Yunior and Oscar

          Oscar and Yuniors characters are polar opposites.  Yunior, the narrator of the book, is the quintessential Dominican male, el machismo. He sleeps around with many girls even when he was in a relationship with Oscars sister Lola. "At college you're not suppose about-you're supposed to fuck around" (pg 68). Throughout the book we see that Yunior was not a good person. We also see that Oscars death effects him and makes him change his ways, even if it was ten years later. By the end of the book he is a creative writing teacher and has a wife he thinks he does not deserve.

          Oscar, on the other hand, is the the total opposite. He likes writing stories and role playing. He falls in love with any girl that is nice to him, but always does something weird that pushes them away. He doesn't speak the way Yunior does, "geek" speak as Yunior would call it. He is prone to depression, because he fears that he is going to die a virgin. We see that Oscar dying pushed Yunior to a better path, making him clean up his act. "Took ten years to the day, went through more losy shit than you could imagine... Until finally I woke up next to somebody I didn't give two shits about, my upper lip covered in coke-snot and coke blood and I said OK, Wao, OK. You win."(pg 325)

Oscar Wao v. Culture

       Oscar Wao was not the "typical" Dominican male. He was fat, liked science fiction and role playing, and could not get a girl to like him. "Dude never had much luck with the females ( how un-Dominican of him)" (pg 12) Even the first page of the book starts off with the narrator depicting the un-Dominican-ness of Oscar. In fact, he spent his whole life wanting a girl that loves him for who he is. He did not want to be the typical Dominican male and sleep around with many girls.

      I can relate to Oscar in a way, because I am not a typical Pakistani girl. There are many expectations of girls. We are expected to know how to take care of the house and the family. The thing that is stressed more in my house is education, which does not happen in many other families. Just like Oscar, I do not mind knowing how to cook or take care of the house if I have to. But I also want to be independent and know that I can take care of myself first.