Junot Díaz Essays

James Joyces’ Araby and John Updike’s A&P are two short pieces of literature that follow the storyline of teenage boy and his short-lived crush. The two stories both have separate unique plots, settings, tones, and themes, however, the characterization in the two stories is quite comparable. Although Joyce’s Araby and Updike’s A&P may seem to be completely different, the characterization of both works is very similar in the sense that are both protagonists are dynamic characters, both protagonists

“In a social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.” said Erik Erikson, a psychologist known for his theory on the psychosocial development of humans. Reef Kennedy is a trouble-making orphan who hangs out with his friends, Bigger and Jink, vandalizing buildings and getting in trouble with the law. A ruined childhood from losing his parents and grandparents puts Reef in a hopeless position that he will have to dig himself out of and find his true

Introduction Integrity is usually defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Loyalty is showing constant support to a person. And then there is mutual trust, respect and most of all honesty. These words all have a huge impact on what we call the “perfect” relationship. Whether it be romantically, friend wise or mother daughter relationship. The other night I watched a romantic comedy movie called Playing It Cool. It had the good looking man, the beautiful girl and

The Impact of William Shakespeare on American Society “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” These famous lines from William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” represents how Shakespeare is one of the most dramatic writers from his time. Shakespeare began his career during the reign of Elizabeth, which is often referred to as the Elizabethan Era or The Golden Age of Elizabeth because England was flourishing. Shakespeare was a poet, writer, and an actor, often regarded as the greatest writer in

Junot 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. Junot graduated from Rutgers University.The author of some works such as, “The Brief Wondrous Life of

When The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao- Junot Diaz’s coming-to-America novel came out in 2007- it took the literary world by storm. Author Junot Diaz’s endearing blend of humor and history forms a challenging, yet exciting narrative. The 352-page novel unravels the tale of Oscar, “a disastrously overweight ghetto nerd,” from Paterson, New Jersey. Oscar, the character who the book is named after, shares his home, and part of the novel, with his old world mother and rebellious sister. The novel

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, the reader follows the story of Oscar de Leon as told by his college roommate, Yunior. Although the novel is named after Oscar and depicts his life, the information given tells more about Yunior than Oscar. In many ways, however, Oscar serves as a foil to Yunior, showing the hardships of achieving masculinity in Dominican culture. While, to the public, Yunior is the typical masculine, sexually-driven posterchild of Dominican culture, so much

The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz explores Latin culture in depth from various perspectives. This novel discusses deep concepts surrounding Dominican culture such as love, sex, fuku, gender, and power that shape the characters throughout the novel. These themes alter the way the culture functions and influences the youth into following these stereotypes. Gender, masculinity, and power are very prominent in the novel and often define the character for who he/she is. While the protagonist

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne tells not only the story of Hester Prynne’s sin, but also shows wickedness behind Roger Chillingworth’s and Arthur Dimmesdale’s public appearances. In The Scarlet Letter, the two men who both have feelings for Hester clash with each other and even themselves. Throughout the novel, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale have a rather dark and twisted relationship. Although the pair start off as friends somewhat and do try to at least be respectful to one another, neither

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao depicts how a supernatural curse seeps into the life of a family and dictates its diasporic experience in the United States. While they do not explicitly state it, all characters in Junot Diaz’ Brief Wondrous Life believe that diasporic life is the result of a supernatural curse, rather than “natural tragedy”; at pivotal moments, however, characters shift from a fear of fukú to a Fuck You and employ tools to dismantle it. Yunior, the character, explicitly states

In his book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz explores themes of racial and national identity while also examining stereotypes of masculinity. The book is centered around a curse known as fuku that haunts the protagonist of the book, Oscar. Dominican values encompass the life that Oscar tries to live ultimately leading to his depression. Wao can be a parallel to the culture seen today where everyone desires to fit in. In Dominican culture masculinity is an expectation in every male

The Need to Fit in and Belong     The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, is about a Dominican boy named Oscar, his sister Lola, and his mother Beli. Throughout the novel, Oscar is constantly complaining about how miserable his life is and he constantly falls head over heels with many girls, even if he had only seen them once. His mother lived a difficult life as, in which she fell madly in love with a gangster and that led to serious consequences. In order to fit in, both Oscar and Beli

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

Junot Diaz develops the characters in The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in a unique way as he uses alludes to other books, comics, and movies in order to give the reader a sense of what kind of character is being incorporated into the book. In the passage above, Diaz establishes and develops a minor character for the sake of the situation at hand. Also, Diaz describes each character through the third person point view which follows Oscar Wao’s (main character) life closely. Through the use of third

Published in 2007, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz is about an unconvincing protagonist named Oscar de León. Even though Oscar is supposedly the main character of the novel, Díaz made a very clear choice of giving other characters the spotlight to change how the book should be read by his audience. Rather than having a clear start to finish plot of Oscar Wao, Díaz chose to weave in the stories of other characters throughout the novel to give his audience a better picture and understanding

New York Times Best-seller, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz tells the captivating life story of Oscar, a sweet but embarrassingly awkward, overweight boy. Oscar Wao’s story is one that talks about life’s impending dooms, the kind that trace back generations and are rooted in superstition. Dominican-born but New Jersey raised, if there is at least one thing that believes in Oscar it’s the Fukú, a curse that all who are Dominican are familiar with in one form or another, and

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

The novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz focuses on the outside forces that occasion feelings of & the disparity between states of isolation. Isolation is the unmitigated dissociation from the rest of society, as was experienced by characters like Oscar & Belicia, whose existence functioned to epitomize the seclusion of a nation; the Dominican Republic. Aspects dealing with skin color, gender expectations & stereotypes assist in the connection as to why isolation exists not only

In the book, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" We have three characters: Yunior, Oscar, and Lola. Yunior is a Dominican-Republican immigrant and the narrator for most of the book. He is a foil character to the protagonist, Oscar Wao. Oscar Wao is the main character that is nerdy and the opposite of male Dominican-Republican stereotypes. He is a man who writes and knows high-level vocabulary, and would like to be a published writer, but he is very lovesick. As in can be very distracted by women

Junot Diaz said once “if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves”. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DÍaz is about the life Oscar Cabral and his family. The story takes place in the Dominican Republic and in Paterson, New Jersey during the reign of Rafael Trujillo. Trujillo was the Dominican republic's Dictator who was nicknamed El Jefe for good reason. The main story follows Oscar as he grows up but also ventures