The Faceless Man and the Golden Mongoose
Author, Junot Diaz, starts off his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, with the explanation of fukú, a key element in his work. Diaz’s way of symbolization through mystical characters to be very unique. Fukú, to be a form of “bad luck,” tends to “travel” with us throughout the storyline. Further into the story we come to understand the influence fukú has on the development of Diaz’s characters. It shapes the fear and cautious behaviors of the characters, from Belicia’s father’s mistakes to Oscar’s attempt at suicide. Diaz’s characters always have the thought of fukú being the cause of their misfortune while some lead to that conclusion and others necessarily don 't believe in it. The author …show more content…
Lola, Oscar’s sister, describes it as a “witchy feeling.” Most cultures have superstitious beliefs. In my culture women who are expecting a child and are known to be lucid dreamers have a way of telling what gender their child will be. My aunt, a naturally lucid dreamer, predicted the gender for each of my cousins. For every child, she had a dream portraying a scenario that always includes a child. The gender of the child seen was the gender of the child she gave birth to. In relation to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, this sense of predicting the future is how I related it to the symbolic figures mentioned in the book. In this case they are known as the Faceless Man and the Golden Mongoose. They tend to be a foreshadow, for the reader, that something important is approaching their life 's …show more content…
Near the end of the book, Oscar is on his way to the cane fields as well, along with his killers. “He stared out into the night, hoping that maybe there would be some U.S. Marines out for a stroll, but there was only a lone man sitting in his rocking chair out in front of his ruined house and for a moment Oscar could have sworn the dude had no face, but then the killers got back into the car and drove.” (298) This tells the reader that Oscars end is coming. This foreshadow is one of the most important shown in the book. Oscar gets beaten brutally and states in the book how he was pretty sure at one point there was three people beating him up instead of just
Author, Junot Diaz, starts off his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, with the explanation of fukú, a key element in his work. Diaz’s way of symbolization through mystical characters to be very unique. Fukú, to be a form of “bad luck,” tends to “travel” with us throughout the storyline. Further into the story we come to understand the influence fukú has on the development of Diaz’s characters. It shapes the fear and cautious behaviors of the characters, from Belicia’s father’s mistakes to Oscar’s attempt at suicide. Diaz’s characters always have the thought of fukú being the cause of their misfortune while some lead to that conclusion and others necessarily don 't believe in it. The author …show more content…
Lola, Oscar’s sister, describes it as a “witchy feeling.” Most cultures have superstitious beliefs. In my culture women who are expecting a child and are known to be lucid dreamers have a way of telling what gender their child will be. My aunt, a naturally lucid dreamer, predicted the gender for each of my cousins. For every child, she had a dream portraying a scenario that always includes a child. The gender of the child seen was the gender of the child she gave birth to. In relation to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, this sense of predicting the future is how I related it to the symbolic figures mentioned in the book. In this case they are known as the Faceless Man and the Golden Mongoose. They tend to be a foreshadow, for the reader, that something important is approaching their life 's …show more content…
Near the end of the book, Oscar is on his way to the cane fields as well, along with his killers. “He stared out into the night, hoping that maybe there would be some U.S. Marines out for a stroll, but there was only a lone man sitting in his rocking chair out in front of his ruined house and for a moment Oscar could have sworn the dude had no face, but then the killers got back into the car and drove.” (298) This tells the reader that Oscars end is coming. This foreshadow is one of the most important shown in the book. Oscar gets beaten brutally and states in the book how he was pretty sure at one point there was three people beating him up instead of just