In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz has certain characters that are portrayed as powerful, but their power stems directly from the sexuality that they show. Both Beli and her daughter Lola show how sexuality can be a double-edged sword, and the problems with the driving forces of sex in the Dominican Republic.
Even Oscar finds his main problem revolving around sex, everyone that he knows is pushing him to be something that he is not. The machismo in the DR has a driving force that Diaz shows shapes how people react and treat each other. Instead of embracing who Oscar is as a person, he gets it into his head that he must lose his virginity and experience what everyone around him is pursuing.
Both Lola and Beli show the negative impacts of showing off their sexuality, especially during the hard times of Trujillo s reign of terror. They have a lot of power with men, but it eventually leads into the scenario where they are being forced into something that neither of them want. Lola simply loses her virginity because she does not think it is that big of a deal, and having a sexual relationship is a way for her to actually feel something.
Diaz shows how many people in the novel correlate sex with love, even though it is two completely different things and I believe Diaz wants to show how wrong it is for people to abuse and take advantage of each other. Lola Beli and Oscar fall into the trap of sexuality and what kind of power it can give a young person, hopefully it is a lesson we can all learn from
The Devil's Highway
12 years ago
I definitely agree that this book shows the negative impacts of treating sex as the main factor of how you see yourself and others. It is sad that Oscar had to experience so much abuse instead of being seen for his other attributes. But since Oscar comes from this culture, he is almost destined to feel insecure about who he is in relation to other men especially.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Diaz was trying to teach a lesson about how vulnerable we each are and how we must not take advantage of one another.
I appreciated your assessment of sexuality for many of the characters as a "double-edged sword." On the one hand, you could make the point that the female characters in the book wield a certain amount of power due to their sexuality. In each generation, men slobber after the women, and Oscar's inability to attract women is ultimately what renders him powerless to his peers.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, sexuality becomes an enormous source of pain for the female characters. Those like Trujillo and the General are able to obtain whatever woman they are attracted as if her sexuality is simply another commodity that can be bought or sold. When faced against these men, sexuality ceases to be a form of power and becomes a source of incredible pain and oppression. To cite another example, Beli allowed her youthful sexuality to define her entire identity, so when she feels she has lost this in her old age she most becomes a bitter and sad person.
One of the things that intrigued me about this novel is both Diaz's frankness about sexuality in Dominican culture and the way he critiques this attitude. Oscar is such a hero to Yunior because he believes in love. His week with Ybon at the end of the novel is not really about sex, it is about intimacy--something that Yunior misses out on because he is too tough to be vulnerable. Trujillo was one of the most exploitative dictators on the planet, and according to Diaz,his attitudes towards domination and sexuality appear to have spread throughout the country. Oscar's willingness to be vulnerable for love contradicts this attitude.
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