most of the other boys who enjoyed the easiness of wooing girlfriends were not affiliated to the Dominican Republic in any way. Whether this is the reason for his challenges or not is subject to debate.
It would be wrong to think that Oscar’s challenges are in-born. The expectations are that his inability to win over girls stems back to his childhood. However, this is not the case. Stereotypically, Dominican men are expected to be free spirits and playboys. Oscar was, at some point. At the age of seven, he has two girlfriends: Olga Polanco and Marzita Chacon (Boyden et al., 21). It would be easy to argue that such relationships at this age were quite innocent, but this underlines the point that like other Dominican men, Oscar was a playboy. When Marzita gives him an ultimatum, Oscar chooses to do away with Olga. This is down to various reasons; Marzita dresses better and she is prettier. Such a move, however, ends tragically as Marzita dumps him in favor of another man. This is where the life of Oscar takes a dramatic turn. Life and love, to him, become different ever after.
Loss of Shape and Adolescence
This marks Oscar’s troubles. During his adolescence stage, he gains weight and grows really huge and scary. Despite the fact that Marzita (his ex-girlfriend) breaks from her affair, she is not ready to accept Oscar back, mainly due to his shape. Unsurprisingly, his new-look hinders him from doing many things, making him the nerdy type. Not only does he look funny, he cannot take part in any sport (Yi, 311). In addition, he has no style and cannot even dance. His addiction to science addiction made him different from other students. The author says about Oscar: ‘’Dude wore his nerdiness like a Jedi wore his light Saber or a Lensman her lens. Couldn’t have passed for Normal if he’d wanted to” (Di, 45). Such a gesture only shows the root of his inability to win over ladies. His appreciation for sci-fiction makes him a clear target to other students in school, including the girls he was after (Di, 59).
Oscar’s frustrations can best be summed up by his experiences in his senior high school years. At some point, Miggs and Al (his best friends) land girlfriends. Oscar does not succeed in his moves. The two friends are clearly ashamed of asking their girlfriends to set up Oscar to one of their friends (clearly because of his bad appearance). In a move to change his fortunes, he takes a number of measures: shaving off the moustache, cutting the Puerto Rican fro and eventually losing the glasses. This does not help either. When Miggs and Al move on, Oscar remains lonely. His only consolation is that he was smart. As the author narrates that, ‘He’d finally showed some backbone, hence some pride’(Yi 312). This is a clear indication of a person trying to justify their failures and inability to get along well with others.
The Closest Oscar came to a girl
At SAT prep, Oscar meets a girl who was really good-looking. Ana Obregon, as Oscar finds out later, seems complicated. This does not make him give up, he is determined to win over her. The first few months seem perfect, everything goes as planned. The two become really close, much to Yunior’s surprise (he had tried wooing Ana to no avail). Because of his desperate nature, Oscar quickly falls for her. As the author argues, ‘Ana Obregon, unlike every other girl in his secret cosmology, he actually fell for as they were getting to know each other’ (Yi, 311). When one night Oscar takes her to the movies, Lola inquires whether the two had sex. To her disappointment, Oscar intimates that the date was not fruitful: ‘When Oscar returned to the house, his sister said, did you fuck her?’ (Casielles-Suárez 475). When Manny (Ana’s boyfriend) comes back from prison, Oscar is mad and wants to kill him. Later, he confesses his love to Ana, who turns him down. Oscar would later attempt suicide as a result of the frustrations he was going through.
Yunior
Yunior is the opposite of Oscar. To him, getting as many women as he wants is never a problem; the only problem is that he doesn’t appreciate fidelity and true love. Yunior is a nutty boy. He seems to get love and win over ladies at the slightest opportunity possible; case in point being how he won over Lola (Oscar’s sister). When Yunior is thoroughly beaten by a crowd of tough boys, none of his friends comes to his rescue. None of the friends visits him in the hospital either. Surprisingly, only Lola visits him at the hospital. At this point, Lola seems to be his savior, she goes on to bathe him. As time goes by, Yunior gets to appreciate Lola more and more. This is despite the fact that Lola was seeing someone else (Casielles-Suárez 470). Despite this, Yunior succeeds to win over her love before she flies to Spain. In a move to please Lola, Yunior moves in to share a room with Oscar in order to guide him on how to handle issues and to comfort him. At some point, Yunior is determined to change Oscar’s perception and is determined to help him get laid. This, however, does not work.
Analysis
There is no doubt at all that Yunior and Oscar portray different and opposite people, both in character and physicality. On one hand, Oscar is seen as a nerd, awkward and fat individual, a clear antithesis of what Yunior is. Yunior, on the other hand embodies the identity of a school player. These differences in appearance and character shape their approach and self-esteem, with Yunior winning over ladies easily as compared to Oscar, who struggles a lot.
In addition to the above, the values of the two seem to be opposite. First, Yunior habitually cheats on women and rarely appreciates them. This sees him seduce a number of girls, have sex with them and dump them. To him, fidelity and true love play a small role. He does not appreciate a number of beautiful women such as Lola. This, maybe, is as a reason of his easiness to win such women. The same cannot be said about Oscar, who is not only faithful, but appreciates beauty even in girls that can be said to be average (such as the middle-aged prostitute). To some extent, this can be attributed to his inability to win over ladies. The fact that the two see sex differently also portrays their differences. To Yunior, sex is a form of physical pleasure, hence the reason he cheats. Oscar does not share this approach. For instance, despite his urge to have his virginity taken away, Oscar is not ready to visit brothels. This explains his respect to women and fidelity.
Conclusion
The above examples and analysis clearly portray the two characters as being polar opposites. Through a number of themes, Junot Diaz is able to perfectly bring the two out differently. Their origins, way of life, values and approach to the opposite gender exhibit differences. However, it would be wrong not to mention that despite such deep differences, they become very important to each other. That Oscar is ready to open up and discuss his challenges with Yunior shows the extent of their friendship and how well they suited each other. All in all, the two are very different.
Works Cited
Boyden, Michael, and Patrick Goethals. "Translating the Watcher’s Voice: Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao into Spanish." Meta 56.1 (2011): 20. Print.
Casielles-Suárez, Eugenia. "Radical Code-switching in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 90.4 (2013): 475-487. Print.
Di Iorio, Lyn. "Laughing through a Broken Mouth in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao."Junot Díaz and the Decolonial Imagination (n.d.): 69-87. Print.
Yi, Kris. "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society14.3 (2009): 311-312. Print.
