The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Junot Díaz

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What are the familial relationships in Oscar Wao?

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In the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, most of the familial relationships are explored through the fuku , the family curse, as well as the traumatic and polarizing moments surrounding each family member that go on to affect the other members of the family. In this answer, I would like to focus on the end of Oscar Wao and Yunior's hopes of involvement with Lola's daughter, Isis. The backbone of Oscar Wao is the concept of the fuku , which claims the lives of nearly all of the Cabrals that try to fight the curse.

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In the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, most of the familial relationships are explored through the fuku, the family curse, as well as the traumatic and polarizing moments surrounding each family member that go on to affect the other members of the family. In this answer, I would like to focus on the end of Oscar Wao and Yunior's hopes of involvement with Lola's daughter, Isis.

The backbone of Oscar Wao is the concept of the fuku, which claims the lives of nearly all of the Cabrals that try to fight the curse. Yunior, while not a blood relative of the Cabral family, moves his way into the history of the family by dating Lola on and off and rooming with and befriending Oscar. Yunior, who ends up teaching creative writing and becoming a writer himself, becomes the family historian—it is Yunior who keeps...

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all of Oscar's manuscripts, eventually giving a manuscript to Lola after Oscar's death. Yunior, as a non-blood relative and an outsider to thefuku, hopes that, with his insertion of himself into the lives of the Cabrals, and his meticulous look at the history of the family and the history of Puerto Rico's fuku in total, he can help Isis break the family curse someday.

A student could do an interesting analysis of Isis herself as the sole inheritor of the Cabral family fuku. Isis is mentioned briefly in the novel not just as Lola's daughter but as a superhero in the DC Universe, so the assignation has already been hinted at by the author (or by Yunior, depending on who is considered "in charge" of the Cabral story) that Isis is the strongest Cabral and could potentially break the family curse.

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There are many key familial relationships throughout the novel. First, let's just start with a family tree:

Dr. Abelard Luis Cabral - husband of Socorro Cabral

     Abelard and Socorro are the parents of Jackie, Astrid, and Belicia (Beli)

Abelard - cousin of La Inca

La Inca adopts Beli at the age of 9 (the rest of the Cabrals are dead)

Beli has two children, Lola and Oscar

Yunior, who is the narrator of most of the novel, is not related to anyone, but is Lola's on-again, off-again boyfriend and Oscar's occasional friend.

The key relationships are Beli and La Inca, Beli and her children, and Oscar and Lola.

La Inca rescues Beli from a horrible situation and adopts her, and for a while they have a very close mother-daughter bond. Beli is finally in a safe and loving environment. But as Beli grows older and discovers her own beauty and sex appeal, she pulls away from La Inca and rebels, striving to get away. They fight constantly, and eventually Beli leaves. But they are able to maintain their relationship in spite of all the conflict.

Beli has an extremely difficult relationship with her children. She rarely, if ever, shows any sort of affection and expects them to do whatever she asks. Oscar and his mother have a slightly better relationship than Lola and her mother. Lola rebels, like Beli did, and runs away, though she comes back. Lola both loves and hates her mother, but ultimately she is there when her mother needs her.

Lastly, Lola and Oscar have a very close relationship, a strong bond. Lola looks out for her brother and tries to get him to fit in a little, but when he never does, she never stops loving him or going out with him or inviting him places. She worries about him constantly and is devastated and heartbroken when he dies.

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