This assignment focuses on the brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao Novel by Junot Díaz.  The goal is to  write a critical essay summarizes, analyzes, and responds to an argument, political situation, social phenomenon, historical event, written text, work of art, movie, or performance.

The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao

Paper details A critical essay summarizes, analyzes, and responds to an argument, political situation, social phenomenon, historical event, written text, work of art, movie, or performance. In this case, you will be responding to a written text, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. You will recall, the book centers on Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants.

The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao

Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, the novel opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere, and risk it all, in the name of love. For this assignment, you will choose one (1) of the following prompts and write a well-argued, well-supported, formal, literary analysis essay. 1. In Oscar Wao, the characters are often confronted with overwhelming love as well as with unspeakable violence.

The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao

Both serve as fuel that keeps the characters going. Which one is more powerful? Do love and violence work for each other or against each other? 2. Oscar is referred to as a hero. Why is Oscar referred to as a hero and what type of hero is he? Include a discussion on the differences/similarities between being an immigrant, an outsider, and a hero. 3. Neither Lola or Belicia were satisfied with their lives; why were Lola and Belicia so unhappy and did they have the same reasons for being discontented? 4. Dominican masculinity is a central theme in the novel. Why is it so important, and how does it influence the unfolding of the plot?

The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao

5. The dictator Trujillo is a real historical figure that Díaz inserts into his novel. In what ways is Trujillo’s character able to affect the fictional characters of the story? In terms of a “thesis” or central idea for your essay, you can begin by formulating a response to the prompt you selected. Then, craft a very rough sentence or two (your draft thesis/position) that you will support with evidence from the text (quotes and phrases). In terms of research, you will need to include two (2) secondary sources (that is, written credible sources that also focus on your ideas). They should be selected from credible sources, such as the University of Louisville’s Databases (https://library.louisville.edu/az.php).  https://youtu.be/VBiUvrbKrcs

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