The first part of the first section introduces the protagonist called Oscar. The book starts out with Oscar talking about his childhood having a turning point when he turned seven, when he was seven he had two girlfriends. But as his life starts progressing he turns obese, and turns into a “sci-fi reading nerd” and hopeless romantic. Being Dominican, he was expected to be some kind of Don Juan, but he is the complete opposite. His only two friends Al and Miggs are Video Game dorks too and is allergic to trying to improve his appearance. When Oscar finally tries to change his image the people around him like his friends and his mom mock him. When he goes on a trip to the Dominican Republic, he starts writing novels, which is a huge step for Oscar because he stops reading his comics and actually does something different. In Oscar’s Senior year, he falls in love with a girl named Ana in Sat class. The worst part about it is that Ana has a boyfriend named Manny who abuses her, this hurt Oscar so much that he went to Manny’s house with a gun to shoot him but he wasn’t there. Oscar then gets rejected by Ana for the last time. In June, Oscar graduates from high school, his mother goes who now has cancer, and his Uncle who is a drug addict, and his sister Lola. He then enters college at Rutgers New Brunswick and feels the same as home, finds no love and is still a geek. The Second Section now becomes a first person point of view by Lola. Lola starts out by explaining to the reader the abuse and the cruelty of her mother towards her. While her mother starts dealing with cancer, she takes out her anger on Lola.It makes Lola look like she is the worst daughter ever when she rebels against this. Lola decides to runaway from home and to move out with her boyfriend. Living there, she starts to miss home and to feel that she didn’t love her boyfriend. She called Oscar to come to were she was staying to bring her money and Oscar tells her that there mom is going to kill her.
Quote
" What it's like to be the perfect Dominican daughter, which is just a nice way of saying a perfect Dominican slave. You don't know what it's like to grow up with a mother who has never said a positive thing in her life, not about her children or the world, who was always suspicious always tearing you down and splitting your dreams straight down the seams. " ( Junot 56)
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This quote is said from Lola's perspective, at this second section of the book the book actually switches from third person describing Oscars life, to First person focusing on Lola's side of the story. Even though the book is focused on Oscar, Lola plays a crucial part in his life. In this quote, she is describing her mothers way of treating her, she in the first sentence translates the euphemism of being a "perfect Dominican daughter" to " a perfect Dominican slave", then the quote switches at this point to second person, where the character actually reaches out to reader and lets them know the role that the mother plays in this family. Additionally, she uses alteration, such as "...suspicious always...splitting your dreams straight down the seams." The quote uses all these words that start with S. This shows the authors descriptive way of writing and the sort of verisimilitude that goes into the story but the way the narrator speaks about her situation. Finally, the author also uses a metaphor by saying that her mom splits her dreams straight down the seams.
solid, solid, solid work. Narrative style, metaphor, crisp summary! Very well done.
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