How we cite our quotes: (Act.Chapter.Section.Paragraph), (Act.Special Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Knocked Lola for a loop when I said I'd do it, but it almost killed her dead when I actually did it. Move in with him. In f***ing Demarest. Home of all the weirdos and losers and freaks and fem-bots. Me, a guy who could bench 340 pounds, who used to call Demarest Homo Hall like it was nothing. Who never met a little white artist freak he didn't want to smack around. Put in my application for the writing section and by the beginning of September, there we were, me and Oscar. Together. (2.4.1.12)
Brace yourselves: we're going to reference Shakespeare's Hamlet. Do you rememberwhen Gertrude says, "the lady doth protest too much"?. The idea is that if you say something too forcefully, people may think you have something to hide. That's the case with Yunior here. He wants us to think he's not a nerd. He wants us to think that he's a tough guy who can bench-press 340 pounds. (And maybe he can bench that much. Who are we to say?) But Yunior flashes his nerd credentials often enough in the novel for us to know that he's at least 40% nerd. Looks like Yunior "doth protest too much."
Quote #8
Halloween he made the mistake of dressing up as Doctor Who, was real proud of his outfit too. When I saw him on Easton, with two other writing-section clowns, I couldn't believe how much he looked like that fat homo Oscar Wilde, and I told him so. You look just like him, which was bad news for Oscar, because Melvin said, Oscar Wao, quién es Oscar Wao [who is Oscar Wao], and that was it, all of us started calling him that: Hey, Wao, what you doing? Wao, you want to get your feet off my chair?
And the tragedy? After a couple of weeks dude started answering to it. (2.4.1.88-2.4.1.89)
There's certainly a lot to talk about in this passage. But we just want to point out that Oscar starts answering to the nickname Yunior and his pals give him. Sometimes, when other people tack an identity on you, you become that person—whether you like it or not.
Quote #9
After his initial homecoming week, after he'd been taken to a bunch of sights by his cousins, after he'd gotten somewhat used to the scorching weather and the surprise of waking up to the roosters and being called Huáscar by everybody (that was his Dominican name, something else he'd forgotten), after he refused to succumb to that whisper that all long-term immigrants carry inside themselves, the whisper that says You do not belong [...]. (2.6.5.1)
Oscar is both American and Dominican—and this, of course, makes visiting the Dominican Republic uncomfortable. Does he belong? Or is he a foreigner?