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In the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao , the main character

Oscar, spends his whole life trying to fit in but could never find his place. Once

he finally feels like he is a part of Ybon and belongs it is ripped away from him.

Oscar goes through major boughs of depression which was brought on by all the

things people were expecting from him being that he was Dominican. Although it

seems like Oscar never had a chance he proves everyone wrong in the end.

Oscar had a short life and unfortunately it was spend trying to convince himself,

family and peers that he was good enough, Dominican enough and all the while

causing him personal turmoil which in the end is part of the big scheme of things

that killed him.

Oscar is a Dominican male, which is a very crucial variable in this book.

Being that Oscar is Dominican many people expect Oscar to be something he is

not. Being a Dominican, male in this book means being out on the town, being a

hero, or being a womanizer. Oscar is feeling all this pressure from all of these

expectations. The feelings of inadequacy lead to Oscar become depressed and

withdraw, forcing him to live in a fantasy world he has created through his books

and the characters in them. The expectations of a Dominican male didn’t define

Oscar, and he was labeled as weird because of it. This paper will explore what

pressures forced Oscar into the depression he was in for most of his life.

At the beginning of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the narrator Moore 2

paints a picture of Oscar that is going to change as time goes on. In the

beginning, Oscar is described as a young boy at seven years old as chasing all

the girls around. This behavior was not only encouraged by his family and

friends, it was expected. He sounded like a typical Dominican male and he was.

There was only one problem; on page 15 of the book it states “It wasn’t just that

he didn’t have no kind of father to show him the...