Junot Diaz's Authentic Writing Style

What I found the most interesting in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is how honest the author (Junot Díaz) is and how doesn’t hold anything back from the readers. 

The book starts off by talking about how America illegally invaded the Dominican Republic which could easily ostracize many readers (who believe this book will be about how terrible the United States is). Later in Chapter 1, the author talks about Oscar’s “’anti-pussy devices’” (20) and how he “was supposed to be pulling bitches with both hands” (24). There are many less vulgar other ways Díaz could have said that Oscar had nerdy glasses and was expected to be sexually active with women; nevertheless, he said it the way that it would have been said in his Dominican community. In addition, I love how the book randomly includes phrases in Spanish without even italicizing then. At first I was wondering why the Díaz would do that, but after a little more thought I understood how for Oscar and Lola Spanglish is the language they speak at home. This is especially true when Belicia freaks out at her children and swears Spanish phrases at them like “hija de a gran puta” (which means “fucking son of a bitch”) (60). Finally, I find it fascinating at how informal the footnotes are. In our society, footnotes are used to explain some historical event or explain a topic a little more so the reader can understand it. Sure, the book does use footnotes in these ways; however, it uses them much more informally than one may ever have seen. An example is when Díaz talks about how the Mirabal Sisters were murdered he joking says “In a canefield, of course. And then there bodies were put in a car and a crash was simulated! Talk about a two for one!” (157). This footnote can come off a little disrespectful for Americans as we think about how Díaz describes their deaths in a jovial way. Having said that, I believe that in this time period Dominicans must have been so used to murder that it was just another everyday thing.

 I love that the author does all of this because he keeps his book authentic. Díaz doesn’t sugarcoat anything and tells the story how it actually was (which may be troubling especially in a book as vulgar as this). Growing up as a first-generation American, I can easily relate to Oscar. I grew up in Polish community and Polish was the language we spoke at home. Growing up in an immigrant household can drastically differ from the average American household because many things that are acceptable in an immigrant house (ex. gender roles) are not so acceptable in other households. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao doesn’t hold anything back from the reader and thus, it allows the average reader to understand the characters better and why they acted the way they did.