Hatin on Abelard

Dr. Hanrahan asked us about why we hate Beli so much and why there is so little for Abelard. This got me thinking and while Abelard is generally likeable, I have decided to hold him in contempt.

Abelard, as we know, is a genial man. He has friends, he's intellectual, he's well off, and he is Dominican. He has a mistress in whom he confides and (apparently) loves. We keep saying that with each evidence of the fuku the person brought it on themselves, Beli with messing around with a married man, Oscar with returning to the DR, Abelard had escaped out notice. It seems like he just had the bad luck to have Trujillo's eye fall on his daughter, but he did bring it on himself. He dithered. He wasted his time when he could have acted boldly and saved both himself and his family from the fuku that befell them. In short, he Hamlet-ed in a grand way. He did it twice; once initially when Trujillo notices the absence of his wife and daughter and a second time when he knows the doom is coming. Diaz says "For the next three months, Abelard waited for the End." (223) Instead of acting, even when he knows the doom is coming, he simply waits. It's not for lack of options, his mistress suggests they flee to Cuba, they could have left for the States, gone back to Mexico, any number of things. He worried about it before his first real contact with Trujillo and he simply waited for the end after.

Rather contemptible, don't you think?

Lola and Lydia

It seems that even after two hundred years and even in two very different cultures, one act is still unacceptable: a young girl running off with a man of questionable reputation. I’ve been thinking about Pride and Prejudice a lot because of my critical essay, and I realized that the situation surrounding Lydia’s running off with Wickham bears some resemblance to the circumstances surrounding Lola’s running away to be with Aldo.

Lola’s and Lydia’s trips both have to do with their mothers. Lola runs away to Wildwood get away from – and possibly spite – Belí: “All my life I’d been swearing that one day I would just disappear. And one day I did” (Díaz 61). Lydia, on the other hand, goes to Brighton to obtain “every possibility of earthly happiness” (Austen 153) and knows that the trip is “the delight of Mrs. Bennet” (150). Indeed, Mrs. Bennet sees Lydia’s vacation as an opportunity to live vicariously through her daughter: “Lydia's going to Brighton was all that consoled her for the melancholy conviction of her husband's never intending to go there himself” (152). Thus Mrs. Bennet and Belí see their daughters’ journeys in totally different lights. Mrs. Bennet is thrilled for Lydia, but Belí probably wants to keep Lola from going through the same abuses that she herself has experienced.

Both families end up going after their wayward daughters. Mr. Bennet and Lydia’s uncle Mr. Gardiner try to track down Lydia and Wickham. Oscar comes to meet Lola and ends up bringing Belí, an aunt, and an uncle with him – much to Lola’s chagrin. The Bennets want to protect their reputation. In addition to wanting to protect Lola in her own inimitable way, Belí is probably motivated by the desire to control her daughter: “Ya te tengo [I have you], she said, jumping triumphantly to her feet. Te tengo” (Díaz 70).

And both girls are in need of money from their families. Lola asks Oscar for it (“Just bring me the money, Oscar” [Díaz 68]); she probably doesn’t earn enough money from her job at the boardwalk. Lydia is entitled to a tiny inheritance from her father, but she doesn’t have nearly enough money to pay for a wedding and to pay off her careless lover’s debts. Neither Mr. Bennet nor Mr. Gardiner can afford to pay off Wickham, but Mr. Darcy - Lydia's future brother-in-law - steps in. Although Lydia and Lola have tried to make breaks for independence, ultimately both girls are still dependent on their families for protection and financial support.

Madre del Diablo

Oscar's mother comes off as psychotic in this first section of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. There's no denying this. She tries to impress the woman's view of the Dominican hyper-masculinity on her son and fails. The first bit we see of it is when Oscar is eight and she tell him to bitch-slap the girl (Diaz 14). Who is also eight years old. That suggests either some deep pathology or a seriously messed up worldview. Now we find out later that some very bad things have happened to her earlier in life, and along with a culture centered on the agressive male it's understandable, but that's still messed up to teach a kid something like that at eight. 

That's not an isolated incident either. The way that Lola describes her treatment at the hands of her mother is nothing less than horrifying. One of my favorite moments in the book is when Lola smacks her mother's hand away and makes a stand for herself. Her act of burning the wig screams "NO MORE!" and I love it. Like I said, with what we learn later the mother is a much more sympathetic character, but at this point, what a puta.