Dana Cox
1.Oscar and Jenni are seen as strange by other Latinos. Oscar because of his nerdiness and Jenni because she is goth. What effect does this shared experience have on Oscar?
2.Does the rejection Oscar feels from Jenni further contribute to his detachment from his culture?
3.How does Oscar's detachment from some aspects of his culture contribute to his suicide attempt?
4. Oscar's belief that the fuku was responsible for his suicide attempt and Yunior's rejection of that idea when he says "that's our parents' shit" is an example of the differences in the relation of the characters to their Dominican culture. In what ways do these differences affect these characters in society?
1. When Oscar meets Jenni, he treats her the same way he treats other girls. He does not hide his nerdiness or his desperation. He flirts with her in his own nerdy way constantly, in the hope of wearing her down, and with no regard for how this makes him look to his peers. They share some common interests and bond for a while; however, Jenni considers their relationship to be purely platonic, while Oscar is clearly expecting her to become his girlfriend exclusively because he has fallen head-over-heels in love with her. What Yunior realizes and Oscar does not is that Jenni never intended their friendship to be anything more than that. Even though Oscar and Jenni are both outsiders with tastes that are considered unusual by the rest of their Dominican peers, this shared experience is not enough for Jenni to want to stop dating other people. This comes as a huge shock to Oscar, who completely misread the situation because he was so blinded by his crush on Jenni. Once he learns that the only girl he thought could be interested in him never was, he begins the downward spiral that culminates in his suicide attempt.
ReplyDeleteBoth Yunior and Oscar, like many of us, feel the generational gap between our culture today and that of our parents. There are many times my parents and I, or the elders of my family disagree on certain topics because we were all born and raised in different time periods where struggle and lifestyle are different. When a person is being raised in two contrasting societies, such as the younger characters of the novel (Oscar, Yunior and Lola), the struggle to "fit in" in both cultures is difficult.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were first introduced to Yunior in chapter four, I was very skeptical of his role in the novel. At first, I could not understand Diaz's intent in portraying Yunior as both the narrator of the novel and a character who epitomizes Latino/Caribbean machismo stereotypes. Diaz depicts Yunior as a foil to Oscar's character because unlike Oscar, Yunior represents the typical Dominican man who can actually maintain an active love life. In fact, Yunior himself suggests that he "never met a Dominican like [Oscar]" (171). It is ironic that Yunior denies the existence of Dominican myths such as fuku and zafa because in the novel, Yunior, who expresses an overbearing sense of masculinity, is actually the model of what it means to be Dominican-American. Another reason why I am uncertain of Yunior's role is because as the narrator, Yunior is in control of all of what we know about Oscar. Yunior's voice in the novel allows us to understand the reason why Oscar is doubly marginalized (by the American mainstream society and his own Dominican diaspora). In a way, our negative impression of Oscar as a fat and nerdy loner can be attributed to Yunior's ruthless way of narrating the story of Oscar's quest to find love. Lastly, through Yunior's narration it becomes evident that he is one of the people who ridicules and ostracizes Oscar. In my opinion, Yunior is a hypocrite. This is because if the Yunior in Oscar Wao is the same Yunior from Diaz's collection of short stories, Drown, then, he should understand what it feels like to be an outsider. After all, in Drown, Diaz portrays Yunior's character as an immigrant who faces numerous of challenges as he attempts to assimilate into the American society.
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