Upon reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, something that I noticed about
the novel was that the so-called fuku- familial curse- seems to affect the
women of the story much more than the men. The three people who stuck out to me
as enduring the most suffering were Lola, Beli, and La Inca: three generations
of Cabral women.
La Inca lost the love of her life
at a very young age, and never loved again after the death of her beloved
husband. When she found young Beli in the chicken coop, she took her in and
raised her like she was her own daughter (78). Beli herself went through what
would later be referenced as her “Lost Years,” before La Inca adopted her, in
which she lived with a monstrous foster family who gave her the scars on her
back.
As Beli began to grow, she began to
rebel. She didn’t want the life La Inca had provided her. Time and time again,
Beli broke her mother’s heart. La Inca just wanted Beli to be smart and
successful, and all Beli wanted was to be loved. One could say that Beli was cursed
in love: she had her heart broken not once, not twice, but three times before
she gave up on it entirely.
Lola had a tumultuous childhood,
with the repeated physical and verbal abuse doled out by her mother as well as
the constant housework she was forced to do. She had to grow up incredibly
fast, and this was expedited by her molestation when she was only eight. Her
mother’s response? ”She told me to shut my mouth and stop crying” (56). The
hardness caused by Beli’s tumultuous adolescence carried over into her
parenting with her children. One could argue that this is another act of
rebellion against La Inca: because La Inca was so soft on Beli in her
childhood, Beli had to be the exact opposite to her children.
It seems as though Beli and Lola
are both cursed with the “Jersey malaise- the inextinguishable longing for
elsewhere” (77). However, if the legend is to be believed, then the cause of
their longing is due to the fuku curse brought upon their families. These women
are cursed to rebel against their mothers, and then suffer the consequences of
their rebellion for the rest of their adult lives.
I don't think it's entirely accurate to claim that the women in Junot Diaz's story were necessarily more affected by fuku than were the men. Rather, the female perspectives have been the dominating voices in the portion of the story we've read thus far. Oscar is clearly just as unlucky in the love department as his female relatives. Even Yunior, not an official member of the Cabral clan but an essential character in their story, seems cursed to pursue women without ever experiencing real love. It can be inferred from the text that he could potentially have a loving relationship with Lola but will never get the chance for one reason or another. After recalling another failed attempt to further pursue Lola, he wonders, "Why is this the face I can't seem to forget, even now, after all these years?" (199).
ReplyDeleteThough I don't feel that the female characters were necessarily more affected by the fuku, I agree that there is something notable about the way the three generations of women were impacted. History certainly repeated itself in the form of intense conflict between mother and daughter. In both cases, the mothers expected their daughters to obey their wishes, and, in both cases, the daughters felt oppressed and defied their mothers, resulting in unhappiness for all of the parties involved.
I would also argue, however, that a pattern can be observed in the manifestation of fuku in the lives of the story's male characters--absence. Whether it was the result of an early death, substance abuse, or plain selfishness, the men never seem to be present when they are most needed by women, a trend we first noted last class. None of the characters in the story have a father figure present; an uncle with a drug problem is mentioned several times but plays no role in the story; Beli's Gangster did not defend her from the beating she suffered; Yunior was not there to stop Oscar's suicide attempt on Lola's behalf. The examples are numerous.
Looking at all of this evidence, I think it's reasonable to assert that all of the characters in this narrative harbor an "inextinguishable longing for elsewhere" (77). Whether this longing appears as the desire to be somewhere else or to be in a different situation, this curse affects everyone. Oscar, for instance, retreats into the world of science fiction to escape his unfortunate reality. When this method of retreat stops giving him relief, he even attempts suicide, later to claim, "The curse made me do it, you know" (199).
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of Fuku in this novel is very intriguing. While it starts as the main focus of the novel, I have had a hard time appreciating the importance of this curse among the characters. While it could be argued that women are more impacted by the Fuku up to this point, I believe the treatment and “luck” of these women directly attributes to the culture in which they live in: “Folks always underestimate what the promise of a lifetime of starvation, powerlessness, and humiliation can provoke in a young person’s character.”(119) I believe every character in this novel can be connected to this quote. When you live in a world that tells you you will go nowhere in life, you often resort to decisions that can come back to haunt you, hence Fuku. To me, Fuku is simply the consequences one endures for the personal decisions they have made. For example, when Beli was with the Gangster, “like everybody in this damn story, she underestimated the depth of the shit she was in.”(142) I think we have yet to see how the Fuku affects the male characters. However, from the standpoint of the female characters, the Fuku is simply the repercussions of decisions these women have made in accordance to their culture. These Dominican women are not free; not because of Fuku, but because of the male dominance and privilege within their society.