Oscar Wao Case

The lives of those related in the novel Oscar Wao burst out of the pages with a vivid riveting description of the origin of their stories leading to the eventual linkage between each character in the fam `ily. As the novel progresses, it moves further and further into the past, revealing clues to the tragedy of the de León's family history along with an underlying aspect of the fukú as its family root. Characters are not able to start new beginnings in their future without looking back at the past. The Dominican Republic being the past is still very much alive in America, as it seems that the members of the family internally carry a piece of the past within them as it cultivates into an entity that dictate their lives and interweaves their stories into one. My paper will argue some of the reoccurring themes displayed throughout the past and into the future - silence amongst the de Leon's, the constant need for escape, and the gender double standard, consequences, and meaning of sexuality in Dominican culture. It will also relate these themes to the purpose of Yunior's retelling of the past.

That code of silence dominates this novel and originates with the Trujillo Regime, where his methods of silencing and instilling an aura of "amnesia" to the citizens were successful. The history of the Dominican Republic under Trujillo is replete with "paginas en blanco", both figurative and literal. The characters in this novel undergo horrendous emotional and physical trauma in their homeland and then have the stories disappear from collective memory as they migrate to northern New Jersey. Even when the dictator does not interfere directly with history, the fear he engenders in his people does it for him. Beli's time with her foster family is never revealed by La Inca or Beli, and is labeled as "Their very own pagina en blanco"- a dark period they prefer to be left unexamined. Consequently, Oscar has a dream while he is in the hospital; and Yunior writes "The book is blank. Those were the words La Inca's servant heard him say just before he broke through the plane of unconsciousness and into the universe of the Real" (Díaz, 302). This was Oscar addressing the silences in the novel and alluding to the fact that his family's struggle needed to be talked about, and he chose Yunior to bring everything to light. Five years after Oscar's death, Yunior dreams that they are in a bailey with dusty books, and that Oscar is wearing a mask but Yunior can see his eyes. He holds up a book. For a while, Yunior runs in the dream, and then once he stays and sees the pages of the book are blank. Oscar's eyes are smiling, "Zafa"(Diaz,325). This is the catalyst that drives Yunior to tell the story. The horrifying ritual of silence continues when Beli tells Lola to forget about her rape just as how she won't speak on her own possible rape.

Most of the members in the de León family undergo a phase of an intense need to escape and therefore rebel. Beli rebels through working to prove her independence from La Inca and loves a high-profile gangster. She embodies a wild girl who has a knack for heartbreak and a rebellious streak. The narrator describes the linkage between Beli and Lola as "[Belicia], like her yet to be born daughter, would come to exhibit a particularly Jersey malaise--the inextinguishable longing for elsewhere" (Díaz, 77). Lola becomes a "Banshees-loving punk chick" with a desire for escape, in which she ultimately uses her sexuality to propel toward. She charges the father of one of her classmates for sex, with the sole purpose to not return to her mother's rath. Lola provides insight into her escapism by stating "... if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in. And that's what I guess these stories are all about." (Díaz, 209). Lola realizes that her need to escape her environment does not have as much to do with her surroundings as it does with her--the malaise comes from the internal, not the external. This internal part encompasses herself and the identity of the de Leóns - showing that the fuku is a part of them, not just a product of their environment. A large part of Lola's need to escape stems from her relationship with her mother, "I was fourteen and desperate for my own patch of world that had nothing to do with her" (Díaz, 55). Lola stating that she yearns for her own space in the world shows that the pattern of escape is trickling throughout their family's history because Beli felt the same way about La Inca. When an opportunity for escape does present itself, it is swept from under their hands. Beli's pregnancy was her escape coming true; it was Beli's way out of a life that had already struck her down, time after time. However, the baby is beaten out of her. Similarly, when Lola runs away she thinks she has finally broken free when she believes her family is not in search of her but after one phone call to Oscar and her mother is able to get a grasp on her and pull her right back in. She states "It was like the stupidest thing I ever did. I was miserable. And so bored. But of course I wouldn't admit