1) Throughout the first chapter, there is an overwhelming desire for the male characters to find a girlfriend. At one point, Oscar asked his mother if he was ugly and she responded, “Well, hijo, you certainly don’t take after me.”
2) What do you think of the explicit language Diaz uses? Is it necessary?
3) How does Diaz’s novel relate to what we have been reading so far this semester?
I think one of the concepts question 1 touches on is the idea of "machismo." In many Latino cultures (and many non-Latino as well), machismo is the notion or idea of male dominance. Men "pay the bills," men are the "disciplinarians," and so on are the little things I've seen growing up. However, what I find intriguing is Diaz's integration of the old "machismo" concepts of the Dominican culture and female independance one would say. We see this with Lola's character at times as well as the adult Beli.
ReplyDeleteDiaz's portrayal of Dominicans in this novel, although I am not Dominican, seems to touch on the everyday conversation and culture in a very truthful and blunt manner. As a Puerto Rican, I see very similar cultural references which I found refreshing. I would love to know what someone of the Dominican background feels about the novel. Every culture has their negative and positive aspects, Diaz just doesn't sugar-coat the negatives.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe way Diaz portrait the Dominican mother was what i founded the most shocking. I was like, how did you dare to talk about a Dominican mother like that? what i didn't like was that Lola's mother used vulgar language towards her kids. From my experience in the Dominican Republic, it was not nice for a mother to talk to her sun or daughter in such a way. My mother or father never spoke in a vulgar way, at least on front of me.
ReplyDeleteThe part where abuela La Inca is talking about Oscar's mom, Beli. La Inca said that Beli could've been a doctor like her father was but she didn't finish school because of a "maldito hombre", this is so true, some of the girls in DR that are attending school never get to finish because a man came in to their life. They get pregnant at a young age and get divorce later on. I say it because my mother was about to finish high school when she got pregnant with me. My father didn't allowed her to keep going to school. It is true that most of the Dominican man are cheaters.
The response that Oscar’s mother gave him depicts a hard-shelled character with a tender heart and hurtful past in my opinion. I think the mother’s character was in its most representative state when it came to the relation that was exhibited with Lola. The thing is, fights between children and mothers always happen. Fights between a mother and a daughter at a certain age are more than inevitable. But the way Diaz depicts the fights between Lola and the mother take such an inhumane turn to the point that the mother begins to seem diabolical.
ReplyDeleteThe scene which most depicted this was when Lola was running on the boardwalk of Jersey Shore from her mother. While Lola was running she turned back and saw her mother on the floor looking extremely vulnerable. Her sickened body sprawled on the deck, perspiration streaking her face and red wig on floor, Lola couldn’t help but run back to her which is when she realized her mother was in blunt terms, just kidding. Diaz didn’t make the mother this way by an accident; whereas this can be seen as negative commenting on his part it does also seem that Diaz represents Dominican mothers as powerful figures that aren’t shaken in times of terrible weakness and sickness.
The response that Oscar’s mother gave him depicts a hard-shelled character with a tender heart and hurtful past in my opinion. I think the mother’s character was in its most representative state when it came to the relation that was exhibited with Lola. The thing is, fights between children and mothers always happen. Fights between a mother and a daughter at a certain age are more than inevitable. But the way Diaz depicts the fights between Lola and the mother take such an inhumane turn to the point that the mother begins to seem diabolical.
The scene which most depicted this was when Lola was running on the boardwalk of Jersey Shore from her mother. While Lola was running she turned back and saw her mother on the floor looking extremely vulnerable. Her sickened body sprawled on the deck, perspiration streaking her face and red wig on floor, Lola couldn’t help but run back to her which is when she realized her mother was in blunt terms, just kidding. Diaz didn’t make the mother this way by an accident; whereas this can be seen as negative commenting on his part it does also seem that Diaz represents Dominican mothers as powerful figures that aren’t shaken in times of terrible weakness and sickness.
I don’t know if the explicit language is essentially necessary but it does make the reading more interesting. Sometimes when reading books, you don’t expect to see such explicit language being implemented, depending on the kind of book you’re reading but especially not for a class assignment. I always believed that people are able to get their point across without having to use profanity but Diaz was writing from the point of view of the characters. By changing their personalities and eliminating the profanity, it probably would have made the story less realistic. Then again, probably not. The reader doesn’t know what to expect from each character when beginning the book so if the profanity was not present, the reader wouldn’t even notice a difference.
ReplyDeleteThe explicit language is a bit difficult to stomach, only because it is used so frequently and so apologetically; however, given the subject matter of the story and it's main characters it definitely makes sense. I agree with Nicole's assessment: Diaz was writing from the point of view of his characters all of whom have very distinct personalities that were obviously shaped by a very distinctive environment in which that kind of explicit language abounds; and, "cleaning it up" might have given the novel an element of contrivance that could have been detrimental to the story. Though, I suppose he could have eased up a bit on the overtly sexual, borderline pervy accounts of Beli's body.
ReplyDelete