The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Theme Of Identity

The theme of Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, is that where a person currently is in their life is more important than where they come from. He expresses this thoroughly in his stories and commentaries on social issues that mostly share the same theme of place. In addition, in how growing up in his neighborhood in New Jersey affected his view on the world and the way that he sees other places now. The author makes it a point to express the idea that one’s own decisions presently are the most important to their identity.

Junot Diaz choses to write from the perspective of a Dominican youth named Oscar Wao who does not adhere to cultural stereotypes. Many of the struggles Oscar goes through are because he isn’t like most people

Oscar is continually haunted by his failure because of the reality that this failure emphasizes: his inability to meet cultural expectations makes him an outcast in both cultures” (Flores 17). This shows that the author thinks it is harmful to ostracize people for being different. This point is illustrated in the book with Oscar being shunned from his peers for being interested in things like language, dungeons and dragons, and videogames. These aspects of his life are only compacted due to him being overweight and considered unattractive by most. If Oscar fit in more physically he would not face as much discrimination about his hobbies. However, Oscar chooses not to hide these parts of himself like some of his peers do, and instead wears his differences as a part of his identity. These differences would not be something Oscar would have to be ashamed of if he lived in a place with different standards where it would only add to his current