The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (pg. 67- 133)

Summary
At the end of the past section, Lola's mother ends up catching her during her escape and sends her to the Dominican Republic. There, Lola develops sense of joy, she lives happier with her Grandmother named La Inca, learns how to dress like a real Dominican girl, and becomes a track star. As she explores her family, she discovers her mothers past. La Inca adopted Lola’s mother named Belicia, and there were three lovers in her life that changed the way she was. First of all, Belicia attended a private school on a scholarship and was one of the most attractive girls in her town called Banilejos. Her first love is Jack Pujols; her affair with Jack causes her to get kicked out of her school. After being heart broken, she promises to herself that she would never take the lead of anybody else but herself. As a result, Beli decides to not go back to school but to work in a restaurant as a waitress. According to La Inca, She does the opposite of what is expected, she actually keeps and works well at her job. During this time, La Inca and Beli's relationship had changed completely, they hardly even talked. Even though all the men in her town absolutely adored her, she stayed in love with Jack. After a while, a new waitress arrives at her job named Constantina, this women is the type of party lady who convinces Beli to go to a club with her. At the club, meets a Gangster this criminal who’s named Max and was middle aged man. This man spends money on her and takes out as an exchange for comprehension, even though he had all they money in the world now when he was little he had nothing and nobody just like Beli. He was also tormented by his crimes, Belicia helped cradle him and make him feel better. Belicia falls in love with this gangster and he makes ridiculous promises to her of giving her houses. As a result of there relationship, Beli spends more time in love motels than in her job and gets fired. Beli lost her aspirations for going to school or even college, as a result La Inca were no longer as close as they were. At last, she started noticing these bad signs about this man who disappeared for days and didn't even have an address. She then found out that he had cheated on her but he made it up to her by taking her to a trip to Samana and she starts wondering how it feels to be free like how she is now, free from La Inca.

Quote
" She endured school, the bakery, La Inca's suffocating solicitude with a furious jaw. She watched hungrily for visitors from out of town, threw open her arms at the slightest hint of a wind and at night she struggled Jack-like against the ocean pressing down on her" (Diaz 88,89).

Reaction
In this quotation, Beli's younger life is basically shown, Belicia is a lonely girl that is struggling to get out to the world because shes trapped by her mother. Junot uses figurative language to describe La Inca's Suffocating Solicitude by saying she does this with a furious jaw. Also, he uses figurative language at the end of the sentence when speaking about Beli trying to hug the wind. Using this form of imagery helps the reader understand Belicia's situation furthermore. The conflict is clearly shown, and by this the genre of this book is revealed, it is a buildungsroman. Even though, this is a tiny section of Oscar's mother, but it is still a short Buildungsroman story in whole one. This qoutation connects to the plot through showing a point where one of the somehow Antongaonist (Belicia's) coming of age starts. This qoutation explains many of the events that happen in the story making it crucial.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (pg. 1-67)

Summary

            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)

Reaction

     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.