Book Reports / Discuss "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. [4]

Prompt: Junior often relates the ways in which his characters both embody and fail to live up to Dominican gender ideals. Write an essay in which you argue how the narrative employs these models of masculinity and femininity.

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz portrays a typical Dominican family's life and their journey to become how a standard Dominican should be. Basically, the Dominican ideal gender is that male and female as supposed to be sexually open, fall in love greatly, and die bravely. The novel starts on Oscar, Lola, Hypatia Belicia Cabral, and tied back to Oscar. Everyone in the family has a history of being a real Dominican except Oscar. He was considered 'normal' at the age of seven until the separation of his two girlfriends ultimately leads to his physical altercation. Lola is a punk chick and a runaway girl, who despites her abusive mother and was bored in life. Belicia is another example of being a wild girl who falls in love entirely and causes troubles for her own.