Reading:
Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, 54-99
Study Questions:
1. The author, the primary narrator, and the protagonist of the book are
all male, but some of the strongest characters and voices in the book
(La Inca, Belicia, Lola) are female. Given the machismo and swagger
of the narrative voice, how does the author express the strength of the
female characters? Do you think there is an intentional comment in the
contrast between that masculine voice and the strong female characters?
2. In one of the footnotes the narrator posits that writers and dictators
are not simply natural antagonists, as Salman Rushdie has said, but are
actually in competition with one another because they are essentially in
the same business (p. 97). What does he mean by that? How can a writer
be a kind of dictator? Is the telling of a story somehow inherently
tyrannical? Do you think Díaz actually believes that he is in some way
comparable to Trujillo? If so, does Díaz try to avoid or subvert that in
any way?
Questions for today were adapted from the Penguin Readers' Guide
