The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Sparknotes

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao focuses less on its title character and more on the history and contemporary diaspora of the Dominican Republic. Oscar Wao is the midpoint that allows Junot Díaz to explore multiple themes of sexuality, hyper masculinity tangled with identity, and the effects of diaspora. Similarly, the Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, delves into the effects of post-colonialism in Africa; proving the novel is less about its main character, Kurtz, and more about the horrendous conditions Belgian rule has left on Africa. The parallel between each book and the characters’ last words, Wao’s last words, “The beauty! The beauty!” and Kurtz’s, “The horror! The horror!” serves as different perspectives on the same issues of white supremacy, disrespect, and the subservience of people of color under European control. Kurtz views such effects as disastrous,
The question that both Joseph Conrad and Junot Diaz pose in their novels, “where did it all begin?” European Colonialism. A god. Wealth. The three factors that have pushed themselves into the New World and have snatched history, beliefs, and customs while destroying it along the way. The European dominance of Spain, England, and France has disrupted the natural progress of multiple countries within Latin America and Africa. The Dominican Republic has been pummeled first by European settlers and then occupied by the US for some time. “They say it came first from Africa, carried in the screams of the enslaved; that it was the death bane of the Taínos, uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open in the Antilles,” the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao begins with the history of Fuku. (8) The evil curse of the island, the supernatural element that dooms many in the