The Oscar also Rises

During class, it once occurred to me that Oscar behaved somewhat like Jake from Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. After giving it some more thought, I found that the two have a great deal in common. In general, throughout each book, I found there to be overhanging feelings of despair. With Oscar, the feeling was probably the fatalistic concept of Fuku. For Jake, sorrow was fostered by the acceptance of problems and the unsettling characteristics of city life. In both novels, we can observe a descending morale near the end. It is almost as if the authors wants to soothe the readers into their depressing conclusions. 

Personally, I found the ending of Junot Diaz's book to be somewhat depressing. Although the conclusion of the work is made rather clear by the title of the work, there are certainly better ways in which Oscar could have lived. I think that the word “Wondrous” is used strangely. A childhood filled with such abuse and maltreatment can hardly be called wonderful.

It is also notable that the direct feelings of both Oscar and Jake is withheld from the reader: we are only given outside perspectives and accounts of events. I think both Hemingway and Diaz are intending to achieve a certain connection with the main characters through this disconnect. When we are not given the deep personal reflections of the main character, we are observing the story as if it would happen in real life. This realistic approach to literature is what engages the reader because of the overhanging mystery (the question “what are the true motivations and feelings of this character?”).