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Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

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Women cannot have rights, women are objects. In the midst of the Trujillo Era, women in the States were fighting to be more than a man’s play thing. More than a man’s sex doll. In the recently published novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, author Junot Diaz over objectifies women in an era where women are fighting for equal rights just across the ocean. The novel is later set in a more modern time period where stereotypes can be broken. The relationship between mother and daughter serves as an example for the differing mindset two generations can have on a specific topic but also how similar they can be. Diaz’s novel breaks the mold for many of the typical stereotypes; the guapo Dominican male, the sexual women, the nerd. Through techniques like tone and diction, Diaz …show more content…

But these were not the expectations Beli had for Oscar. Oscar was Dominican; he was supposed to be the handsome man objectifying women. What happened. He was the fat nerd that was always friend-zoned. This stereotype clouded Oscar’s life. He always worried that “no Dominican male has ever died a virgin” and he’ll be the first (175 Diaz). When Beli was just a girl growing up in the DR, girls threw themselves at men to be idolized, encouraging men to treat them no better than a sex doll; looking for the woman with the best ass and largest breasts that is willing to be used. Beli allowed herself to be used more than once. Unlike some of the women of the Trujillo Era that were willing to throw themselves at the richest, most attractive men, women in the US were fighting the stereotype. They wanted equal rights, to be able to live on their own, to be more than just a set of nice breasts and a large ass. Single women were allowed to make their own choices and were allowed to divorce their husbands by mutual consent

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