Critical Theory

Student`s Name
Name of lecturer
Name of institution
Date of submission
Desire
Introduction
Desire refers to having the urge to get something or to have something for a specific need or use. It usually involves an inner feeling of want. In the novel, the author has managed to bring about the theme of desire in several instances. This is a theme that is common to most of the main characters in the novel and it comes out very clearly. In this section we are going to explore some aspects of the novel`s treatment of desire and sexuality and the role it plays in the lives of the main characters. In Díaz's Dominican Republic, and in the immigrant neighborhoods in which Oscar, Lola and Yunior grow up, women are things, objects of desire, whose worth is measured solely by their attractiveness to men. And they all buy into it. The internalized racism on display in the novel is scary (Oscar's dark-skinned mother is self-conscious of her skin color, and as a girl will only date light-skinned boys), but not nearly as terrifying as the internalized misogyny that every single female character--even the indefatigable Lola--drinks down with her mother's milk. Oscar, fat and unattractive, at least survives his childhood, but when a neighborhood girl is similarly afflicted, she goes crazy with self-hatred. Nearly every female character in the novel has a boyfriend who slaps her around, and to whom she goes back again and again. Not a single one of them seems to consider that she doesn't need a man in her life. The seeds of Oscar's family's downfall are sown when the dictator Trujillo hears of the beauty of their eldest daughter, whom Oscar's grandfather refuses to make available to him. And, of course, there's the defining characteristic of the Dominican male--his promiscuity. "It's against the laws of nature for a dominicano to die without fucking at least once," Yunior tells Oscar.
There are some quotes in the novel that brings about the concept of desire quite clearly. "[Belicia], like her yet to be born daughter, would come to exhibit a particularly Jersey malaise—the inextinguishable longing for elsewhere." (p. 77). Both Belicia and Lola desire escape—but that desire is "inextinguishable." So even when they are able to escape (as both of them are on a few occasions), they are still not satisfied. The narrator describes this feeling as being "particularly Jersey" in reference to the state of New Jersey, where Belicia and Lola spend most of their lives. Describing the malaise as "Jersey" universalizes it, presuming that Lola and Belicia are not the only ones in New Jersey who feel this way. Malaise means an uneasiness or discomfort whose exact cause is hard to identify; no matter where each woman is, she feels this discomfort, and neither character understands why she longs for other places. This feeling correlates with the theme of being an outsider/immigrant who does not feel she belongs anywhere.
In the novel, (p.190), "Dude had been waiting his whole life for something just like this to happen to him, had always wanted to live in a world of magic and mystery, but instead of taking note of the vision and changing his ways, the fuck just shook his swollen head." This excerpt is during Yunior`s description of Oscar`s suicide attempt, when he sees the Mongoose right before he jumps off the train bridge in New Brunswick. Yunior`s abrasive and colloquial style of narration is demonstrated here when he refers to Oscar as "Dude" and "the fuck." His tone and diction expresses annoyance with Oscar. On the surface, Yunior is annoyed with Oscar for choosing to ignore the Mongoose when Oscar has been longing to live in a world of "magic and mystery" all of his life. On a deeper level, Yunior is annoyed that Oscar wants to die and that he has lost all hopes and desires, even ones that he has been dreaming of his entire life. Without directly saying so, Yunior`s words express his love for Oscar. He wants Oscar to live and to conquer the fukú.
Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim. The author takes us through the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.
When Beli returns to school in the fall she has the mission of getting Jack to like her, and she does not go about it subtly. Still, by the end of September he had not fallen for her. Meanwhile, Beli is doing well at school, especially in English. The teacher asks them to write about what they envision for the new decade. A boy named Mauricio Ledesme writes that he would like to have a democracy and not a dictator, and that he believes Trujillo killed Galíndez. A footnote informs the reader that a Spaniard named Jesús de Galíndez wrote his Columbia University doctoral dissertation as an exposé on Trujillo`s dictatorship. Trujillo then hired people to kidnap Galindez from New York and kill him in La Capital. After the incident in English class, both Mauricio and the English teacher were gone the next day. In another footnote, the narrator likens this incident to that of Rafael Yepez, another teacher who made a similar mistake in the 1930s and was killed. Beli`s desire for the future is less controversial, as she wants to be married to a rich man and to be a doctor. In October, Beli hears news that Jack Pujols...