The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Chapter 5 Quotes
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Chapter 5 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
The reign of Trujillo was not the best time to be a lover of Ideas, not the best time to be engaging in parlor debate, to be hosting tertulias [chats], to be doing anything out of the ordinary. (2.5.1.7)
This quote is about Abelard's tertulias [chats]. Basically, Abelard would invite over some smart people and they'd talk about anything and everything—literature, philosophy, science, ancient history. Anything, that is, except Trujillo. So not only does Trujillo have power over what people do in the Dominican Republic, he has power over what people do (and don't) say. That's some big-time dictatorial control.
Quote 2
It wasn't just Mr. Friday the Thirteenth you had to worry about, either, it was the whole Chivato Nation he helped spawn, for like every Dark Lord worth his Shadow he had the devotion of his people. (2.5.3.2)
Friday the 13th is a horror movie franchise—we're guessing it's got about ten sequels and remakes?—that started in 1980. The monster in the films, named Jason, has a few supernatural powers. So not only does Díaz compare Trujillo to Sauron from Lord of the Rings, he also compares him to the very scary and powerful main character of this franchise. We're saying a zafa just typing these words right now.
Quote 3
So which was it? you ask. An accident, a conspiracy, or a fukú? The only answer I can give you is the least satisfying: you'll have to decide for yourself. What's certain is that nothing's certain. We are trawling in silences here. Trujillo and Company didn't leave a paper trail—they didn't share their German contemporaries' lust for documentation. And it's not like the fukú itself would leave a memoir or anything. The remaining Cabrals ain't much help, either; on all matters related to Abelard's imprisonment and to the subsequent destruction of the clan there is within the family a silence that stands monument to the generations, that sphinxes all attempts at narrative reconstruction. A whisper here and there but nothing more. (2.5.8.18)
Our narrator tells us that we'll just have to decide for ourselves whether Trujillo put a fukú on the family or not. Wait a second. Doesn't the narrator spend most of the book trying to convince us that everything that happens to this family is the result of a fukú? Isn't the novel itself a zafa against the family curse? So why does the narrator tell us that we have to decide for ourselves if he's so convinced? Discuss.