The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Chapter 3 Quotes
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Chapter 3 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 13
Before there was an American story, before Paterson spread before Oscar and Lola like a dream, or the trumpets from the Island of our eviction had even sounded, there was their mother, Hypatía Belicia Cabral.
a girl so tall your leg bones ached just looking at her
so dark it was as if the Creatrix had, in her making, blinked
who, like her yet-to-be-born daughter, would come to exhibit a particularly Jersey malaise—the inextinguishable longing for elsewheres. (1.3.1.1-1.3.1.4)
This passage asks an important question: What drives someone to leave home for another country? Certainly, a dictator like Trujillo might get you running to that airport. In fact, Trujillo made a whole nation want to leave. But our narrator suggests here, too, that both Beli and Lola have a peculiar itch. They both have an "inextinguishable longing for elsewheres." Here, the personal and the political seem to converge.
Quote 14
The Gangster romanced the girl like only middle-aged n*****s know how: chipped at her reservation with cool aplomb and unself-conscious cursí-ness. Rained on her head enough flowers to garland Azua, bonfires of roses at the job and her house. [...]. He escorted her to the most exclusive restaurants of the capital, took her to the clubs that had never tolerated a nonmusician prieta [black girl] inside their door before [...]. (1.3.9.12)
Dominicans have treated darker-skinned Haitians really, really badly. Native Dominicans with dark skin don't get much love either. On Beli's home island, fellow Dominicans consider her an "other" because of her dark skin. Of course, things don't get much better when Beli moves to New Jersey.
Quote 15
[La Inca:] You don't understand, hija [daughter]. You have to leave the country. They'll kill you if you don't.
Beli laughed.
Oh, Beli; not so rashly, not so rashly: What did you know about states or diasporas? What did you know about Nueba Yol [New York] or unheated "old law" tenements or children whose self-hate short-circuited their minds? What did you know, madame, about immigration? Don't laugh, mi negrita [my little dark one], for your world is about to be changed. (1.3.21.23-1.3.21.25)
Beli laughs when La Inca tells her that she'll have to leave the Dominican Repbulic. It's just what she wanted. But our narrator basically tells Beli to slow her roll. Don't get too excited. When you emigrate, you risk not only feeling homesick, but also getting discriminated against in your new country.