Junot
Diaz ironic novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao implements
characterization effectively to forward the ideology that the fukύ curse and Trujillo as a compilation
of the source of all Oscar’s dilemmas and it hinders his progression. The curse
of doom is closely intertwine with the Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas
Trujillo Molina this is somewhat explanation for Oscar’s persona that is not
relatively appealing to the girls around him. Oscar lands a chance of a
life-time (or arguably of his life-time) dating two girls at once which
produces irreversible turmoil, “The threesome only lasted a single beautiful
week–he broke up with Olga the following day on the playground, Maritza at his
side”(Diaz 14-15). Olga was quiet and socially awkward and Maritza was the type
of girl all the little boys drooled for; Oscar picking Maritza over Olga
indicates that he is more attracted to beauty when personality and beauty are
in conflict (which is nothing new according to the history of MANkind).
Ironically, Maritza dumped him; maybe it was the “fukύ” curse or maybe it was because of Oscar’s freakishly weird overweight
geeky appearance (let’s just call it a truce and say both). Fast-forward into
time, Oscar goes and visits his Nena Inca in Santo Domingo, and resorts to
composing science fiction stories as a psychological outlet. When he returns
from Santo Domingo he meet a girl name Ana at his SAT prep class, “He and Ana
in SAT class, he and Ana in the parking lot afterward, he and Ana at the
McDonald’s, he and Ana become friends”(Diaz 36). Oscar expected her to be “adiόs”, which displays his low
self-esteem and insecure attitude epitomizing his character. Oscar fell for her
and both of them were building a healthy relationship until “fukύ” appeared in human flesh as Manny,
Ana’s boyfriend from jail. Overtly, Oscar’s curse came back to haunt him and
altered the relationship he had with Ana negatively throughout the novel. Oscar’s
character continues to illuminate the meaning of “fukύ” holistically. Oscar’s
power and weakness lies in girls, “drank two bottles of 151 because some girl
dissed him–almost killing himself and his sick mother in the process” (Diaz
169). His lowest points and his highest points in his life according to his
perception is when he was with a girl, but he does not have a healthy medium to
what is enough and what is too much. Consequently, this leads him to believe
there is no reason to live thus he attempts suicide. Oscar’s depression and
countless downfalls exemplify the philosophy of the curse making the curse more
believable to the reader. Occasionally, man v. self (Oscar’s lack of confidence)
and man v. “supernatural” (for lack of a better term) is an explosive mixture
that yields the desired path of progression and paves the way for a brick road
of derailment.
