Love & Fate

It's been interesting to me throughout the process of this novel how much love affects every character involved in very different ways. Of course this novel addresses issues with self esteem and cultural identity, but every person seemed to experience love differently--Oscar's situations of love being the most heart-breaking to me. He spends his life constantly burying himself in Science Fiction in an effort to escape any social situations...which is fine for a while until his life becomes consumed in a world of escape. He seemed to shut himself off after being rejected instead of seeing it as a learning opportunity, a chance to learn something about himself and about the opposite sex. If everyone instantly shut down after being rejected once, then love would never exist. Learning how to love and to be functional in social situations is an evolving process that takes time and patience, something Oscar didn't really grasp. I guess a lot of it stems from his childhood, how he was raised, and what kind of environment he was in.

Also, I keep thinking to myself that the title of this novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is almost visciously sarcastic. Oscar "Wao" was a nickname, not all that endearing, he was given to mock his love of writing and to mock his hobbies. Wondrous is definitely not the word I would have chosen to use to describe this man's life, I mean, he died a horrible death! Oscar also seems to have spent his whole life having a tremendous amount of love waiting to give to someone, that didn't really come until the end; granted, Oscar should carry some of that blame though because he could have chosen to change different aspects of his personality that he didn't like. When he finally stood up for himself and became more courageous, he was killed. That doesn't sound like a very wondrous life to me.