Month: February 2018

(Spoiler alert!)

At the end of Oscar Wao’s tragic story, he is killed by his lover’s abusive ex-boyfriend. With the simple word of fire, Oscar Wao is shot in the head. When I read that that was his end, I was shocked and awash with a feeling of numbness. So really, what was the point of this story? Here he is, a fat nerd who finally found love. Granted, she probably wasn’t the best person to fall in love with, considering she had a dangerous abusive police officer boyfriend, but he found what he longed for for so long. Human connection. And then it all ended.

I felt frustrated and sorry for Oscar. The first person he has feelings for, is the essentially the beta version of Ybon. Except now Ybon actually loves Oscar. He gets beaten almost to death, and everyone in his family warns him to stay away from her, but he returns to the DC to be with her, knowing likely that it would be the end of him.

The most tragic aspect of Oscar’s death was the fact that he always stayed true to himself. During his final speech, he refers to himself as an avenger. He’s an avenger to his own death, but also the Avengers from the comics. He also referred to the goons that was with Capitan as Grod and Grundy. Even when he’s about to die, he still has his nerd references, because that’s who he is.

It wasn’t until the professor said that she feels that Oscar Wao is the epitome of an anti-hero, that I finally realized the point of his story. Though his story felt dull and dreary, that was the point. He was the hero of his own story, regardless of how sad it may seem to the outsider. His goal is always his goal, even if other people only pity him.

While reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, I could not help but note how much focus there is on appearance. Oscar is overweight with acne and crazy hair. His sister is attractive, and his mom was a bombshell in her youth.

I think the juxtaposition of Oscar and his mother’s social life based on each person’s appearance is very important. Oscar is ashamed of his body and thus his own body image issues directly affect his interactions with people. He’s shy and desperate for love. He’s busy fantasizing about rescuing one of the girls he admires in hope that one day, they will feel the same way. The first girl to give him attention, Ana, ends up getting back together with her abusive ex-boyfriend, while still turning to Oscar for comfort.

 

Oscar’s mother, Beli, was the opposite of Oscar. Though she too was somewhat of a social outcast, she was absolutely stunning with the type of body that attracts a lot of men. She too, let her own body image dictate how she interacts with people. Mostly, because she knew that men liked how she looked, she would use it to her advantage. Still, Beli ended up dating and being with men who didn’t treat her well. Her first “boyfriend” used her and as soon as she became a liability, sold her out. Her second partner was a gangster, and her last, the father of her children, left her.

 

I think the author focuses on Oscar and Beli’s appearances to show that, one way or another, life is hard regardless how you look. Oscar thinks that life would be so much better if he was attractive, but look what happened to his mother. She was beautiful, but her beauty also caused her pain. Being attractive can help you, yes. People are biologically inclined to like pretty people more. But ultimately, it’s personality and your own life choices that will determine your life. Beli could have used her attractiveness to find a good man who would treat her well, but she chose men that only wanted her for her attractiveness and treated her poorly.

An anti-hero, according to the Dictionary, is “ a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.” Though I’ve read several books in high school about characters who are anti-heroes, like Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost, all of these books are written in a historical context, and therefore are less relatable. Moreso, they are all male characters.

The Young Elites by Marie Lu is about a girl named Adelina Amoteru. She was afflicted as a child with a disease that changed her appearance and gave her a special ability. Unfortunately for her, people like her are shunned by society. This book is about her story and readers will notice how her traits become more and more anti-hero-like. Still, she has the reader’s sympathy because they know that she had pure intentions. From the beginning, she is just an outcast who desperately wishes to be loved and belong somewhere, but her personality is hardened by the people who reject her and take advantage of her vulnerability.

I personally relate to Adelina. I struggle with a lot of anxiety that results in me not treating people as well as I want to. I still have good intentions towards others, but I doubt society would consider me a “hero,” since I have anxiety, which is decidedly not a heroic trait. Like Adelina, I am not the most beautiful woman who will be rescued by a man who understands the “true” her. Regardless of others, I will continue to be myself, because I know that I am doing my best. I don’t have to be the smartest or the most outgoing or the most or the most beautiful, because just being me is good enough.

There are heroes and anti-heroes. Typically people think, either you’re a villain or a hero. But that’s not exactly true. Sometimes, you’re the anti-hero. You don’t have the typical traits of a hero, but that doesn’t make you any less of one. Anti-heroes are the more realistic versions of heroes.

Dictionary definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antihero

During class, we defined a new type of anti-hero from Prometheus by Lord Byron. Though by our definition, Prometheus was good and tried to help people, he was still punished by Zeus. That really made me think “what does good and bad really mean?” They’re really just our own definitions. For example, killing a killer. As a society, we understand that killing someone is wrong. But what if we kill someone who kills people?

In order to explore the ideas of anti-heroes more, I’ve looked for common anti-heroes in literature and Jay Gatsby is a prime example. He earns his money through dishonest ways, and yet he has the reader’s sympathy because of his deep pain and strangely romantic obsession with Daisy Buchannan. He is a tragic figure because of his fatal flaw: his belief that he can go back in time and win back the Daisy that he was in love with. Though he is not the typical hero who worked hard and earned money honestly as well as winning his love interest, there’s still much to learn from his story, which is the point of the anti-hero. Not all lessons in life are “Be the hero! Be good and everything good will happen to you!” In this case, Gatsby’s lesson is that there isn’t a way to return to the past. Being stuck is what causes anguish, and is thus a cautionary tale. The negative, but just as important life lessons, are taught by anti-heroes.

In addition to life lessons, I think society’s obsession with anti-heroes is a way to try to understand the point of view of people who do terrible things. Unfortunately, right and wrong are not black and white values and so we try to empathize and understand the why.