Summary Of The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

Yunior, the narrator of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is portrayed as a “true Dominican male”. Oscar seems to be the antithesis of that, being characterized as the “GhettoNerd at the End of the World”, but the two boys aren’t as far apart as one might think upon first read. Díaz does a fantastic job in characterizing the people in this book, and how they tie into both the Trujillo regime and the fukú of the de Leon/Cabral families. Through symbolism in superheroes, characterization in pop culture references, and historical and political ties, Junot Díaz demonstrates both the similarities between Oscar and Yunior, how Yunior is a tour guide through a long-forgotten history, and how love is the driving force of it all.
Throughout the

Yunior has many apprehensions towards Oscar’s comic books, but is he trying to change his best friend to be more like him? Yunior is the Dominican man that can have any girl he wants, and points out that he can bench press 340 pounds. It’s reasonable to believe that Oscar wants to become that person, because he asks Yunior for help. Hence, the Oscar Redemption Program. It’s also reasonable to believe that he doesn’t believe that he could be a standard Dominican lady-killer, because his stint in the boot camp lasts only days. Our boy Oscar comes off as a very sensitive nerdy guy, and while he wants love and sex, he may not be okay with treating women the way that he was treated growing up. Yunior sees this, but no matter what, he can’t stop treating women that way. Oscar may want to be like Yunior because he gets all the ladies, but Yunior may want to be like Oscar because he has a heart of gold. Those comic books and science fiction novels that Diaz alludes to in nearly every chapter point to a parallel between Oscar and Yunior, and how alike they truly are. The word ‘parigüayo’, or ‘party-watcher’, is a derogatory word meaning “someone who fits the stereotype of a loser, and lacks the game to get a date”. It is used in the novel as a derogatory name for Oscar,

It’s said that Christopher Columbus began the long chain of Dominican fukú. It remained dormant in the families of the Dominican Republic until Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, who both represent and embody the spirit of fukú, rose to power in 1930. Trujillo became someone that people can blame their bad luck on. If Trujillo hadn’t been so evil, the people of the Dominican Republic would have remained faithful to the notion that their so-called ‘fukú’ is really just their own bad luck. Yunior acknowledges the blatantly covered up history because The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is the firsthand account of Trujillo’s regime, aimed at those “who missed their mandatory two seconds of Dominican history”. Trujillo built a wall around the Dominican Republic, the so-called “Plátano Curtain”, which separated the country from its neighbor, Haiti, “that exists beyond maps, that is carved directly into the histories and imaginaries of the people” (Díaz 224-225). Try as he might, the truth of living in the Dominican Republic of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, the Dictatingest Dictator who ever Dictated, is that the regime is responsible for terror, deceit, lies, murder, and misery. This novel serves as Yunior’s own personal zafa, the countercurse to the fukú