Junot Diaz's Immigrant Fiction

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.

Fuku and Females

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. 

Anger as a True Emotion

In Egan's A Visit from the Good Squad, one frequented keyword is “anger.” We find that, in the majority of cases, feelings of anger are the only ‘true feelings’ being expressed by the character. Two clear cases of anger as a true emotion are Jules and Rob; in these particular cases, however, we see these men utilizing anger as a means to force other characters around them to reveal their true selves, their anger having allowed them to drop their false pretenses and emotions.

Chapter 9 is the article Jules writes about his interview with Kitty Jacson. Jules describes Kitty as “[belonging] in the category of nice stars… [who] act as if they’re just like you” (167). Given this and other comments such as “…the sort of shameless bit of fawning that makes [Jules] wonder whether [he] might prefer death by lethal injection to [his] present vocation as a celebrity reporter” (170) indicate that Jules is jaded with his work; he is tired of working with celebrities in any capacity, especially those like Kitty who try to be a ‘real person’ with their pretense of happiness. As such, Jules make a conscious effort to anger Kitty, driving her to feel a ‘true emotion,’ in order to learn more about her. He tries “… puncturing her prophylactic shield of niceness” (171) by throwing out rumors of Kitty and Tom Cruise hooking up. Furthermore, he gives her the “Big Fat Grin, a meaningless tactic intended purely to unnerve and fluster my subject” (172). By using these stratagems of forcing Kitty to anger, Jules is hoping to get Kitty to let her guard down to reveal her true self. He is somewhat successful as he does get Kitty to reveal her annoyance with being a sex goddess (177).

Rob, much like Jules, works to anger his friends in Chapter 10. We learn that Rob has been institutionalized for attempted suicide and has recently returned to his friends in New York; these friends include Sasha, whom we’ve already met, and Drew, Lizzie, and Bix. Since his return, Rob notes the carefulness with which his friends treat him. After joking about inhaling drugs, he notes that the others “probably only laughed because they could see [Rob] was trying to be funny, and they’re afraid [he’ll] jump out the window onto East Seventh Street if [he fails], even at something so small” (187). Moreover, Lizzie is described as “using the Calm Voice they’ve all been using since [Rob] got back from Florida, a voice that leaves [Rob] no choice but to test how hard [Rob has] to push before it cracks” (189). As indicated in the previous quote, Rob is tired of being treated delicately. He aggravates Lizzie by calling her parents bigots and refusing to let up; when she reacts by snapping back, Rob “[grins] with satisfaction at the sight of real anger on a human face” (190). Once Rob experiences Lizzie’s anger, a true emotion, he begins to feel real again. He has also achieved at provoking Lizzie, and eventually the rest of his friends, to act relatively normally toward him because they are all too angry with him than to be worried about him.

In this novel, anger both drives characters to change their behavior and the behavior of the characters’ around them. For Jules and Rob in particular, utilizing anger forces other characters to drop their pretense and act like ‘real people.’

 

 

Inviolable Silence

Most of our lives consist of relative silence. It usually does not have meaning, and in a conversation if there is a silence, we only notice it as a momentary lapse in communication, a problem that is immediately solved by one comment or another.  However, sometimes silence asserts itself, and these moments are often laden with truths. In Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, silence carries significance and often points out characters’ lack of power in their lives.  It is a moment of resignation, realization that their reality is unavoidable.

The silence between Sasha and Coz in her appointment is a good example of this. Sasha desperately wants to change and wishes she could tell him she’s changing. She also wishes she could believe it herself, but she doesn’t.  She asks Coz not to ask her how she feels and they sit in silence for minutes. It seems like in this moment both of them realize the reality of the situation. This silence really highlights Sasha’s helplessness.  Sasha thinks, “Redemption, transformation—God how she wanted these things.  Every day, every minute. Didn’t everyone?” (18) So many of Egan’s characters want change and a chance to start over.  Seeing Coz is one of the ways that Sasha has been seeking the ability to change, and when Sasha doesn’t want to discuss how she feels about her latest episode, it suggests that she is resigning herself to her situation and feels like any efforts to change are futile.

Another instance that suggests the significance of silence is when Jocelyn is reflecting on her lost time with Lou.  Egan describes the moment, saying, “(t)he silence takes on a kind of intelligence” (88).  Jocelyn has just told Rhea that she “got lost” and this statement is irrefutable, inconsolable.  Again, this silence points out a moment when a character comes to a realization, in Jocelyn’s case, that she got lost. Getting lost is a common theme throughout this book, and the silence these friends share after Jocelyn says that suggests something about the heavy impact of getting lost.

One last example of silence’s role is when Dolly and her daughter Lulu have returned from their trip to see the General. They are sitting on the subway and the silence was described as “inviolable” (161).  This is another moment when the current protagonist realizes something about her situation and that she has no power to change it.  Dolly feels “a cold wave of conviction: if Kitty Jackson died, her daughter would be lost to her” (162).  Again silence plays a key role in revealing truths about characters and their lives and suggests that these characters are unable to change these truths.

Time, Nostalgia, and Regret

As Egan mentioned in the video clip, time is a key element in this novel that unites all of these seemingly unrelated characters. Every chapter either takes place in the “relative” past, or it discusses events that occurred in the past relative to the chapter itself. All of the characters are discontent with their lives in their respective present, and they are all looking into their pasts to look for solution or relive those nostalgic days.

Sasha is a character strongly defined by her past. Coz the psychiatrist ties her stealing habits with disappearance of her father (8). Her apartment, her indirect personality, is described as follows: "the whole apartment, which six years ago had seemed like a way station to some better place, had ended up solidifying around Sasha…..she felt both mired in it and lucky to have it – as if she not only couldn’t move on but didn’t want to.” (14) Her table of stolen goods probably symbolizes that sentiment the best. She is clinging to her past, and the regret that follows. In a way, I think she is using it as a motivation to redeem herself from whatever she feels is wrong with her life, although she is reluctant to admit it.

Bennie is a character who is searching for the nostalgic feeling of the past to cope with and fix his broken present. For Bennie, it is music. At the Stop/Go sisters’ house Bennie “heard the music get made…..experienced a bump of anticipation” (29). We later learn that making music was Bennie passion as Rhea says “I watch Bennie listen, eyes closed, his Mohawk like a million antennas pricking up from his head” (45). His ED is momentarily cured when Bennie experiences joy from this nostalgia and feels like he is getting that second chance to improve his life. 

Scotty too is not happy with his life, despite his rationalization via his molecule theory. Deep inside, he knows he failed when Bennie has succeeded. This is evident when he says “I didn’t have what Bennie had. He was right” (103), and one of the reasons he visited Bennie was to relive the one time he had an advantage or Bennie: when they were both in the band and when Alice picked him. He thinks to himself “you [Bennie] were the one chasing. But she picked me” (101).

Lastly, there is Lou. He is not a happy man in his death bed, and he is relieved to see Rhea and Jocelyn. At the end, he says “nice to be. With you girls” while “clutching their hands, as if they might flee” (91). He seems to be desperately holding on to the memories of his heydays to distract himself from the current sorrows.

From Sasha to unforgivable Lou, every one of these characters are constantly going back to their past, albeit for different reasons. I think Egan is trying to say that we are all “writing a story of redemption, of fresh beginnings and second chances” (8) through our past. It could be something trivial or major, regardless of whether we are as successful as Bennie or a “failure” like Scotty. 

Impermanence

When doing my readings for A Visit From the Goon Squad, I noticed a common theme of impermanence. It is a more subtle motif but can be seen throughout the novel in specific incidences of the character’s lives. Jennifer Egan states that time is one of the themes of the story and change is very closely related to the concept of time. This point of impermanence can be seen in the relationships between characters. No one remains connected to those who are once a large part of their lives.

This is particularly obvious in the marriages mentioned. Bennie and Stephanie, Scotty and Alice, and Lou and both Mindy and his first wife all have marriages that end in divorce. They all appear to be fairly short lived as well. It is not only the marriages but the intimate relationships from A Visit From the Good Squad that prove to be extremely temporary. Sasha has fleeting relationships with all of her boyfriends and the actor that fathered Dolly’s child is gone almost immediately. If there is one relationship one would hope would withstand the test of time, it would be the relationship between Rhea and Jocelyn. They are so close that everything is shared between them and even this relationship too ends as both go their separate ways. All of these relationships are temporary and show how things change over time.

The Interconnectivity of Key Terms

In the interview we watched in class, Jennifer Egan said that the concept of inter connectivity was central to A Visit from the Goon Squad. For me, tracking the novel's keywords helped illustrate this idea.

The term I found most often in the text was "angry." It was obvious while reading that all of the characters in the piece had things to be angry about, but the way this was revealed was unconventional due to the nonlinear structure of the book. The anger described by one particular character helped me to not only understand the character who was "speaking," but also other characters and the relationships among them. For example, Rhea discusses the anger she and her friends shared, but makes special note of Scotty. She says, "But the second Scotty let the garage door slam down, we're suddenly enraged, all of us" (Egan 44). She later goes on to comment, "I realized that out of all of us, Scotty is the truly angry one" (52). In this case, the keyword "angry" gave Egan a tool to describe not only the emotions of Rhea,  but it also allowed her to give readers insight into the dynamics among all of the characters within this group of friends, as well as insight into another individual character, Scotty.  At this point in the text,  Scotty's perspective had not been given, but discussing anger, a force connecting all the characters, provides a natural segue into discussing his character rather than the protagonist of the chapter. Essentially, because all of the characters have anger in common, it can be used as an instrument of interconnectivity, allowing information about each character to be revealed in any chapter of the book, not just the chapter in which that particular character is the protagonist. This is essential to the flow of Egan's novel. Without these instances, background information regarding a certain character would have to be revealed only within that certain character's chapter, making the chapters feel more like completely separate entities instead of interconnected parts of a single whole.

The keyword "power" also gave me a glimpse into the interconnectivity of the lives of Egan's characters. During class discussion, someone had observed that the amount of power held by each character seemed to correlate with that character's happiness. Those with less power seemed to be more content than those with more power. In Egan's text, the keyword "power" pointed me toward the competition between Bennie and Scotty. While visiting Bennie in his swanky office after many years apart, Scotty showed Bennie his gap-filled smile and reflected on Bennie's reaction, saying, "All at once I felt strong, as if some balance had tipped in the room and all of Bennie's power--the desk, the view, the levitating chair--suddenly belonged to me. Bennie felt it, too. Power is like that; everyone feels it at once" (103). Again, the key term showcased the interconnectivity between the characters by illuminating the score between them. This brings up other questions to consider when reading. How do the other characters score in this competition? Is each individual competing with everyone else or are there only rivalries? Who is competing with whom? Why are these people competing? Does this competition seem to directly relate to characters' happiness? Perhaps a hierarchy exists among Egan's characters and mapping this will provide a clearer understanding of the story as a whole.

Egan's Theme of Power

In the novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, power is a concept that is intertwined between all characters, however it is handled and respected in different ways. While power is often seen as a beneficial part of one’s life, it can often lead to negative decisions and treatment of those around you. The role of power within the novel displays the both positive and negative side effects of authority and privilege within people’s lives. Along with this, it also demonstrates how one’s power can ultimately lead to decisions that affect those people around you. For example, Lou’s access and abuse of power ultimately effects his family and girlfriend, as described in pages 64 and 65. Lou’s daughter is described as, “the adolescent daughter of a twice-divorced male will do everything in her limited power to distract him from said girlfriend’s presence.” In this quote, the idea of limited power hinders Charlie from being happy with her father’s choices. Lou’s power allows him to deter all the opinions of those around him in order to gain satisfaction.

                Another example of power is discussed on page 103, when Bennie and Scotty are conversing: “all at once I felt strong, as if some balance had tipped in the room and all of Bennie’s power – the desk, the view, the levitating chair – suddenly belonged to me…Power is like that, everyone feels it at once.”(103) This exert demonstrates how many characters have a sense of power struggle when interacting with other characters, and introduces the idea that power is limited. Within the music industry, power is directly correlated to success, and this is why many of the characters in this novel has such a struggle with coming to terms with their deteriorating amount of power.

                After focusing on the word “power” throughout this novel, I realize that the characters with the most power are the ones I have sympathized with the least, such as Lou or Jules.  I think when reading this novel, it is important to question: why did Jennifer Egan incorporate so many references to the characters’ power within the novel?

                I believe she emphasizes the idea of power to suggest power is a universal notion that everyone longs for, and how one uses their power can ultimately affect your own life and the lives around you. On Oncourse, I found an article written by Egan relating to her experience with eating disorders, and in it, she mentions the idea of power behind the illness: “Our route to worldly power involved shrinking the world to match the dimensions of our own small (but never small enough) bodies, and then dominating those.” While Egan is directly referring to her own experience, I believe this quote can also relate to many characters within her novel. Many of her characters are intertwined in a crazy, exotic world that enables them easy access to power. What is interesting is that many of her characters end up feeling powerless and alone as a result to their attempted “power scheme.” Do you believe that Egan is using her own experiences with power to fuel her characters’ power struggles?

Egan's "A Thin Line Between Mother and Daughter"

A Discussion of Power

The word that I am tracking throughout the novel is "power". Besides time, the differing levels of power seem to be one of the most important elements showcased through page 235. During the duration of the book, there are different levels of power and differing ways that the levels of power affects the characters. It seems to be that the more power one upholds, the more destructive they become towards themselves and the people they care about.

One of the characters that holds a majority of the power throughout the story is Lou. He is controls Jocelyn and Rhea, Bennie, Mindy, and his two children, Charlie and Rolph. He is a very wealthy record executive who lacks empathy towards others. He takes Rhea and Jocelyn down a rough path for his own pleasure. Bennie is Lou's protege, so Lou has the power to teach Bennie whatever he seems fit. Lou marries Mindy simply because he feels that he must always win, and winning would constitute marrying Mindy and containing this power over her. He holds power over his children because he never chooses to be the parent they deserve. Because of this abuse of power, lives are destroyed. Jocelyn goes down a hard path of drugs. Rolph kills himself, and Charlie joins a cult. The power that Lou possesses allows for him to be less empathetic towards others, and he lives out his life in his selfish way. On page 63, the narration says "If he (Lou) were an introspective man, he would have understood years ago that his son is the one person in the world with the power to soothe him." This is important; Lou ends up destroying the person who gives him the most power over his life.

However, Scotty, a friend of Bennie's when they were teenagers, possesses little to no power. He is poor, lives in a small apartment, and works a small job as a high school janitor. Although he seems to be at the bottom of the totem poll, he seems to be the most content with his life. On page 103, Scotty visits Bennie. He has realized that he doesn't have what Bennie has and understands that he will never be in the same league as him. Here, he smiles, showing his "big black gaps" in his teeth. He talks about the power he possesses over Bennie here. He doesn't have everything that Bennie has, but he still seems to feel power over being content with how he lives his life.

Power is a big word; what does it mean exactly? Does it mean power in the workplace, or power over other people? There's also a bigger question to ask ourselves: how would things change in our lives if we were given the amount of power Lou had? What about Scotty?

Dependent Relationships

            One thing that struck me while reading this first section of A Visit from the Goon Squad was the way in which relationships are described between different characters. Specifically, there are three pairs of characters in the novel that seem to have a kind of strangely dependent relationship. In all three cases, one character seems to rely on the other for comfort and support. The first relationship this comes up in is Sasha and Bennie´s. After he allows Sasha to read his list of embarrassing/ shameful memories, Bennie admits that “what he felt for Sasha was love, a safety and closeness” (Egan 38). Bennie depends on Sasha as a constant in his life, as someone who represents the love and stability he once had in his marriage to Stephanie. Next we see a similar dynamic between Scotty and Jocelyn. We learn that as a teenager, Scotty was “waiting for Jocelyn, who´s known Scotty the longest and makes him feel safe” (Egan 42). After his mother´s death Scotty comes to count on Jocelyn as a kind of surrogate/ safety blanket to help him cope. Finally, we see this same quality in Lou´s relationship with his son Rolph. During one of the several conversations they have while on a safari in Africa, Lou reflects “that his son is the one person in the world with the power to soothe him” (Egan 63). Lou sees his son as the only calming relief in his otherwise dysfunctional life. 

            I´m not really sure what this actually means in terms of how we should view the characters or why this really caught my attention, but it´s interesting that the dependent character in each of the relationships is the one who, according to typical societal stereotypes, should be the strongest. Bennie is Sasha´s boss: society would view him as the more powerful. Scotty is a more talented musician than Jocelyn and he has a “magnetic” personality: he should have the upper hand. And Lou is Rolph´s father: he should obviously be the more stable one in the relationship. But in each case the perceived “inferior” person has the power to relax and sooth the other. It´s also interesting to consider that even though we as the audience know that Sasha, Jocelyn, and Rolph are all deeply troubled individuals with their own demons, they are all still seen as a source of stability and calm by one of their fellow characters.