The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2007

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Introduction-Chapter 2

Part 1, Chapter 3

Part 1, Chapter 4

Part 2, Introduction-Chapter 5

Part 2, Chapter 6

Part 3, Introduction-“The Final Letter”

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Mongoose and the Man Without a Face

In many cultures, the mongoose is a symbol of good fortune. In Oscar Wao, it initially appears that the mongoose will serve a similar symbolic purpose. With its golden eyes and beautiful singing voice, the mongoose leads the grievously injured Belicia out of the canefields to safety. Thus, it appears to be a beneficent agent of zafa in a world full of fukú. By contrast, the Man Without a Face, who withholds aid from Belicia when she is driven to the canefields and appears in Socorro’s dreams on the eve of Abelard’s arrest, seems to be an agent or at least a harbinger of fukú.

As the narrative progresses, the role of the mongoose is complicated. After an ambiguous appearance during Oscar’s suicide attempt, the mongoose emerges in Oscar’s dreams, seemingly to goad him into visiting Santo Domingo, where events unfold that lead to Oscar’s demise. At best, the mongoose represents a form of temporary good fortune that only prolongs a person’s suffering. This representation is most apparent when the mongoose visits Oscar in his dreams in the immediate aftermath of the Beating to End All Beatings. He asks Oscar, “More or less?” (301), implying that Oscar can accept either more suffering, by allowing the mongoose to once again save his life, or less suffering. Later, the idea that the mongoose and the Man Without a Face are collaborators in the suffering of the Cabral-de León clan is all but confirmed when Oscar sees a vision of a bus filled with his entire family, living and dead. The ticket taker is the Man Without a Face, and the driver is the mongoose. One grim conclusion to draw from this is that zafa does not counteract fukú; instead, it simply prolongs cursed individuals’ lives so that fukú can continue to wreak havoc.

Páginas en Blanco

Yunior writes often of the páginas en blanco or “blank pages” of history. These represent the erased stories of Dominicans like Abelard, Belicia, Oscar, and everyone else who suffered the trauma of the Trujillo era, either directly or indirectly. The inspiration for this symbol comes in part from another murderous Dominican president, Joaquín Balaguer, who left a blank page in his memoir where the name of the man who ordered the death of journalist Orlando Martínez would be filled in after Balaguer’s death. The irony is that Balaguer was the man responsible for Martínez’s murder.

Yunior feels it is his responsibility to fill these blank pages by writing the text of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He also admits a degree of creative license in transmitting these stories, particularly Oscar’s. For example, he casts doubt on the veracity of certain details surrounding Ybón, and when relaying the story of Belicia and the mongoose, he is careful to point out, “Even your Watcher has his silences, his páginas en blanco” (148). He likens these silences in the record of the Cabral-de León clan to the gaps in the historical record covering the Trujillo era. Unlike the Nazis, Trujillo’s impressive regime kept no paper trail, and so the world may never know the full extent of the death Trujillo wrought.

Cultural References

Yunior throws out hundreds of cultural references in the book. While a lot of attention has already been paid to the fantasy and science fiction references and the purposes they serve, the text is also bursting with historical and literary references. The title of Chapter 4, “Sentimental Education,” is a reference to a 19th-century French novel by Gustave Flaubert. When discussing the many criminal exploits of La Fea, Yunior says she is like a villain out of a Dickens novel, only even more outrageous in the breadth of her moral turpitude. Even a passage in which Yunior advises readers to avoid women named Awilda “[b]ecause when she awildas out on your ass you’ll know pain for real” (175) is a reference to the daughter of a fifth-century Scandinavian king. This collapse of Dungeons & Dragons character sheets, 19th-century French literature, and contemporary Dominican slang into a single cultural vernacular reflects both the incongruity and the thrilling malleability of Yunior’s experience as a first-generation Dominican American.