Disgrace: Wrap It Up

After our class discussion I could not stop thinking about the heated discussion or argument that David and Lucy had. David is very adamant about getting the “real story” about the incident from Lucy, but when questioned about the affair with Melanie from the Vice Rector, he would not succumb to it. Although the affair David had and Lucy’s rape are two different incidents, they are indeed similar and David finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. I believe the reason Lucy does not want to share her story with her father because its something personal and David would never be able to understand because Lucy is a woman. David will probably never understand fully because he is not female. Here is the problem, this incident and the fact that David cannot understand Lucy creates a distance between them and will only grow bigger if they cannot connect. Perhaps the reason why David cannot understand Lucy is because he is too involved with himself. It seems that Lurie is unable to stop thinking about himself for a minute (paying homage to himself every other page). I am hoping that the job with Bev Shaw will soften him a little bit or at least serve as reformation for change. As I read the next section I am wondering if Lucy will have the confidence to report her rape? This powerful incident has changed both David and Lucy and created a distance between their views of the system. Will David ever understand Melanie’s side of the story through Lucy’s hardship?

So many questions….

I must read on

Disgrace: Relationships

Upon the completion of pages 47-105  I found that I was happy about David Lurie going to stay with his daughter. Although his superficial ways arose when he first got there, here is the first time we see Lurie as human. Lucy appears relatively accepting of her father’s affair with a student and offers him “refuge”. However, when Lurie first sees his daughter, the first think he notices is that she has gained weight and makes a living from selling produce and flowers. We also learn that Lucy has a girlfriend (Helen) which David fixates on for about a paragraph (once again forever lost in his superficial thoughts). Although they exhibit many differences it seems that they are able to live harmoniously. However, when both Lucy and Lurie experience an intrusion, the differences become crystal clear. The incident that has occurred seems to hold a sort of power. The nature of each incident (or better yet crime) that they have suffered separates them in that Lucy (having been raped) does not want to tell the cops about it–”David, when people ask, would you mind keeping to your own story, to what happened to you? You tell what happened to you, I tell what happened to me….” This suggests that they aren’t on the same side as each other, therefore dividing them.  However, Lucy’s decision to not report the rape is crazy (to me) but pertinent in that she understands the judicial system (like David) and knows that the men will not be persecuted for their crime. This seems familiar to me in the case of David’s “situation” in that he could never produce an adequate confession to the vice rector. Here is where Lucy is similar to her father in that they both possess knowledge of the judicial system . However, under the system where Lucy lives, the exposure to this system is very different in nature: Lurie is the rapist and Lucy is a rape victim. This crime placed Lurie in a heroic position, but also allowed him to focus on the situation at hand instead of filtering it through his head in how it should have happened. Given the brutality of the crime, I don’t even think it was possible for Lurie to transform it.

It is the reality that he needed to take him out of his fanatical filtered world!

I am LOVING this novel

So real. So authentic.

Disgrace:Lurie’s Language & Selfishness

After reading the first five chapters in Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee we meet David Lurie who is a communications professor, twice divorced, has one child, is apathetic towards the material he teaches,  rarely engages his students, and no longer teaches out of passion and conviction, but only to make a living. Every Thursday, Lurie travels to a prominent gated community to sleep with a prostitute who we meet as “Soraya”. When the affair is finished, Lurie takes it a step further by pursuing her home address and phone number (crossing all boundaries).  Even though this novel is written in third person, David’s language, thoughts, and perceptions dominate the text. Unlike Diaz’s novel where we had the chance to consider different perspectives, here within Disgrace we are only given one. Here lies the problem: events that occur around Lurie are filtered through him, changed to suit him. Therefore, as the reader we are forced to listen to only him and develop what we can from him. A great example is the questionable rape scene with Melanie. Although Melanie does not out-right say “stop” to Lurie, he interprets it as shyness that he must help her conquer. Lurie seems to ignore every indication that Melanie is repulsed by him, instead choosing to interpret her behaviors through his own desires. This is also apparent in the slippery language that he uses: “She does not resist. All she does is avert herself, avert her lips, avert her eyes…not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core” (Coetzee 25). Laurie here defines his act with his own language, never calling it rape. Lurie (as well as the reader) is locked in his own selfishness. In these first chapters David is constantly fixated on language, using “avert” versus “resist” and “undesired to the core” versus “rape.”

While the reader has access to Lurie’s interior (his thoughts, feelings, fears,etc.) he also reveals his isolation to the reader and this is most apparent in his relationships with women.  It’s not enough for Lurie to just have an affair. He must continue this relationship and become a predator finding out addresses and phone numbers as well. We see this with Soraya and then again with Melanie. Once again Lurie is being selfish in that he knows what line he crosses with Melanie. This is telling to the reader in that he makes is clear through his actions that he does not care about societal rules or ethics, just about him and fulfilling his desires.

Lurie’s actions are indeed disgraceful.

I am anxious to read more

End of Oscar Wao: The Narrator & Lola’s Daughter

Upon finishing the end of Oscar Wao I still was left with questions about the narrator. Although there have been many class discussions concerning the narrator, I think its safe to say that Junior is the narrator. At first I thought that it was Lola, however now am left with the impression that it is Junior since a tape recorder was involved. Which reminds me of a great point that was considered in class, If it is Junior it would explain the outside perspective. Maybe after dating Lola and meeting Oscar, Junior wanted to be the one to get down to reasoning why certain things happened to the Wao family.

Another thing that I found interesting was the idea of regeneration in Lola’s daughter. How, Junior is already noticing similar things in her and expecting the “circle” to fail: “One day, though, the Circle will fail. As Circles always do. And for the first time she will hear the word fuku. And she will have a dream of the No Face Man. Not now, but soon” (Diaz 330). It seems that here Junior is recognizing that his family will be forever cursed, but maybe, just maybe if his daughter is smart she will use all the insight she will gain from them and end it. After reading this specific passage It makes me believe that Junior wrote this as a warning to the next generation to come in his family. The Wao family never like to talk about certain events or occurrences, and here is a way where they do not have to talk about it, Lola’s daughter could just read it. Which I found this part to be a little scary how things worked out for the Wao’s.

Goodluck to Lola’s daughter….

The Narrator is Revealed?!! And Some Notes on Form

Upon reading pages 119-201 I made it a point to lookout for our mysterious narrator. At first I thought that it might be the infamous Beli Cabral, because there are a couple of phrases where Beli sorta reflects back and uses “Me”–” Once they had heard what happened they let me go” (Diaz 131). A couple of pages back the narrator/maybe Beli says, “For the first time I actually felt like I owned my skin, like it was me and I was it” (Diaz 127). It seems that the narrator is not only reflecting back, but the narrator has come to a realization about her/himself as well. However, as I read further into the section, I started to believe that Lola’s boyfriend was the narrator in that the narrator offers a different opinion about Beli. The narrator talks about Beli’s “gangster” and of him going away often, the narrator says: “Ostensibly she wanted to end things in a formal way, but I think she was just feeling down and wanted male attention” (Diaz 130).  Which here is where it gets a little confusing for me because the narrator injects a different opinion verses saying “I” and reflecting. Also when Diaz “introduces” Lola’s boyfriend (can’t remember his name for the life of me) it gives the reader a different perspective outside the family. The section titled “Sentimental Education 1988-1992″ completely threw me for a loop because I wasn’t expecting another different perspective about the Cabral’s–”It started with me. The year Oscar fell, I suffered some nuttiness of my own; I got jumped as I was walking home from the Roxy” (Diaz 167).  This is where I start to believe that the narrator could possibly be Lola’s boyfriend, it would make sense because this is a person who was close to Lola and Oscar at the same time; the person who could offer an outside perspective. What do you think ???

Another section I would like to pay homage to once again is the form of the novel. From our readings and discussions we know that Diaz has a way of getting the reader’s attention and informing the reader about events in a (for lack of a better term) nonchalant non-boring way. This especially is true within this section. There are many times where the narrator reaches out to its readers and makes a revelation about something, “In a better world I would have kissed her over the ice trays and that would have been the end of all our troubles. But you know exactly what kind of world we live in” (Diaz 194). Here Diaz and (seemingly) the narrator invites the reader in and not lonely is talking about the world in general, but ( I think) he is talking about the world of Cabral and the Fuku Americanus; How happiness is doomed for the Cabral’s; How their world is doomed forever.

How unfortunate.

Hopefully the curse will not completely take over the Cabral’s life, even though it has affected them heavily already.

Lets just cross our fingers….

The Infamous Belicia Cabral

After our class discussion what really sparked my interest was Beli’s section. Without this particular section in the novel, we would not understand why Beli is tough on Lola. Beli distributes her legacy between Oscar and Lola. This replication of bad behavior goes back to the prologue we all love about Fuku Americanas–the concept of doom and bad luck. We learn that Beli has been suffered  a traumatic experience with abuse  (we don’t know what exactly) that explains her behavior. Beli wanted a change from the life that she had and Lola wants to “escape” from her mothers hard-ironed ways, and from her mother’s expectations–”She was my Olf World Dominican mother and I was her only daughter…I was fourteen and desperate for my own patch of the world that had nothing to do with her” (Diaz 55). With the use of first person narration, Wao provides the reader with insight to Beli’s life with La Inca and how La Inca treated Beli.

Diaz does an excellent job at inserting this section through first-person narration allowing the reader to sympathizes with Beli instead of Lola. Diaz uses the term “our girl” to refer to Beli as though she was famous which (in my opinion) suggests that the reader should sympathize with her and understand her behavior. I liked how Diaz inserted Beli’s story like a news story because as I read I wanted more and of course it was a break from the footnotes.

Overall, this section was needed in order to understand Beli’s reign over Lola; Beli had to be the backbone of the family and now Lola must be the backbone no matter what it takes. However, Lola will do anything to challenge this. I don’t think Lola is wrong for wanting to escape and challenge the image of a “normal” Dominican girl but i do feel that Lola needs to take into consideration her mothers concerns because she has been there.

I am excited to read more….

The Brief “Wondrous” Life of Oscar Wao

Upon reading pages 1-50 in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz I found that the beginning was a bit difficult to get through due to the language. The prologue seemed more like reading an actual conversation then a regular story. Junot Diaz gives us a lesson about Dominican history in the form of incredibly long footnotes. Some events that Diaz mentions I wasn’t aware of, but I actually liked learning about these events. However, after the prologue, the story picked up and it started to get interesting or rather sad .

Diaz presents the reader with the character Oscar Wao who we learn “had always been a young nerd–the kind of kid who read Tom Swift, who loved comic books and watched Ultraman–but by high school his commitment to genres had become absolute” (Diaz 20).  Oscar is Dominican, but apparently not the “typical Dominican male” who was great at snagging girls. Although Oscar proves to be precocious, he really does not have such a “Wondrous Life” as the title advertises. He is extremely unhappy because he sees his closest friends Al and  Miggs finally snag girlfriends, unfortunately leaving Oscar without one –”His two-nerdboys, Al and Miggs had, in the craziest twist of fortune, both succeeded in landing themselves girls that year” (Diaz 28). However, Oscar has a brief moment of realization concerning his friends and realizes that “his fucked-up comic-book-reading, role-playing-game-loving, no-sports-playing friends were embarrassed by him” (Diaz 29).

Although Oscar didn’t land the infamous Maritza, When he goes off to college he “comes close” to meeting his first girlfriend. Now here is where I felt incredibly bad for him. Fortunately Oscar does finally land a girl (Ana), and when things are going well, Oscar finds out that Ana has a boyfriend who is in the navy , his name is Manny, and is apparently big in the right place.  Oscar also learns that he beats Ana up and she enjoys his roughness, or rather enjoys being the victim. It is obvious at this point that Oscar has bad luck.

Maybe this is why Diaz inserted that “wonderful” prologue about the “Fuku americanus”? Fuku americanus  meaning “a curse or a doom of some kind” It seems to me that Oscar Wao has been doomed (or at least this is what Diaz presents to the reader).  Diaz repeatedly  reminds the  reader  that Oscar is not like the “normal Dominican guys”.

Oscar is different.

Oscar is a ghetto geek who fantasizes about a life he wish he had.

What a “wondrous” life Oscar Wao has….

Perhaps Oscar is Junot Diaz? Not sure about this completely. I must read on.