Who's to blame?

I think the saddest part of Oscar’s suicide attempt is the fact that Yunior is blamed for Oscar’s actions. The first thing Lola says to him is “Why didn’t you take care of Oscar? She demanded. Why didn’t you do it? (193). Yunior even seems to blame himself, as Ryan mentioned earlier ‘I guess I knew I should have stayed with him. Should have sat on my ass in that chair and told him that shit was going to be cool” (189).

Yunior was the only one who really tried to help Oscar change his life for his better. Oscar is unhappy with the current state of his life, he’s overweight, socially awkward and lonely. Yunior offers to help him and even comes up with a plan to help change his life for the better. “One night while he was moaning about his sorry existence I said: Do you really want to change it? Of course I do, he said, but nothing I’ve tried has been amerliorative. I’ll change your life.” (175). But Oscar’s ability too stick to the plan that Yunior has created is short-lived because Oscar gives up and announces. “I’ve decided not to run no more. Why the fuck not? It’s not going to work, Yunior. It ait going to work if you don’t want it to work. I know it’s not going to work Come on Oscar, pick up your goddam feet. But he shook his head…. The next morning I prodded him with my foot but he didn’t stir” (178). How is Yunior to blame for what happened to Oscar. Yunior was trying to help, but he could only do so much. 

Poor Abelard

I want to start by stating that I like Abelard!  He appears to be a good man and a caring father.  I can easily look beyond the fact that he has had a long-term mistress, which is odd because I am not in favor of infidelity, but I consider it an aftermath of a hyper masculine society. Somehow I don't blame Abelard, I blame the society he lives in.  I love that Abelard loves his daughters and the protective nature of a father is apparent.  I believe that is what fueled his rebellion against Trujillo's intentions with his daughter.  That is was made "the Brave Thing" come easily (217). 

Abelard's arrest and torture just turned my stomach.  It is hard sometimes for me to understand why people would choose to follow an evil man like Trujillo and participate in the torture of fellow human beings.  I also feel the same way when I think of Hitler and every other person who seeks to torture and destroy human life.  There was an interesting point made in class that people follow because they are afraid not to.  That leads me to think that human rationale is always to preserve oneself even if it is at the cost of another.  The only reason Abelard was willing to sacrifice himself was for the safety of his daughter.  I guess children are the exception to the human rationale for self preservation.

Oscar, Abelard, and the Fuku Friend Zone

Last class, Dr. Hanrahan broached, to twenty something uncomprehending expressions, the idea that Oscar and his grandfather Abelard are linked. We discussed the importance of their writing, their nerdy interests, their more chivalrous attitudes towards women (for Dominican men). We agreed that what obscured this resemblance was Oscar’s lack of luck with the ladies-- his permanent state of awkwardness in basic social situations, his utter lack of the nobility Abelard had before the fall. I think I see in these parallel studies of non-conforming masculinity another one that we haven’t discussed which relates very well to the concept of “the friend zone,” which maps very well onto modern geek culture and Dominican political history if you can conceive of the friend zone as an individual state of demoralization arising from an inbalance of power within a relationship.
 If we sub in Abelard’s “relationship” with Trujillo for Oscar’s relationship with Ana, we see how the two react to these situations similarly. The two cannot make assertive decisions. Abelard hesitates until it is too late to send his daughter away to safety for fear of what Trujillo may do if he notices. “He saw his daughter being brutally raped by Trujillo while he himself was lowered slowly into a pool full of sharks.” Their conditions don’t appear to be linked out of compassion, but out of a kind of patriarchal self-interest. “I should get to decide what goes on in my household!” 
 Likewise, Oscar refrains from telling Ana how he feels until her boyfriend returns. And then when she arrives at his house with bruises and tells him that she loves the man who gave them to her, Oscar spends pages musing about the various ways in which the experience is unfair to him. “It wasn’t just that he thought Ana was his last fucking chance for happiness ... It was also that he’s never ever in all his miserable eighteen years of life experienced anything like he’s felt when he was around that girl” (47).
The fall is the immediate aftermath of these experiences. And in light of these connections, could it be that Fuku has less to do with a lack of luck, or with the inherent darkness of the world, than with the De Leons’ inability to be courageous in the face of that darkness? It’s a fact that people in the friend zone don’t make particularly good friends to the people who “put them there.” On both sides there is the expectation that the connection is simply a means to an end.

inheritance of problems

Although we begin the book by experiencing the many struggles that his family endures, we find that Oscar de Leon is the product of a long line of oppression. Through his relation of modern concerns (such as videogames and science fiction) to the more basic necessities of life for wellbeing (Abelard protecting his family), I have found Junot Diaz to make a strong statement about the perpetual nature of struggling through generations of families despite the changing times. Since the beginning of the book, I have been attempting to diagnose the source of the difficulties that surround Oscar and Lola. At first glance, it seems that Beli is the cause for all of the difficulties of the brother and sister. However, after experiencing the hardships that Beli’s father Abelard goes through to protect his family, we can see that Trujillo is the most direct cause. However, due to the redundant nature of this formula, can we truly place the blame on Trujillo? Wouldn’t there have to be something in his past that can be blamed for his misogynistic and oppressive behaviors? I agree with the idea that Ryan brought up in class today- the patriarchal institution is to blame. I am not sure how the family’s relationships will end at this point, but I am remaining optimistic.

Oscar Wao as Lord of the Rings?

Despite Yunior’s claim that their world “ain’t no…Middle Earth” (194), I would argue that the connections between Oscar’s world and Tolkien’s Middle Earth run deeper than a mere attempt to show Oscar’s (and Yunior’s) interest in fantasy.

We’ve said that the phrase “The only way out is in”(209) refers to Yunior’s and Lola’s attempts to understand how fukú has functioned in the de Leon family by going back and tracing its origins and effects. But the phrase also reminds me of Frodo’s journey to destroy the Ring. He must do this to destroy Sauron and his forces of evil, who will otherwise overrun Middle Earth and basically obliterate everything. In order to destroy the Ring, Frodo must return to where the Ring was created –back into Mordor to Mount Doom. Thus for Yunior, Lola, and Frodo, “The only way out is in.”

After reading Bennett’s post about Beli, I realized that most people’s feelings toward Beli parallel my own toward Smeagol. Throughout “The Two Towers” movie, I felt awful for Smeagol – tortured by Sauron’s henchmen and tormented every moment by Gollum, the evil half of his personality from whom he seems to want to be free. However, by “The Return of the King,” I despised him for what he was doing to Frodo, leading him into the gigantic spider’s lair to be eaten alive, and especially for what he was doing to Sam (because nobody messes with Sam), trying to turn Frodo against him. But even though I hated what Gollum had become, I never wanted him to die the way that he did. I still felt terrible for him because of what he experienced – much the way most of us feel toward Beli because of her own unspeakably awful life of abuse.

Beli and Smeagol have alike endings with similar causes. Yunior says, “Beli [had] been waiting for something like her body her whole life….Like the accidental discovery of the One Ring” (94). Technically, Bilbo Baggins stumbles across the Ring, but Smeagol has found it first. And in a way, both of these discoveries destroy these characters. Beli’s beauty (in the Dominican sense) leads to her abuse, and her body (SPOILERS!) basically destroys her and kills her. And Smeagol’s discovery leads to the twisting of his mind, the corruption of his soul, and his awful death – all for the sake of “his precious.”

Maybe the world of Oscar Wao resembles Middle Earth more than Yunior thinks.

Thoughts Concerning the Issue of the Loss of Identity

            One particular theme that keeps coming up in the material that we read for this class is the loss of identity.  This feeling, or lack of, as we have seen, can be handled in various different ways.  For example, in The Sun Also Rises, the character of Jake made a point of running from his problems entirely.  Rather than adapt and deal with what has happened to him, Jake opts to drink continuously in order to numb the thoughts and ill-feelings that endlessly taunt him.  He also travels abroad and goes out of his way to surround himself with others in order so that he is not alone.  On the other side of the spectrum, we read in The Awakening about the character Edna who is desperately trying to construct an identity different than the one she currently inhabits.  However, her attempts to drastically change in a time that permitted her to do so led to her own demise.  In our current reading of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, we are presented a family who is struggling with the issue, and is haunted by a manifestation of this loss of identity.

            Throughout the novel, we are told about a faceless man that seems to appear whenever there is a crisis.  This could be interpreted as a form of what the novel refers to as “fuku”, or bad luck, or it could also be seen as an illustration of the loss of the family’s identity.  Being that Oscar and his family are growing up in New Jersey, they are no longer part of their home country of the Dominican Republic.  They are forced to adapt and become nationalized to the American way of life.  Due to their inability to cope for various reasons, they find themselves in a constant struggle to survive.

            Out of everything we have learned and discussed in our class this semester, this concept is probably what will stay with me the most.  The loss of identity, particularly in America, leads to larger questions such as: What does it mean to be an American?  Does one have to give up their past to survive in the modern world?  Does the modern world offer you a chance to be an individual, or does your identity rely heavily upon society’s expectations?  As I mentioned earlier, I feel as though many of our readings have touched on this subject.  However, I do not believe that there is a concrete answer to any of the questions that I listed above.

Similarities between Jay-Z and Oscar Wao

After our discussion today, I rewatched Jay Z's 99 Problems video and I was able to see so many similarities between the urban African American culture portrayed in this song/music video and the Dominican culture portrayed in Oscar Wao.

First, both seem to be obsessed with letting it be known that they do not have any problem with the ladies, but that pretty much everything else in their life is screwed up.  Where the Dominican's are oppressed by the tyrannical rule of Trulijo, Jay-Z feels like the blacks are the targets of racial profiling (2nd verse) and unfair judicial practices (3rd verse).  However, with all of the oppression, they still vehemently let it be known that their hyper-masculinity should never be questioned.

Second, both seem to have a sense of pride for where they grew up.  Even though Jay was born and raised in the ghetto of Brooklyn, he exudes that Brooklyn swagger.  Meanwhile, the Dominican's, even though Oscar's generation has been transplanted to Jersey, are proud of their Dominican home.  Again, this goes back to being proud of one's culture (black and Dominican), and the areas that they have so much pride in exemplify these cultures.

Lastly, and this may be somewhat of a stretch, but Jay is gunned down at the end of this video in a very Trulijo-esque way.  While Jay is obviously not a dictator, he is one of the titans in hip hop, and is thus the one who is being "gunned" after.  Just as Trulijo is at the top of the political system, Jay is at the top of the hip hop culture.  I made the argument today that Trulijo actually feels immense pressure from his underlings, and he is eventually taken down, as all dictators have in the past.  Jay must also feel this pressure from up-and-coming rappers, and thus uses the shooting scene to metaphorically express this fear.

You can take it as you will, but I definitely think there are strong connections between the hyper-masculinity of the urban black culture and the Dominican culture.  I will provide a link to the music video here.  Please be aware that there is explicit content, so be aware of that before viewing. (And I'm not even going to comment on the video hunnies in the background, as that would be a separate, very long blog post).

If you get some time, watch the video and see if you can come up with any other connections between the two pieces of art.