One of the reasons I enjoyed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was because of its ability to address controversial and often philosophical themes in ways that were so subtle the reader often didn't notice their views were being extracted. Two such themes, that are in many ways connected, are sexism and determinism. For those of you who fell asleep during your philosophy 101 lectures, determinism is the idea that a person's actions and decisions are not the result of some internal decision making force, but instead the sum total of many external forces. To simplify this determinists basically believe that a person is the sum total of their influences. While arguing determinism is neither topical nor efficacious for this blog post it is important to first define it, as determinism forms the base upon which our opinions of characters and the book in general are constructed.
The first very obvious example of how these two themes fit together is in the life of the person the book is name after. It is no secret Oscar's life basically revolves around the pursuit of women. Yunior the certified womanizer of the novel says that "I thought I was into females, but no one, and I mean no one, was into them the way Oscar was" (173). Unfortunately for Oscar women are not quite as into him. Society, specifically Dominican society, judges men by their ability to "conquer" and objectify women. Society and Oscar by extension therefore judges Oscar's life to be completely worthless. Oscar himself does pretty much nothing in order to remedy this assessment. This leads most readers to have a general distaste for Oscar. However, is this assessment really fair? It depends on your opinion of determinism.
The general criticism of Oscar is that he should have done something about his situation. Often times it was suggested that Oscar should curb his pursuit of women in search of other forms of fulfillment alternatively, perhaps Oscar should find someway to make himself more attractive to women (lose weight, look less nerdy, etc). Let's examine the first suggestion. The book makes a it very clear that one of the driving forces behind Oscar's pursuit of women is the Dominican culture of sexism. Often times it is convenient to think of sexism as one sex systematically oppressing the other, but more often society oppresses one sex with negative consequences for members of both sexes as is the case with Oscar here. Since Oscar is surrounded by Dominicans there are many enforcers of cultural norms who would likely disapprove of Oscar abandoning the ideal of a Dominican man. Let's remember his mother often calls her children ugly. Therefore, saying that Oscar is capable of overcoming all these cultural forces is a lot to ask of anyone. As such, unless you believe that a person is capable of making decisions completely independent of external forces, it is completely illogical or at least unsympathetic to harbor disdain for Oscar.
I like your point of bringing determinism into the scope of discussion. Essentially nothing in this world has mono-causality, including the perpetual downfall of Oscar Wao's love life. The societal norms of the Dominican Republic have put an unfair pressure on every side of the gender spectrum. On the opposite from Oscar, who are we to say that maybe there are some girls that prefer that type of man? These women could have their ideas forced into, a sense, a form of hiding in the fear that their family, friends, neighbors, etc. will not tolerate or understand the attraction for men such as Oscar. Similar to Oscar experiencing his own mother and uncle calling him ugly as he grew up, Dominican elders openly disclose their displeasure with what they perceive as improper mates for their children. An overall image of what kind of man a young Dominican women should "chase after" would have been hammered into their head since young age, showing them only what they "should" find, but not what they want to find in their life partners. One singular male is unable to change what generations of parents have taught their daughters, and while it is illogical for him to expect the whole world to change, it is not okay to chastise and punish a young man for simply wanting to be himself AND "get women".
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