The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Violence Being a Fuel for Humanity

Throughout The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, characters continuously abandon their happiness in order to enlighten the lives of others. Even though love is what fulfills their individual desires, they are unable to withstand the many rejections they encounter, pushing them to a point of extreme heartbreak, distress, and even death. In Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, violence being a fuel for humanity illustrates the unfortunate downfall of those seeking love, urging his readers to question the validity of true love and view Oscar’s story through the lens of genre fiction.

The bridge between “miracles” and “agony” is what traps Oscar in the fiction genre, portraying love as something similar to a curse. Throughout the novel, Oscar is pressured to go against his own will because his desires are different from the women he encounters. Yunior narrates “miracles only go far. He watched her for the signs, signs that would tell him she loved him.” (Díaz, 290). By using past tense, Díaz highlights that love is often one-sided due to Oscar’s “otherness” and his disconnect is what results in a reality that brings him closer to the curse. As the novel progresses, his desire for love becomes less apparent because of the detest people have for him. Furthermore, Oscar hesitates to deal with misfortune because he wants to meet the expectations women have for Dominican men despite having so many flaws on both his interiors and exteriors. Monica Hanna, the write of “Reassembling The Fragments” describes Oscar as someone that was “‘Forged” through oppressive violence” (Hanna, 503) in order to portray his true weaknesses in finding love. While Yunior Overall, Díaz reveals that misfortune often consumes the love people have for each other, highlighting the flaws people have in liberating the “hidden” voices of love.

Throughout the novel, Díaz strikes a parallel between fiction and love to demonstrate Oscar’s narrowly confined life and how that invalidates the love he has for others. Oscar realizes that “the family curse he’d heard about his whole life might actually be true” (303). since Ybón was never fully committed to being with him and Beli concludes that Oscar is never capable of understanding true love. The words “might” and “actually” establishes two separate sides to his “excruciating shocks of pain” (146). While the “might” illustrates Oscar’s hope for a “miracle,” the “actually” portrays the contrast between his expectations and his ability to speak up against the heavy burden his surroundings place on him. Díaz purposely includes two contrasting sides to Oscar’s love for women to highlight how powerful genre fiction can be in creating one’s story. In addition, Yunior narrates “I notice that Oscar’s hands are seamless and the book’s pages are blank” (325). It is ironic that Díaz uses “seamless” and “blank” because his deep affection for women does not fulfill his expectations as a male figure and no matter how much he endeavors to find someone that will accept him for his flaws, it never works. The connection Yunior makes between love and fiction throughout his narration of Oscar’s life allows us to understand how powerful fiction is in shaping one’s story when depicting the unfortunate downfall of those experiencing a one-sided relationship.

The difficulties in distinguishing love from rebellion contribute to Oscar’s inability to speak up for the voices that are being silenced. Oscar finds himself being targeted by “outsiders” who drag him towards evil as opposed to the “miracle” despite using love as a means of aspiration. Yunior narrates “Ana Obregon, unlike every other girl in his secret cosmology, he actually fell for as they were getting to know each other. Her appearance in his life was sudden” (36). In addition, Oscar feels a special connection the moment he meets her for the first time, yet the end result of their short term relationship reveals that love is connected to the fuku. Oscar views his “sudden” encounter as a “piece of heaven,” yet Yunior portrays Oscar’s “unrequited love” differently. While Ana’s “appearance in his life was sudden” (36) and that itself motivates his aspirations, he never receives the same amount of attention he gives to others, bringing him to a conclusion that true love can only be understood if it mutually provides a “pessimistic vision of the future.” (Hanna, 515). Overall, the inability to define true love silences the voices that are diminishing, highlighting the negative side effects of “unrequited love.”

Ultimately, Junot Díaz mentions the theme of love to convey the loss of voice to which violence leads. Through references to Oscar’s “unbearable pain” and his “taste” for women, Diaz emphasizes the fragility of true love. Any rejection of love is threatening towards Oscar as he often finds himself being silenced by those who view him differently. defeat existence does not provide him with any source of protection against his “otherness”. Díaz allows us to see multiple definitions of love through one story by illustrating how fiction greatly affects the process of storytelling. Overall, Oscar’s story illustrates the “fictional” aspects of his love for women, allowing us to understand why he is unable to release himself from the emotional restraints people place on him.