The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is written in an unusual style. The book, to me, sometimes feels less like an actual novel than it does a transcription of someone telling a story to a group of people. The writing can go from formal to almost conversational and back again within one paragraph. An excellent example of this writing style is in the introduction, where the narrator attempts to describe the curse - called the fukú - which is supposed to have haunted the Dominican Republic ever since the arrival of Europeans: “But the fukú ain’t just ancient history, a ghost story from the past with no power to scare. In my parents’ day the fukú was real as shit, something your everyday person could believe in.” (page 2) This writing style is sometimes jarring - I found the use of “ain’t” in that first sentence particularly so - but it also helps keep the reader’s interest and the narrator's casual tone can keep the book from becoming unbearably dark, even when it deals with some very serious subject matter. That said, by far the most unusual thing Díaz does is to liberally pepper the book with untranslated Spanish words and phrases.
What I believe Díaz is attempting to do with these untranslated phrases is to approximate the immigrant experience in America. Many of the phrases are Dominican slang - untranslatable with a standard Spanish-English dictionary. They are also almost entirely piece of dialog, rather than simply phrases that Díaz writes into the book. They're intentionally difficult for the average reader to decipher, which approximates the experience of an immigrant in an environment where most people don't speak their native language. From what I have heard from non-English speakers I have met, slang is by far the hardest thing to pick up when learning a new language, and the untranslated slang phrases, when combined with the realism of the writing, help give the reader a feel of what it's like to be part of the Dominican-American community.
The style in which the book is written can be off-putting at first. When I first began to read the book, the untranslated phrases, unconventional writing style, and long historical footnotes made it difficult for me to get into the book. However, after I had read for a while, the writing became much easier to understand and become involved in.
Diaz’s writing style is definitely a very important aspect of this novel, and I agree with this assessment of the author’s purpose in creating such a unique prose. Expanding upon this idea, I think Diaz also communicates a lot about each character he creates and their individual situation through subtle changes in narration. One example is how Diaz reflects the different stages of immigration in this family. In Oscar’s section, the narrator’s voice seems to mimic the vernacular Oscar might have grown up surrounded by. The seamless incorporation of Spanish phrases gives an authentic glimpse into the way this community speaks. Diaz also uses double negatives, “he didn’t have no kind of father” (15), an “error” that comes from Spanish grammar and syntax. It also demonstrates the strong connection they have to their Dominican roots and how this ties the community together, reminding us that although they live in the United States, they still are very different from many other people there. In the section about young Belí Spanish words are now italicized, which reminds us that everything she thinks is in Spanish because she still lives in the Dominican Republic. He also uses many expletives to remind us how crucial rage and anger are to understanding Belí’s personality. Lastly, the tone in sections about La Inca is much more subdued and less colloquial than others.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree that Díaz´s choice to include so much Dominican slang is an attempt to fully immerse the reader in the characters´ world. Because (almost) all of the characters in the book are bilingual, Díaz´s writing style perfectly mimics their everyday reality: they think, speak, and live in both Spanish and English. Really, for these characters there isn´t a decisive split, a distinct categorization and split between Spanish and English. Instead there is a seamless blending of the two, a Dominican Spanglish that adheres to its own rules and highlights the fact that the characters exist in a very unique, amalgamated culture. We see this when Beli describes her feelings for the Gangster and “found herself brooding on the stupidity of that gordo azaroso who had ruined her whole night” (117).
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting aspect of the language to consider is the fact that Oscar does not use this Dominican Spanglish. His voice is exceptional in that he uses very formal, almost formulaic speech patterns. This is obvious when Oscar says, “´you who have experience in these matters—do you think this is true?´” (174). I think that this significant because it shows Oscar´s status as “other.” He doesn´t talk like his family or the people he goes to school with. He actually sounds like he´s a character in a medieval movie, almost as if to say that he belongs in the world of his sci-fi games and fantasies more than in the real world around him.