The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The book does need some getting used to, because of the fact that the languages switch from English to Spanish so frequently. A spanish course/dictionary is needed in order to figure out what some of the words mean.
While starting the book, we see that Oscar is compared to a model and is very suave with the ladies. However, he does not have a male role model in his life. “It wasn’t just that he didn’t have no kind of father to show him the masculine ropes, he simply lacked all aggressive and martial tendencies. (Unlike his sister, who fought boys and packs of morena girls who hated her thin nose and straightish hair)” (Diaz 15). Why id it that Oscar’s sister knows how to fight and Oscar doesn’t? Is there a difference in the cultural child rearing for both males and females?
I though that it was interesting when Oscar was dumped by Maritza and could only think of his pain, after he dumped Olga, and was dating both of the girls at the same time and wanted them to share.
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I also had a hard time understanding some of the text, but I think some of it is explained in the context around it. I couldn’t figure out either why it was that Lola could fight, but Oscar couldn’t.
I agree with you and actually wrote about how the English to Spanish switch made the book hard difficult at first but almost seemed necessary. It made it feel as if the author was speaking to your in real life rather then simply writing a story. Since the book takes place in Santo Domingo and inhabitants probably switch from English and Spanish during your speech, it would only make sense for the book to do this. I think the more we read, the more we will get use to it.
Oscar was only seven when the break up escapade happened. Kids do no outgrow egocentrism for a while, so I am not surprised he was only thinking of how he felt.
I actually liked the whole switch from English to Spanish every here and there. This is only because I know a good amount of Spanish so I enjoyed this and I knew most of what was always being said. I felt bad for Oscar when he was dumped, but at the same time he made Olga feel pretty bad… could’ve just been karma.