Ah, love: a blessing, or a curse? We at Shmoop can't decide whether or not love is the real curse in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. On the one hand, love gets almost every major character in major trouble. Beli tosses aside her family for a man. That man turns out to be married to Trujillo's sister, so government goons nearly kill her. Oscar actually gets murdered for love. On the other hand, love makes life worth living for Oscar. And Beli remembers her time with Oscar's father and The Gangster as some of the best years of her life. We said it once, and we'll say it again. Love: a blessing, or a curse? The debate rages on...
Questions About Love
- How closely does Wao align love and madness?
- Is Yunior cursed in love too? What about Lola? Which characters in the novel, if any, end up in fulfilling relationships?
- Does love have anything to do with the supernatural in this novel?
- The narrator suggests that Trujillo put a curse on the de León family because Abelard wouldn't let Trujillo have sex with Jacquelyn. The narrator also suggests that Columbus put the original curse on the island when he landed way back in the day. What is the effect of these two being paired together as possible causes for the de León curse? What do sex and colonialism have to with each other?