My Report Paper on The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Oscar Diaz
Report Paper
Help Received: Cadet Tom Nanatorwich told me where to place my bibliographys, Jstor, Projectmuse, easybib, The Everyday Writer
Miller, T.s. “Preternatural Narration and the Lens of Genre Fiction in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Science Fiction Studies 38.1 (2011): 92-114. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5621/sciefictstud.38.1.0092?ref=no-x-route:cf585917114311551e3eeddead21e19b>.
In this article Miller describes how The Book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz has many different genres in it like science fiction, fantasy, magic realism, and postmodern; however that the science fiction genre is the most important to the story even though it has very little effect to the plot. The author of the article claims that the use of science fiction allows the other genres to be present, allows the reader to better understand the world and the human experience that the narrator is describing and what the characters think and feel. It helps Diaz create a more perfect and complete picture of what the world in which Oscar, and his family lived in and to help explain how Oscar thought. Diaz used multiple discourses with Yunior the narrator examining Oscar with science fiction but also using other genres to complete the picture and understand not everyone thought that way. Thus having a much clearer understanding then if Yunior only told the story in science fiction. Yunior also uses science fiction is also used to tell the history of the Diaz family, and is a metaphor for Yunior to use when narrating the story. Another reason why science fiction is the most important genre to the story is that Oscar sees himself living in since fiction and compares science fiction to Santo Domingo. Miller shows the connection between the genres and multiple discourses let the reader truly see what Diaz was trying to describe and show in his novel.
Hanna, Monica. “”REASSEMBLING THE FRAGMENTS”: Battling Historiographies, Caribbean Discourse, and Nerd Genres in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Callaloo 33.2 (2010): 498-520. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/40732888?ref=no-x-route:cebd61bdfdaa4b49386b1c8bee871e5e>.
Ms. Monica Hanna describes how Junot Diaz uses multiple genres, discourses, and resistance history to create a new national history of the Dominican Republic. Diaz’s narrator Yunior uses magical realism to create a cyclical history to describe the family curse and how it will keep repeating. He also combines Caribbean discourse with use of magical realism to make it funnier and more believable, and to describe and understand what happens to Oscar in the story. Hanna also claims that the multiple narratives creates a history that is more accurate and truthful than just one authoritative control because they create a more full portrait of the Dominican Nation people, and Dominican immigrants. Hanna also claims that the Junot Diaz can be seen as a controversy about who has control over the narration of histories. Hanna claims this is true through Diaz use of both the form of history and the content of history. She also argues that the use of magical realism helps the reader understand the Caribbean history and discourse. For example the mongoose that appears to Belicia, and Oscar resembling extreme phenomenon and Dominican history. Hanna exposes that because Diaz chooses to switch between two different narrative forms Caribbean and United States narratives Diaz helps bridge the gap and connects the two countries history and cultures into the story. Hanna connects the use of the multiple discourses that Diaz uses to the readers understanding of the history of the two nations and of Oscar and his family.
Mutizwa, Kadzi. “Review: Assimilation Anxiety.” New Labor Forum 18.1 (2009): 116-19. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/40342801?ref=no-x-route:a81a7ef437cbcef2eb3cb90ed286bccf>.
IN this article Mutizwa focuses on the how the young adult hood for immigrants can truly be cruel confusing, and alienating as show through the different characters Diaz created in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It does this by showing how it affected Lola and Oscar. It shows how Oscar is confused and getting picked on. He is overweight geeky and doesn’t know how to act around girls. Yunior has to take care of Oscar. What is interesting is that Oscar can’t fit in with the other Dominican kids because he is overweight and non-athletic like them so they claim he is not Dominican. This article also explains how being made fun of made him associate with any one that is bullied while he is a teacher and show how it built up to his depression and eventually suicide. This article also explains how immigration effects young adult immigrants because of expectations like strong male, dutiful women stereotypes and expectations of acting in way of their new culture after immigrating. Diaz also exposes how that the old home and culture can become just as confusing and unfamiliar as the new home and culture for the immigrants. He also explains and describes the reality of the working class experience instead of the pop culture glamour of the working class becoming Ivy League college graduates. Diaz does this by showing how the people close to Oscar and around Oscar often work multiple shifts or jobs to keep their family alive and going.
Argument
These articles all show how the multiple discourses, different genres, and different ways of presenting ideas let Diaz show how the world that Yunior creates works and how the charters think and feel. As argued by Hanna and Miller through Yunior using the multiple discourses the reader gets a closer image of Oscar and his family. Mutwaiza shows how the meaning that Diaz was trying to show through his book. It shows how Oscar is holding up as a young adult immigrants being continuously bullied, and how the other immigrants feel, act, and think. Diaz wouldn’t have been able to expose this effectively without using the multiple discourses. Miller also shows how Oscar griped on to the world as a science fiction in connecting it to what Mutizwa by showing the fact that Oscar was looking for a way to get though his days with all the struggles that he was facing and picked since fiction as an escape from the bulling. The multiple discourses gives the reader a close look at characters and let us explore how assimilation is effecting every single one of them. Hanna argues that use of magical realism and draws us closer to the culture and history of the Dominican Republic, and the multiple discourses bring us closer to the clashing ideas of both the Dominican culture and the United States culture. Mutizwa claims that the clash between cultures helps draw Oscar into his depression and ultimate fate. Mutizwa does not directly claim that the multiple discourses is what allows us to see the struggle with assimilation and immigration with young adult immigrants however the other the two other authors Miller and Hanna show how the multiple discourses and use of multiple genres lets us truly understand each character better and see the realities of poverty and life of immigrants not just the pop culture view or only Oscars problems which Mutwaiza exposes.
Reflective Tag: This paper exposed me to the life of an immigrant through Oscar and his family. It taught me about how the Culture of the US can clash with their culture from where they are from.