Submitted by: Submitted by air15
Views: 71
Words: 3229
Pages: 13
Category: Literature
Date Submitted: 12/04/2013 05:40 PM
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...