When I started to read the beginning of Part Two of Junot
Diaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wao, it was Lola’s turn in perspective to have the novel be narrated
in. She started out a little afterwards mentioning, “That’s life for you. All the
happiness you gather to yourself, it will sweep away like it’s nothing. If you
ask me I don’t think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only
life. That’s enough (Diaz 205).” This quote really got to me because I agree
with her a lot. In my heritage, the Mexican culture does have it beliefs and
such but I think it is all nonsense. Such as small cures with herbal plants/natural
resources, “the cry”, and “la chupacabra.” I could get into big arguments about
these things with my family when we are together and one thing I guess I live
by is Karma. All of the things that occur to us usually happen to us through
Karma, you get what you give. To certain extent I do believe the stories from
Mexico my elders tell me but to have them actually be some sort of a curse I don’t.
Regardless though, even if my family were to be “cursed” I wouldn’t believe in
such as things since again like I said it’s your actions that lead to whatever
happens to you. In general for example you want to reach a goal in life YOU
have to make it happen. Not some curse or luck that runs through a family is
going to make it happen or not. It all depends in the actions that are taken to
make other things occur. Like Lola said “I think there is only life. That’s
enough (Diaz 205).” It is just a reality check.
Jotting Thoughts Away...
Monday, September 30, 2013
Diaz's Style
In the beginning of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar
Wao by Junot Diaz, the style of writing Diaz uses is very unique to
the point that it brings the readers interest higher into wanting to read the
novel. I loved the fact that he mixed in Spanish and Spanglish into the text.
When something is read in a different language certain things can be
interpreted differently such as where Diaz says “Tio Rodolfo had four kids with
three different women so the nigger was without doubt the family’s resident
meteselo expert (Diaz 24).” This line makes it even more interesting and funny
to read the entire novel because I know Spanish well, I’m fluent in it.
Therefore when I was reading this line it seriously had me laughing
hysterically because I could just imagine someone from my family say this. It’s
not a “Dominican trait,” I believe it’s just in a lot of different cultures. Though,
it could really just depend on who is the person saying it or how it can be interpreted
from a text. Reading this reminded me of Sunset Park, Brooklyn because out of
the few times I go I have always seen a group of Dominican/Puerto Rican older
people on a certain block and they speak a lot in the way Diaz writes his novel
in. It makes me really glad to see that he gives a taste of his heritage in his
writing and loosens up unlike other writers who are just too boring with their
writing style and don’t twist it up a bit. Nowadays in this country, Spanish is
one of the top languages and with Junot Diaz’s novel, it has an ability to
probably get more people to learn another language and also there is this quote
that goes, “If you know more than one language you view the world differently
(Unknown).” The way Diaz writes is very unique in a positive perspective where
believe more authors should do and it doesn’t have to be necessarily Spanish.
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