The+Brief+Wondrous+Life+of+Oscar+Wao

  __The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao__

Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd, a New Jersey romantic who dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from the Dominican Republic to the United States and back again. // (From the back cover of __The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao__.) //

 Forum Assignment **__ Part A: __** Junot Díaz’s own life greatly influenced his writing. Describe how Díaz’s life influenced his writing of the novel: __The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao__.


 * __Part B: __** As you know the entire novel isn’t narrated, or even focused on Oscar. None the less, Oscar has a profound effect on several characters in the novel. Explain the influence that Oscar has on some of the narrating characters of the novel.

Literary Criticism

//“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao // doesn’t offer a particularly new or enlightening view of the immigrant or postcolonial experiences, but this doesn’t detract from Diaz’s considerable aesthetic accomplishment. His prose is frequently exhilarating, and the sheer volume of intertextual references—Stephen King, Mario Vargas Llosa, //X-Men //, //Lord of the Rings //, //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Dungeons and Dragons //, and on—establishes a convincingly multilingual narrative voice to match the book’s themes and settings. It’s Diaz’s bursting, polyphonal attempt to fill the blank pages of his ethnic history.” - Literary criticism by John Lingan (//The Quarterly Conversation//)

<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"> [] This article investigates the idea the story in reality is about more than the life of Oscar. The other characters might indeed be the true storyline focus.
 * __<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Below are links to more literary criticisms: __**

[] This page briefly tells us of some of the emerging themes, and the deeper meaning of the novel.

[] This literary criticism from Cameron compares The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao to other well known novels. This comparison Cameron provides points out parts that he thought unnecessary to the plot of the novel.

http://www.wikispaces.com/_/2009051601/i/c.gif <span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(192,0,0); font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"> Junot Diaz <span style="display: block; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0,0,0); font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; text-align: left;">
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">Junot Díaz **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"> (born 31 December 1968 ) is a [|Dominican] - [|American] writer and creative writing professor at [|MIT] . Central to Díaz's work is the duality of the immigrant experience. He received the [|Pulitzer Prize for Fiction] for his novel, // [|The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao] // in 2008.

Díaz was born in Villa Juana, a neighborhood in [|Santo Domingo], [|Dominican Republic]. He was the third child in a family of five. Throughout most of his early childhood, he lived with his mother and grandparents while his father, Rafael, worked in the [|United States]. Díaz immigrated to [|Parlin, New Jersey] in December 1974, where he was re-united with his father. He lived in the London Terrace Apartments, less than a mile from what he has described as "one of the largest landfills in New Jersey."

He attended Madison Park Elementary and was a voracious reader, often walking four miles in order to borrow books from his public library. At this time Díaz became fascinated with apocalyptic films and books, especially the work of [|John Christopher], the original // [|Planet of the Apes] // films and the [|BBC] mini-series // [|Edge of Darkness] //. Díaz graduated from Cedar Ridge High School.

He attended [|Kean College] in [|Union, New Jersey] for one year before transferring and ultimately completing his [|BA] at [|Rutgers College] in 1992, majoring in English; there he was involved in a [|creative-writing living-learning residence hall] and in various student organizations and was exposed to the authors who would motivate him into becoming a writer: [|Toni Morrison] and [|Sandra Cisneros]. He worked his way through college by delivering pool tables, washing dishes, pumping gas and working at Raritan River Steel.

After graduating from Rutgers he was employed at [|Rutgers University Press] as an editorial assistant. He earned his [|MFA] from [|Cornell University] in [|Ithaca, New York] in 1995, where he wrote most of his first collection of short stories. Diaz has said he was stunned when he received an acceptance letter from Cornell because he had not applied there. Apparently his then-girlfriend applied on his behalf. Díaz is active in the Dominican community and teaches creative writing at the [|Massachusetts Institute of Technology], and is also the fiction editor for the // [|Boston Review] //. He is a founding member of the Voices of Our Nations Arts Writing Workshop, a writing workshop focused on writers of color. He was a Writing Fellow at [|Wesleyan University], in 2009, and participated in Wesleyan's Distinguished Writers Series.

Díaz has been active in a number of community organizations in New York City, from Pro-Libertad, to the Dominican Workers Party (Partido Trabajador Dominicano) and the Unión de Jóvenes Dominicanos. He has been critical of immigration policy in the United States and with fellow author Edwidge Danticat published an op-ed piece in the New York Times condemning the illegal deportation of Haitians and Haitian Dominicans in the Dominican Republic.

He is the author of //Drown// and //The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao// which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, African Voices, Best American Short Stories (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000), in Pushcart Prize XXII and in The O'Henry Prize Stories 2009. ([|www.wikipedia.org])

He has received a Eugene McDermott Award, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, a Lila Acheson Wallace Readers Digest Award, the 2002 Pen/Malamud Award, the 2003 US-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ( [|www.junotdiaz.com] )

<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';">**__Below are links to more info on Junot Diaz:__**

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif';"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(128,0,128); font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/174353/june-18-2008/junot-diaz] <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">An interview with Steven Colbert. It’s interesting to see Mr. Diaz’s demeanor. You’d expect him to be a very confident, strong willed man, but Stephen shows a sillier, more meek side.

[] An interview with Diaz

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<span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(192,0,0); font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Historical and Political Context

=Rafael Trujillo= After three years of economic growth and stability under Vásquez the political climate in the Republic once again begins to break down. Meanwhile, the National Police are transformed into the National Army (Ejército Nacional). Trujillo remains as commander-in-chief and is promoted to brigadier-general. The elections proceed but, following intimidation of potential opponents by the military, Trujillo is the only candidate. After claiming his election as president with 95 percent of the vote he has the parliament issue an official proclamation announcing the commencement of "the Era of Trujillo." There will not be a free and fair election in the Republic for another 31 years. To maintain his hold on power Trujillo uses a secret police force (the Military Intelligence Service, or SIM) to monitor and silence opponents at home and abroad. However, the cordial relations do not last long as Trujillo seeks to close the border to the Haitian itinerants. The Dominican Army goes to work, slaughtering around 20,000 largely unarmed Haitian men, women and children, mostly in border areas, but also in the western Cibao. (Estimates of the number killed vary from several hundred to 30,000.) Meanwhile, as Trujillo comes to control more of the Dominican sugar industry, he begins to see the value of cheap Haitian labour and reverse his attitude to cross-border migration. During the year he and signs a bilateral contract with Haiti to regulate the import of Haitian labourers. The sisters are released but soon after are murdered on Trujillo's orders. The story of the sisters will later be dramatized in the film 'In the Time of the Butterflies'.
 * Kill tally:** Around 20,000 Haitians killed in 1937. (Estimates of the number of Haitians killed vary from several hundred to 30,000.) An unknown number of Dominican dissidents and opposition figures killed during his 31-year reign.
 * Mini biography:** Born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, on 24 October 1891. He comes from a humble, mixed-race background (his grandmother is Haitian), receives a rudimentary education, engages in some petty theft and works in various low-paid jobs, including sugar plantation guard and telegraph operator. As a child he collects bottle caps, earning him the nickname 'chapita' (bottle top).
 * 1918** - On 9 December Trujillo enlists in the National Police, a new force being organized and trained by the US Marines. In 1921 he is sent to officer's school. Following graduation he rises quickly through the ranks, becoming a captain in 1922, captain and inspector of the First District in 1923, major-commander in 1924, lieutenant-colonel and chief-of-staff in 1924 and colonel and commander-in-chief of police in 1925.
 * 1927** - President Vásquez extends his term from four to six years and removes the prohibition on presidential reelection, a move that calls into question the validity of the country's constitution and provides fuel for his political opponents.
 * 1930** - Trujillo and the political leader Rafael Estrella Urena strike a deal that will enable Estrella to take power without interference from the army. In February Estrella proclaims a revolution and marches on the capital. Trujillo declares his "neutrality" and keeps his troops in their barracks. Vásquez flees and Estrella assumes the provisional presidency in lieu of the outcome of elections scheduled for May.
 * 1935-1936** - Trujillo and Haitian President Stenio Vincent sign agreements ending the long-standing dispute over the border between the two countries. The settlement marks a high point between the two nations. Trujillo visits the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, where he is warmly received.
 * 1937** - Dominican covert agents working in neighboring Haiti are discovered and executed by the Haitian government. Trujillo uses the episode as an excuse to enforce border control and cleanse the Republic's borderlands of dark-skinned Haitians. On 2 October he orders their massacre.
 * 1938** - Trujillo does not run for president in elections held that year but continues to hold absolute power behind the scenes, retaining an office in the presidential palace and ensuring that top bureaucrats report directly to him.
 * 1939** - When the Second World War breaks out in September Trujillo sides with the antifascist Allies.
 * 1942** - Trujillo again takes the title of president.
 * 1944** - A plot by Dominican agents to kill Haitian President Elie Lescot is foiled. The following year a 16-page letter vilifying President Lescot and signed by Trujillo is widely circulated. The letter will contribute to the downfall of the Lescot government in January 1946.
 * 1949** - On 14 June a group of exiled Dominicans stage the so-called 'Luperion Invasion' in a bid to oust Trujillo. A small force flies into the country but is quickly crushed.
 * 1952** - The title of president is passed to Trujillo's brother Héctor Bienvenido, though Trujillo retains absolute power.
 * 1960** - The 14th of June Movement hatches a plot to assassinate Trujillo on 21 January. However, a day before the assassination attempt the secret police sweep, arresting many of the leaders of the movement, including the Mirabel sisters and their husbands.
 * 1961** - Trujillo is assassinated on 30 May, dying in a hail of bullets when his car is ambushed on a road outside the capital in a plot organised and executed by members of the country's wealthy elite. It is reported that the CIA supplied the weapons used by the assassins and provided other assistance.[|Source]

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 * = <span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(192,0,0); font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">[[image:http://rgr-static1.tangentlabs.co.uk/media/9780571239733/brief-wondrous-life-of-oscar-wao.jpg width="165" height="258" align="center" caption="Alternate Cover"]]
 * = [[image:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01184/arts-graphics-2008_1184423a.jpg width="245" height="161" align="center" caption="Dominican Republic"]] ||= <span style="display: block; font-size: 24pt; color: rgb(192,0,0); font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: center;">[[image:http://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/2008/04/diazprize.jpg width="199" height="129" caption="Diaz"]] || [[image:http://blog.luxuryproperty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/dominican-republic-580x321.jpg width="290" height="155" align="center" caption="Dominican Republic"]] ||

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[|BWL Review by the Washington Post]