In his fiction The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz introduces the Fuku in an endeavor to justify the experiences that his family as well as much of the community has gone through. According to Junot Diaz, the Fuku happens to be associated with a deadly curse, which Oscar and his family go through. Much of the challenges and misfortunes that befall the family are presumably inevitable as it is perceived to have been the inescapable fate that Oscar and his relatives have to bear. Nevertheless, a careful analysis of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao leads to the presumption that the Fuku may, actually, be the aftermath of the actions of Oscar and others. The concerned parties appear to be victimizing an incomprehensible and supernatural influence as it is the simplest leeway through which they can hypothesize their misfortunes.
Beadly Curse of Oscar’s Family
There is credible evidence that Oscar and the rest of the family do not manifest the will or a zealous aspiration to comprehend the reason why some of the developments in their lives are not as they would have anticipated. Clearly, they are inclined towards retreating from most of the unpleasant realities by fantasying and, at times, diversion. In this case, blaming the Fuku for instigating most of their misfortunes become easily excused since, as it has been aforementioned. None of the parties demonstrates active enthusiasm or interest in understanding the reason why such seemingly unresolved difficulties come to pass.
According to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the challenging curse is perceived to be originated in Africa. Diaz is presumably implying that it was introduced by the black slaves to the Dominican Republic during the Transatlantic Trade. The book also instigates the perception that obscenities were heaped upon Santo Domingo by the king. This means that the misfortunes that Oscar and his family were suffering were attributable to the desires of Trujillo. The people of Santo Domingo regard Trujillo to be the Fuku king who could cast an evil spell on anyone who would attempt and behave in a manner that was against his wishes and directions. According to Diaz, Trujillo could not be hesitant in sending the Fuku after his antagonists irrespective of whether they happened to offer matching opposition to him or not. The curse could be of any degree, but whether large or small, it always had a forceful consequence as well as a decrementing aftermath. At times, the Fuku’s curse could result into such unfortunate consequences as sickness or death. At other times, some relatively diminished consequences could result, for instance, the victims who fall down the staircase.
Influence the Fuku Curse on Characters’ Love Life
The Fuku curse can influence the characters` love life. I think he tries to escape the Fuku curse but was not able to do that. He cannot get laid even if he tried. Whenever he falls in love with a girl she was completely different than him and there were no chemistry between them. It looks like girls love him as a friend. I think that the Fuku is affecting this part of his life. Oscar’s relationship with Ana Obregon is the one of his first loves in the book. Only then when Oscar is in love he displayed any type of violence. It was like that when he took the gun and waited for Manny. I think this type of behavior ended up being like a fore shadow for the way Oscar behaves each time he is in love. This violence is shown as a domestic violence and even extreme violence that occurs for loving too much or loving the wrong person. Beli experiences the violence when she loves the Gangster, and Abelard experiences it when he protects his daughter out of love. Love is a strong emotion in the book and violence can sometimes be the outcome of it. So, I think that the Fuku can affect people’s love life.
Trujillo is connected with the Fuku and other people’s misfortune mostly because he was the leader during that era. He was a really bad person using violence to his advantage and ruining people’s lives. Trujillo ruled by showing fear. He has tortured and murdered people. These things usually awaited anyone who objected to Trujillo’s power. He was a dictator during the time. Diaz uses the Fuku to show how the outcome of Trujillo’s reign follows a Dominican family.
What I have noticed is that every time the curse hits a member of the family, they somehow miraculously overcome it. I think this quote from the story: “Cursed people, after all, tend not to drag themselves out of cane fields with a frightening roster of injuries and then happen to be picked up by a van of sympathetic musicians in the middle of the night” is telling how rare the situation, when Oscar’s mom survives an assault in the corn field as a teenager was. Another example would be when Oscar’s sister Lola bounces back from a long difficult stage, after joining her school’s track team and enrolling at Rutgers. This could be evidence s that characters have overcome certain difficulties. I think that a big overcoming event was when Oscar tries to commit suicide by jumping off a train bridge in New Brunswick. Before he jumps he sees the Golden Mongoose, and he survives the fall, because he lands on the median. To my mind, the Mongoose has some type of symbolic meaning. I think that the Mongoose acts as some sort of guardian angel for Oscar, maybe like a conscience that wakes him up.
Work Cited
- Diaz, J. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. London: Faber & Faber, 2008.