Gendered Expectations In The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
The role that gendered expectations plays in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao constructs detrimental limitations for males while reducing females to sexual beings. The prevalent Dominican males in the novel reinforce an absolute definition of masculinity characterized by dominance, attractiveness, manifestation of sexuality, and oppression of women. Such masculinity is constructed through every aspect that Rafael Trujillo, the ultimate Dominican male, embodies. Through the endorsement of expected Dominican hypermasculinity, females are overtly hypersexualized by means of objectification, while men are confined to fulfilling expected roles. In failing to embody Trujillo’s misogynistic, patriarchal ideal, males and females in the novel marginalize …show more content…
The societal norm for Dominican males indicates male approval of activities that if otherwise applied to women would be criticized. Males are encouraged to announce and celebrate their sexual actions as yet another affirmation of patriarchal dominance in which males withhold power over women. When discussing Dominican-ness, Oscar states that he “heard from a reliable source that no Dominican male had ever died a virgin,” emphasizing the importance of sexual activity among males (174). By speaking of sexual experience as such a crucial component to fulfilling the Dominican heteronormative expectation, Oscar is reiterating the point of sexual goals and merits. It is important to note that men are designated the task of taking virginity from women rather than losing their own. Such dynamic is strictly heteronormative due to the disdain for homosexuality in the scheme of Dominican hypermasculinity. When discussing Oscar’s characteristics Yunior compared him to “that fat homo Oscar Wilde,” as a method of demeaning homosexuality (180). The rejection of homosexuals is a mechanism by which the Dominican males work to assert their heteronormative sexuality, reinforcing their masculine traits. Males actively ridicule homosexuality with contempt evident when Oscar’s uncle shares a box of condoms with him and advises him to “use them all, he said, and then added: On girls” (51). This homophobia encourages a detrimental heteronormative discourse that asserts a clear-cut sexual orientation for Dominican
Summary Of Handlin Your Business Sexual Respectability And Peers By Lorena Garcia
169 Words | 1 PagesThe Reading this week “‘Handlin’ Your Business’ Sexual Respectability and Peers” by Lorena Garcia reveals how Latina girls understand and discuss sexuality. The reading describes how the girls try took take the role of the good girl in the “good girl/bad girl” dichotomy. In the girl's process to prove to be a good girl they just embrace and justified the “good girl/bad girl” dichotomy even more. Along with the “good girl/bad girl” dichotomy was the discussion of the double standard for men who can be more sexual than women. The girl's idea of safe sex was also a way to protect themselves from being labeled as dirty or the bad girl.
The Brief And Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
338 Words | 2 PagesViolence in Fiction The use of violence in fiction is beneficial, as well as purposeful in building and sustaining the author’s main point of the novel. In the article “How to Read Literature Like a Professor,” Thomas C. Foster states “[Violence and tragedy are] accidents only on the inside of the novel - on the outside they’re planned, plotted, and executed by somebody, with malice aforethought.” Accidents and tragedy in novels are purposely planned to keep the story moving along, but also to push the character(s) to reach a realization of the bigger picture, and the author’s intended purpose. In The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz includes much violence in his story, whether verbal, or like on page 146, physical.
Oscar Wao Sublime
709 Words | 3 PagesIn the Hispanic culture men are described as strong, unfaithful, and dominant in order to show their masculinity. However, the main character Oscar Wao masculinity was different from the norm. Oscar Wao was a nerdy kid who was fat and loved comic books and fantasy novels. All of his friends and family will bullied him about his lack of interest in girls,sports,and his body because it was against the stereotype of a real Dominican man. Oscar was expected to
The Brief And Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Summary
964 Words | 4 PagesThe novel The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, written by Junot Diaz, introduces a Dominican family. One of the members of this family and main characters of the story is Oscar Wao. Although the story introduces Oscar as a “lady’s man”— having not one, but two girlfriends—Oscar eventually gravitates towards the polar end on the masculinity spectrum of machismo; as he matures he becomes a fat, awkward, and nerdy adolescent with few friends and is of little to no interest to girls. Whilst the fact that girls do not have in interest in Oscar, Oscar has a very big interest in girls; he longs to feel loved and craves intimacy. Aside from his love for girls, the unreal worlds of sci-Fi and fantasy are another intimate love of Oscar Wao’s.
Oscar Wao Character Analysis
280 Words | 2 PagesThroughout Dìaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, readers visualize Oscar’s self-reflection through his physical characteristics. As a young boy, he had confidence and was “a “normal” Dominican boy raised in a “typical” Dominican family, his nascent pimp-liness was encouraged by blood and friends alike” (Díaz 11). However, as he got older, he did not keep his “normal” Dominican appearance of dark skin and “semi-kink hair in a Puerto Rican afro” (Díaz 20). In fact, he began to develop much like the majority of American children today; Oscar began obese.
Summary Of Junot Diaz's Wao
991 Words | 4 PagesJunot Diaz Many of us would have heard about the history of Trujillo but not the way Junot Diaz tells it in his work Wao. Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and emigrated to the US just being a child and grew up in New Jersey to be more specific. Since then it was a challenge for him to face a new language. His struggle with English made him cling in reading, and he later became a writer.
Summary Of Mexican American Culture
899 Words | 4 PagesUp until the 1960s Anglo social scientists wrote most of the literature about the people of Mexican- descent in the United States. Their analysis of Mexican American culture and history reflected the hegemonic beliefs, values, and perceptions of their society. As outsiders, Anglo scholars were led by their own biases and viewed Mexicans as inferior, savage, unworthy and different. Because Mexican scholars had not yet begun to write about their own experiences, these stereotypes were legitimized and reproduced in the literature. However, during the mid- 1960s scholars such as Octavio Ignacio Romano, Nick Vaca, Francisco Armando Rios, and Ralph Ricatelli began to reevaluate the literature written by their predecessors.
The Dominican Masculinity
1160 Words | 5 PagesThe Dominican Masculinity In the novel a typical Dominican male is portrayed as powerful, full of charm and physically attractive. Oscar, weighing over 300 pounds, and living an extremely nerdy life is a complete opposite of the Dominican stereotype. According to the book’s narration the most important part of DR masculinity is sex and this is again something that Oscar struggles to experience, but no matter what he does, he can’t. On the other hand, Junior is the exact representation of a Dominican male. He possesses all the properties that a DR man is supposed to have and even these are extraordinary potent.
Patriarchy In Trujillo
967 Words | 4 PagesThe novel tells the various experiences of the women that existed in oscar’s life. There is a consistence of maltreatment of women starting from the beginning of the Cabral history and their fuku. The dominican republic is where the idea is patriarchy and the abuse of women stem from in the novel. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, president of the Dominican Republic, felt as ruler he could do whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted. This was true about the dictator, he was most noted for his desire for beautiful young women.
Masculinity In Ysrael
732 Words | 3 PagesThe stories of Junot Diaz feature various elements of social and personal issues that are highly prevalent in young Latinx men, primarily the compulsion and adverse effect of machismo, the poignancy of being an outcast in one’s community, and the lack of a father figure in a boy’s life. The first set of short stories prominently feature Ysrael, a Dominican boy whose face was disfigured by a pig when he was an infant. In “Ysrael”, he is the object of Yunior’s fascination, and the victim or Rafa’s (Yunior’s brother) torment.
Junot Diaz's Drown Sexism
796 Words | 4 PagesIn this novel, Drown, women are simply perceived as objects. The inevitable gender norms dictate what behavior is socially acceptable, specifically for women in the Dominican Republic society, but also encourages the practices of machismo. Machismo is defined as a strong sense of masculine pride; this umbrella term has become the explanation for the actions of males in Latin American countries like the Dominican Republic. Though machismo does not identify the women as inferior, it defines the man as superior. Gender roles in the Dominican Republic set the males as the providers and ultimate decision-makers, whereas women are seen as the caretakers of the home and family.
Analysis Of Not Just (Any) Body Can Be A Citizen By M. Jacqui Alexander
1447 Words | 6 PagesShe achieves her aim in highlighting that the prohibitive laws which reduce people like her to mere sexual bodies is a psycho-social remnant of the colonial past. She addresses a number of audiences within the piece, including the human rights community, the governments of both her native Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas, and by extension all citizens of the Caribbean and wider world who have been disenfranchised by laws that diminish their humanity and highlight their perceived iniquity. The implication of her essay is clear: if not just any body can be a citizen, the democracy which we have set up is in need of some adjustment. It relates to us because it reminds us that for every time we deny any body rights, we have failed to live up to the principles on which are postcolonial societies are supposed to be
Latina Women Stereotypes
2028 Words | 9 Pageswomen for some time have been misunderstood in Hollywood. The lack of knowledge directors and screenwriters had of Latina women were minimal. Our society believed that the way Latina women acted and looked like in film and media was the way every Latina women was supposed look like. Latinas’ identity is simultaneously shaped by their female gender and their Hispanic ethnicity. Therefore, they face a ‘double jeopardy’ because their identity is partially formed by both sexual and racial stereotypes (Beale).
Summary: The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao
1092 Words | 5 PagesThe Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is an extraordinary tale that takes you into the lives of Oscar Wao and his family members who are burdened with a terrible curse called fuku. The fuku spell began with Oscar’s grandfather, Abelard. Abelard angered the Dominican Republic dictator, Trujillo, after he allegedly made a joke about the dictator that turned into a crime. However, the real reason behind Abelard’s downfall was his refusal to introduce his daughter to Trujillo, who had a sexual appetite for young women.
Analysis Of Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Myth Of The Latin Woman
797 Words | 4 PagesEveryday people are judging and being judged by others with unique criteria that we, as inhabitants of Earth deem necessary checkmarks to be met to afford and be afforded tokens of civility. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman” the memoir is brimming with personal accounts of fetishiztation and discrimination the author experiences as a Latin woman that have vast influence on her life. Throughout the text Cofer conveys the significance of how deep the status “exotic” to describe Latina women is held inside the minds of people which the author alludes to on page 879, “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early,” [1] after being given a sudden, non-consensual kiss at a dance by her date. The author expresses the cultural dissonance between
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