Writing About Writing…

Sharpe, Matthew. “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Rev. of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz. Publishers Weekly. 254(25). 18 June 2007. Web.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=106&sid=362aac0e-cb7d-4ea7-8b16-4271d2d2e89f%40sessionmgr112 (accessed via database…let me know if this link doesn’t work.)

• Main point/argument of review: While the book’s title suggests that the story will be about Oscar, a large amount of the narrative focuses more on family, nation, and language in relation to both of these.

• Two main points:The essence of the novel is “a multiperspectival view of a life, wherein an individual cannot be known or understood in isolation from the history of his family and his nation.”
• Review also emphasizes how Diaz uses language to reinforce his ideas: “rich and playful prose that embodies [the novel's] theme of multiple nations, cultures and languages.”

• Other ideas: complicated notions of identity and nation: “And Dominicans in this novel being explicitly of mixed Taíno, African and Spanish descent, the very ideas of nationhood and nationality are thoughtfully, subtly complicated.”
• Parallels between an individual story and a larger, overarching theme or story: “…this story of one poor guy’s cursed life will also be the story of how 500 years of historical and familial bad luck shape the destiny of its…protagonist.”
• Innovative use of language and structure in the novel: Diaz uses “many un-italicized Spanish words and expressions (thus beautifully dramatizing how linguistic borders, like national ones, are porous)… [and a] plethora of genre and canonical literary allusions–he does helpfully footnote aspects of Dominican history”

• Ways you might use this article: my own paper focused on how a nation can shape family roles. This review may be helpful when considering the role(s)/impact a nation can have shaping any aspects of a family. The quote in bullet #2 summarizes this idea.
• This review could also help support a thesis examining how the language and/or structure in a novel/story work in relation to the plot and characters (quotes in bullets #3 and #6).

There is so much I love about this movie. I have a few favorite quotes that, to me, sum up the message of a movie about an average family that just happens to have superpowers:

“I love you, but if we’re gonna make this work, you’ve gotta be more than just Mr. Incredible…” Helen to Bob at their wedding

“Mom and Dad’s lives could be in jeopardy…or worse…their marriage” Violet to Dash while they wonder what’s going on with their parents

“I’m your wife, I’m the greatest good you’ll ever get” Frozone’s wife as he tries to leave to save the day.

I also find it interesting that aside from all the other things that make them like a normal family – bickering over dinner, doing housework, etc. – the characters themselves seem to be very average individuals in very normal family roles. Helen does all the wifely things – vacuuming, doing dishes, staying home to take care of the baby. Bob has a desk job, gets stuck in traffic, and is the provider for his family. The Parrs seem to be the most mundane family ever – by a long shot, the most “normal”, “traditional” family we have looked at this semester, even factoring in their superpowers. Their average-ness serves to contrast exactly how crazy things get when they decide to stop hiding and be true to who they are – and that normalcy is the crux of the movie. Somehow, I don’t think this movie would be quite the same if it focused on a family consisting of two gay men raising a child, or a single mother and her three kids living with their grandfather.

Also, in modern society, there is a lot of emphasis placed on the idea of families being essential elements in a community. Good, wholesome family values – and individuals that are raised in families with these values – are what enhance a community and make it stronger. I think that in analyzing this movie a little closer, we can see a physical representation of this idea – this particular family is a huge asset to the community that they live in: they prevent its destruction. Literally. This idea is also supported by Bob’s rescue of Squeaker the cat. Clearly Bob is your typical well-rounded, upstanding community member – he takes time in his busy schedule to help out an old lady and her cat.

Okay, so, I was kicking around a couple of half-formed ideas for our next paper…they’re just baby ideas, so be kind to them…

First: going on the whole “family and nation” thing – I was thinking of how Petrus refers to Pollux as “my kind” (I don’t have a page number…haven’t found it yet). Sometimes races/ethnicities (I’m going to use these words interchangeably for a minute, even though I know they’re different) refer to other people within that race as one’s brothers and sisters; for many people, there is a strong correlation between a sense of family and an established identity through one’s heritage/ethnicity. Consequently, the unconditional support family members can have for each other is especially strong for people within a race. People feel kinship for other people that share their family history/ancestry. Petrus is ready to defend Pollux, even though he was a part of something atrocious. This idea could be tied in with the setting of post-apartheid Africa and the area politics at that time.

My second baby idea – and I like this one a little more – would be to compare and contrast the father figures of both Disgrace and Oscar Wao. I like the idea, but I think I’m having trouble fleshing out the “why this is relevant” part. Maybe not. I’m thinking that I could spin this into an examination of family roles based on a nation/race/culture/ethnicity’s expectations for that role. Abelard and David both have daughters; the first wants to protect his daughter from having her innocence spoiled, the latter has already seen it happen, and is grappling with the aftermath. However, what each daughter has been or would be subjected to ties in closely with the idea of the “nation” in both novels. Abelard struggles to protect his daughter because of Trujillo. David has difficulty getting justice for Lucy’s rape because of the state of things in Africa – rape has become a common occurrence because of the political/social climate. My point being, an American father – for example – whose daughter is raped has much more room to seek justice for her. There is also less chance of an American father’s daughter having to fear being raped because of her corrupt dictatorial government. Thus, the expectations for the role of the father changes based on the culture that family comes from.

That’s all I have so far…

So, a couple things that really stuck out to me about the ending, besides the obvious baby revelation…

“‘How humiliating….to end like this.’” ‘”…With nothing. No cards, no weapons, no property, no rights, no dignity.’” ‘”Like a dog.’” (205)

It was like Coetzee took everything that he had been building up to this point – the parallels between the lack of dignity in rape, and David’s sudden weird affinity for Bev’s  fated-for-slaughter dogs – and underlined it all in red pen with this one conversation between father and daughter. And then he tacked on about a hundred exclamation points. If the parallels were vague before, then this made them inescapable.

Also, David’s description of Lucy on page 218 – “There is a moment of utter stillness which he would wish prolonged for ever….A scene ready-made for a Sargent or a Bonnard” really gets me. This, to me, is a prime example of how David has changed. When he first arrived at Lucy’s place, he was all, I HATE THE COUNTRY, whine whine whine. “Curious that he and her mother, cityfolk, intellectuals, should have produced this throwback, this sturdy young settler” (61) – implying that anyone living in the country is not an intellectual, etc. Even though a page later David does add that he is not ashamed of his daughter and her lifestyle, his disdain for everything unlike him and consequently beneath him – the simplicity of country life, etc. – is apparent in the way he talks and his attitudes. But the fact that he is able to see such raw and pure beauty in his daughter – even while carrying a rapist’s baby inside her – and that he recognizes that Lucy is in her element in the country – shows that David has softened a little. Life has knocked him off his pedestal, and he is able to see positivity where he did not before.

Okay, so, what I’d really like to discuss here is David sleeping with Bev Shaw. I mean, come on!!!! Who here saw that coming?! Honestly?!

I did the reader’s equivalent of a double take when I got to that part. I had to read it twice. It seemed like such a bizarre thing even for someone as screwy as David. He says again and again how unattractive Bev is; how she’s nosy, plain, even ugly (84). He seems vaguely annoyed by her for no apparent reason, although he is mystified by what she does with her animals.  Even after they hook up, he says, “…this is what I have come to” (150). That’s so mean!! I just can’t see where he got the motivation to sleep with her. Where did the impulse come from? He doesn’t appear to feel sorry for her. He doesn’t seem overly horny. He’s got much more important things to focus on (i.e., his daughter). And yet, out of nowhere, he decides to do this. Anyone else confused? I just want to know what he was hoping to accomplish here. He mentions “doing his duty”, and that now “Bev Shaw can feel pleased with herself” (150), but I honestly think he’s deluding himself. He didn’t do it for her. He is surprised she’s offering herself to him, and assumes she’s new to affairs. The line that I think would be the biggest clue to his motives here is on 149, when Bev first propositions him: “Almost he asks, ‘Why?’, but then has the good sense not to.” Is he just being a typical male, thinking with his penis? Like, oh, I don’t know why this plain little woman is coming on to me, but I shouldn’t refuse because any ass (no matter how ugly) is still a piece of ass??

I really hope he doesn’t break her heart. I don’t understand Bev’s motives here, either, but I still like her more than I like David. She doesn’t deserve to be used by him. Yes, she propositioned him, but does she have ANY clue what she’s getting into?!

There was a lot in this section to take in. But what struck me the most was how little of Lucy’s rape we are actually told about. In contrast to David’s relations with Melanie – which we are, for the most part, privy to – the revelation of Lucy’s rape goes by so quickly that I almost didn’t catch it. Like most atrocities, it happened so fast that we, as readers, like David and Lucy, are struggling to keep up with processing it.

I find it interesting that David is so ready and willing to spring to Lucy’s defense – and yet he never seems to be introspective enough to think to himself, hey, I’m on the other side of things here. It’s weird.

I’m also intrigued by Lucy’s reaction to what has happened to David. Whereas he takes one look at her and wants to cry, “She does not stir a finger to soothe him” (98). She seems entirely unsurprised by the whole ordeal. I know she’s just been through something really traumatic, but she doesn’t seem really worried about the fact that her dad got set on fire. Did she expect the attack to happen at some point, in some sad, resigned way? Did she think she might be attacked someday because of people assuming she’s a lesbian? (We never really get confirmation one way or the other, just David’s musings, but rumors travel fast; who knows.) Or did she think people would catch wind of what her father did and knew that their home might be a potential target, but took him in anyway? All things to think about…

Okay, so, I have about a million things to say about this new book we’re tackling, many of them involving the phrase “fucked up”. Bear with me.

First thing I’ve noticed: the first four chapters seem to have a dreamlike quality – David knows somewhere in his subconscious that what he’s doing is fucked up (“No matter what passes between them now, they will have to meet again as teacher and pupil. Is he prepared for that?”, p. 12), but it isn’t until the cold, harsh language of the notification he receives that reality seems to set in. David thinks he’s happy but his life has become so twisted…why else would he pursue students so damn persistently, unless there was something really wrong with him? It’s kind of scary how skewed his visions of right and wrong have become.

Also, David says Melanie is too innocent to have taken the step toward getting him fired, but the page before, he says, “Melanie…takes things to heart. He would not have guessed it. What else has he not guessed about her?” (37) The man has got another thing coming, I think. He’s in way over his head – with a girl he knows NOTHING ABOUT – and he doesn’t quite grasp that.

Next, I find the whole scene on pages 26-27 to be one of the creepiest and disturbing, if not THE most creepiest and disturbing, thing I have ever read. David is trying to convince himself that all he wants is satisfaction in his sex life. But there are clearly other things the man needs. Like a psychological evaluation. The last line of page 26 is just so fucked up! I don’t even want to type it. It makes me shudder.

Moving on: “What, in her heart, is she trying to be?” (27) I honestly believe that no woman – even a young, “innocent” woman such as Melanie, would open up the can of worms that is sleeping with your professor in an effort to be a daughter figure to him. Highly doubt that would any sane person’s motivation. Also, the fact that he and Melanie have sex on his daughter’s bed creeped me out enough to want to toss the book across the room in disgust.

However, I don’t hate this book, at all. I’m fascinated by the fact that even though I’m repulsed, I’m interested in this character. Plus the writing is incredible (which is probably why I’m still reading – the author is handling a tough issue in a way that’s kept me interested in what happens). My favorite quote of the chapters we’ve read so far has got to be on page 13, before things get really bizarre: “Do the young still fall in love, or is that mechanism obsolete by now, unnecessary, quaint, like steam locomotion?” This is beautiful, to me – one perfect sentence encapsulating the idea of a sad, wistful man drifting through life, jaded, knowing his prime years are past, lonely and unsure of the things he was once so positive about.

David reminds me of Oscar a little, on page 18: “…he ought to let her go. But he is in the grip of something. Beauty’s rose: the poem drives straight as an arrow.” He gets crazy-stalkerish but is blinded by an impulse more powerful than his sense of logic.

So. What I want to know is: what the hell happened in his relationship with his daughter? That started his slow decline into looniness? That made him so fucked up?! I want to know more!

Okay, so, the ending definitely had a lot of things that we all saw coming, but also quite a bit that I really never anticipated. Lola getting money out of a guy for sleeping with her – wha?? Yeah, she’s a rebel, but I don’t think I ever expected that out of her.

Oh, Oscar. Every time he went back to try to win Ybon I groaned. I kind of knew he’d never give up on her – no matter what the cost, the story set us up for that – but boy, it was still rough to see him be such a glutton for punishment. I was literally smacking my forehead while reading, like, Oscar, someone needs to physically shake you. And restrain you.

Also, I’m still vaguely fuzzy on the recurring symbols of the mongoose, the man with no face, etc. But I don’t think we’re supposed to be able to pin down concretely, exactly what they are and why they’re there. They seem to be family mythology and superstition that you just don’t wanna mess with. The kind of thing everybody avoids talking about, because they know it’s on a more powerful level than us mortals can comprehend. At least, that’s what I got out of it. They’re part and parcel of the whole fuku/zafa business. Way above our heads.

Lastly: I haven’t decided yet if I really feel bad for Yunior or not. Like, I do but I don’t. Yeah, he’s been conditioned, he can’t keep it in his pants, it’s just the way he is. But it’s funny how much he and Oscar are polar opposites. They both find a girl they love and Oscar goes hog-wild for her, but Yunior can’t even be faithful to Lola. It kind of made me mad. I was SO hoping Yunior and Lola would wind up together.

I really liked Yunior’s section. He has a lot of insight to offer on both Oscar and Lola. I actually felt bad for him, in the scene where Oscar decided to give up on his running. Yunior only wanted to help the poor kid, and when he gets mad at Oscar and pushes him into the wall (Oscar was being a brat, but I do feel bad for him to a point, too), Lola decides she doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore.

Man, that sucks.

Speaking of feeling bad for Oscar, though, my heart broke for the kid when he caught Jenni with another guy. We know his mom had three major heartbreaks (the title of chapter 3, page 77) – and I can only hope the same isn’t in store for him, although, with all the talk of curses and fuku, etc., I’m not too sure. Two down, one more to go? (I seem to remember back in the beginning of the book some foreshadowing of that – pg. 45, “Your mother, his tia Rubelka had once whispered, was a loca when it came to love. It almost killed her. And now it seemed that it was Oscar’s turn.”)

As for Beli’s part, I have to say, I wasn’t surprised to find out the Gangster was married. He was just too slimy. Poor Beli, though – blinded by love, yet again. I was a little surprised, though, to find out she lost the baby. Sad stuff.

(Pun intended.)

So in class today we talked at length about some of the parallels between Beli and Lola, and how they may or may not have formed some of their identities around their bodies and physical attributes. This got me thinking. We discussed how Lola doesn’t seem to have the same sort of epiphany concerning her own body in the way that Beli does, but as time passes she definitely does sense the potential power her body has:

“I can’t wear shorts anymore without causing traffic jams” (71)

“I never knew my big ass could be such a star attraction…. I…looked at my culo for the first time…. A treasure” (73)

I couldn’t help but think of both of these quotes when I got to page 92, with the lengthy description of the splash Beli’s new body made in her neighborhood. “And what about that supersonic culo that could…pull windows from out their motherfucking frames?” Dominican womens’ bodies have tremendous power – okay, okay, we get it – but I  really like how Lola uses a similarly dramatic metaphor for the attention that parts of her body receive.

Also, I just have to say that there is a gigantic amount of irony in the fact that Beli’s greatest weapon as a young woman – her boobs – are the part of her that literally become the death of her, what with her breast cancer. That notion just keeps nagging at me.

So after reading these two parts, I guess what I really want to know is whether or not Lola was a planned pregnancy for Beli (I didn’t miss that in the reading anywhere, did I? I probably did…) She is the older child, so maybe Oscar was planned but Lola wasn’t. This might help to explain why Beli is so crazy, if having a baby interrupted her youth, and said baby grows up to be a daughter in which she sees echoes of her younger self. After all, we don’t know anything yet about O and L’s dad (right? Just gotta check, we’ve read so much family history here I have to make sure I’ve got my facts straight.)

Oh, and one last thing: on page 101 the narrator refers to Beli as the …”femme-matador I’d come to know“. Once again we see that the narrator is personally familiar with these characters but it really really bugs me that I don’t know how. He (she? I’m guessing he) is the fly on the wall here but we don’t know yet to what extent.