In Oscar Wao, social ostracism plays a
central role to the development of the characters. Oscar, his sister Lola, and
his mother all don’t fit into their societal roles like they feel they are
supposed to. While being a misfit is a common theme in many coming of age
stories, Junot Diaz uses references from comic books, science fiction, and
fantasy novels to illustrate that the characters do not belong. In particular,
Oscar is described using these nerd references because of his dedication to
genre fiction and nerd culture. When he first starts to doubt his appearance in
the mirror, he exclaims, “Jesus Christ, I’m a Morlock” (30). Morlocks are ugly
creatures from an H.G. Wells novel who look like underground apes and eat
children. In that moment, Oscar doesn’t see himself as “some kind of platano
Doc Savage, a supergenius who combined world-class martial artistry with deadly
firearms proficiency” (27) anymore, he sees himself as becoming a monster.
Oscar’s
mother Beli is also a misfit, even though she’s never read a comic book in her
life. When she finally hits puberty and grows her famous breasts, her status
changes, but she is still an outcast. Her new “power” is described as “Telling
Beli not to flaunt those curves would have been like asking the persecuted fat
kid not to use his recently discovered mutant abilities. With great power comes
great responsibility…bullshit” (93). Beli has a new superpower, but like most
superpowers it comes with the price of being treated differently. Creepy old
men try to take advantage of her, and she is forced to leave the Dominican
Republic after being beaten by the Gangster, “no ringwraith, but he wasn’t no
orc either” (119). And saddest of all, her superpower turns out to be lethal.
At the end of the book, Yunior says “She would live for another ten months, but
by then she’d more or less given up” (323).
Lola,
the most well-adjusted of the bunch, still is an outcast. As a child, she is the
“tallest, dorkiest girl in the school, the one who dressed up as Wonder Woman
every Halloween” (57). Like her mother, she looks for a way to gain power and
to escape the cycle of violence that plagues Dominican women, but ultimately
succeeds in a way and ends up with Yunior, a sort of reformed Dominican.
Besides Wonder Woman, she also seeks power in being seen as a witch. In “Wildwood”
she explains that “as long as you’ve been alive, you’ve had bruja ways; even
your mother will begrudge you that much. Hija de Liborio she called you after
you picked your tia’s winning numbers for her” (53). Though she doesn’t really
believe in fuku or zafa, she believes in her dreams and visions of going to a
better place.
It is interesting that you mention the appearance of Oscar, Lola, and Beli as part of what makes each of them outcasts. Nerdiness definitely also plays a role in making Oscar and Lola outcasts, but I do not believe Beli was ever described as being remotely close to a nerd at any point during her childhood. Appearance was the common factor in making all three of these characters outcasts. I believe the novel presents appearance as the most ostracizing characteristic of Beli, Oscar, and Lola to make a statement about the importance of beauty in most cultures. Specifically, I believe the novel is criticizing that importance through Oscar and Beli. Beli, who believes that her appearance gives her power, considers it very important. Oscar also believes that his appearance is important because he believes it is the main thing making him unpopular with women. Both of these characters suffer throughout the novel, often because of their appearance and the importance they place on it. On the other hand, Lola does not place much importance on her appearance and does not allow it to hold her back. Lola seems to be the most successful by the end of the novel at making her visions for the future a reality.
ReplyDeleteDaiz's constant science fiction and fantasy references do weigh a lot on the characters of Oscar and (more secretly) Lola, but they also serve to deepen the parallels between the novel and graphic novels and comic books in general. Oscar begins life as a ladies man, which parallels the “chosen one” trope in both Japanese anime and American comic books. He is barely able to hold back the women, and dates a large number of them. He then loses this “superpower” of sorts, and regresses into a much more contemporary trope, that of the otaku, an over-obsessed anime nerd. Oscar’s relationship to Ana (being friend-zoned) and becoming a game designer and science fiction author all fall into very stereotypical categories, all of which point to the fact that Oscar is a nerd. These stereotypes about Oscar’s nerdiness all seem like a caricature of the average comic book fan, especially male comic book nerds.
ReplyDeleteLola and Oscar’s mother, however, seem more like superwomen throughout the books. Beli is able to control Lola’s actions without resistance until Lola becomes a teenager, old enough to think for herself. Not only does Beli’s verbal abuse dictate Lola’s actions, but “For a long time I let her say what she wanted about me, and what was worse, for a long time I believed her.” (56) However, Lola experiences something very similar to what Beli did: adolescence, and secondary sex characteristics. Both of them wanted to defy their parental figures, and both receive attractive bodies. Lola’s is more like Wonder Woman’s, who she used to dress up as for Halloween, while Beli gets comically large breasts (35DDD’s according to 51).
How the novel closes on each of them, however, parallels typical endings to comic books. Oscar and Beli end up dead – unsurprisingly, many comic book heroes have died multiple times. In contrast, Lola ends up with a “happily ever after” ending, comparably, which parallels the endings to many classic comics, where everything is looking up for our characters. All in all, the comic book references throughout the novel serve to emphasize the parallels between the main characters of the novel and comic book plots.
I think Kimberlyn made a very good point in saying that Lola’s success by the end of the novel comes from her not placing as much emphasis on her looks as Beli and Oscar do. Before Beli developed her huge chest, she felt that she had nothing good going for her, because she was unable to make friends or get any male attention. To her, her appearance was all she had and it gave her power. Oscar does care about his looks, but not to the extent that his mother does. He knows that his appearance is one of the things that causes him to be unable to get a girlfriend, and while he got a haircut at one point and tried to lose some weight at different points throughout the novel, he didn’t put very much effort into changing his appearance to make himself look more appealing to the kind of girls he wanted to attract. Lola understands that looks give a person power, but she doesn’t seem to care as much as the rest of her family. She becomes “a punk chick” (54) and even though her mom calls her ugly, it doesn’t faze her or make her want to change. I think Lola knows that she has more going for her than just her looks, and she doesn’t want men to like her just because of her body, but for who she is as a person, which makes her a lot different from most other Dominican women (and men, for that matter).
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