It is said that "children suffer for the sins of their parents." In a more literal sense, many people believe that it is the parents' fault for any defect possessed by the child, not literal "sin." People blame their parents for the child's development, whether good or bad, and immediately point the finger at the child's guardian before placing the blame on the child themselves. Is it really the parents' fault if a child has a difficult upbringing, and does it really affect the child as a whole? This point can be explored further in Junot Diaz's work, The Brief Marvelous Life of Oscar Wao. Diaz's novel introduces us to a Dominican immigrant family living in Patterson, New Jersey. We are introduced to the De Leon family consisting of Oscar, the overweight nerd who longs to fit in, Lola, his rebellious sister, and Belicia, their immigrant mother who grew up in the Dominican Republic. All three characters face a ton of problems throughout their tales, and Oscar and his sister suffer from being singled out and different compared to their peers. The two outcasts face immense heartbreak in the book, but why? We wonder if their mother, Belcia, their upbringing, their trauma, and a possible fukú, or curse, have anything to do with it. Do these children really suffer the “sins” of their parents? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay In order to examine this, we must first understand Belcia's background and life before Oscar and Lola. Belicia was the daughter of two hard-working parents, Abelard Cabral, a doctor, and Socorro, her mother a nurse. His family lived during Trujillo's rule in the Dominican Republic, from February 1930 to May 1961. Nicknamed El Jefe, or "the Boss," Rafael Trujillo was one of the most brutal dictators Americans have seen. Trujillo marked an era of personality cult and bloodshed. He took everything he wanted from anyone, and if there was the slightest sign of regression, he made them pay for their disloyalty in blood. Trujillo's reign resulted in the deaths of more than 50,000 people. Trujillo was well known for his sexual appetite, and when he wanted a woman, he took her; there was no way to say no to Trujillo. This is where we witness the fall of Father Abelard of Belicia. Trying to protect one of his daughters from Trujillo and having to sleep with him, he openly lies to her about having attractive offspring. When Trujillo invites the family to an event including the girl and they fail to show, Trujillo angrily takes Abelard away to punish him for his betrayal. He never returns home and, following another tragedy, Belicia loses her parents and her sister and becomes an orphan. It is at this moment of Abelard's misfortune that the Cabral family's luck diminishes. They believed that because of Trujillo's terror, a "Fukú" had been placed on their family. A fukú is a bad luck spell. “It is said that he came first from Africa, carried by the cries of slaves; that it was the deadly scourge of the Tainos, delivered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door opened in the Antilles. Fukú americanus, or more colloquially, fukú – usually a curse or some kind of misfortune; especially the curse and doom of the new world. (1,Diaz) Dominicans believed that fukú arrived in the Dominican Republic because of Trujillo. From this point on, Abelard's lineage will experience endless bad luck. “Most people you talk to prefer a story with a great twistnatural. They believe that not only did Trujillo want Abelard's daughter, but since he couldn't snatch her, out of spite he put a fukú on the family's ass. This is why all the terrible shit that happened happened. » (243, Diaz) Knowing the parental background, we can now explore Belicia as an individual and as a parent. Belicia, still living in the Dominican Republic, was adopted by her aunt La Inca after massive abuse from her previous adoptive parents. It is during her time in La Inca that Belli faces the changes and pressure of growing up as a young girl in her country. Belicia faces bad luck growing up. At school, she is rejected by her classmates, unnoticed and without friends; his first trauma linked to fukú. Once she hits puberty, Belli gains enough confidence in her physical appearance to come out of her shell and approach the one boy she fantasized about, Jack Pujols. Jack ended up being a colonel's son to the dictator, implicating Belli in his own mess. After being caught having sex at school, she refuses to return; His second trauma linked to fukú. Finally, the hardest trauma Belicia faces that ends up getting her deported from the Dominican Republic is when she meets "The Gangster." The gangster becomes one of Bell's love interests in her later years, and after a yo-yo romance with him, she later discovers, after becoming pregnant with his baby, that he is married to Trujillo's sister. After news of the pregnancy becomes known, the sister sends servants after Belli where they kidnap her, beat her almost to death in a sugar cane field and kill her unborn child. It is after all this trauma that La Inca sends Belli to America for his own safety. Belli has dealt with nothing but trauma her entire life, from her early childhood to her young adult life. She and her family believed it was all due to the fukú curse placed on her father. “There are still many on the island and elsewhere who view Beli's near-fatal beating as irrefutable proof that House Cabral was indeed the victim of a high-level fukú, the local version of House Atreus . Two Truji-líos in a lifetime – what else could it be? But other officials question that logic, arguing that Beli's survival must be proof to the contrary. After all, cursed people don't tend to drag themselves out of the cane fields with a frightening list of injuries and then find themselves picked up by a van of friendly musicians in the middle of the night who promptly take them back to a " mother". " with crazy connections in the medical community. If these coincidences mean anything, these leaders say, it's that our Beli has been blessed. (152, Diaz) The bad luck Belli faced wasn't just unhappy, but it also almost led to her death very early in her life. After her immigration, she gave birth to her two children, Oscar and Lola. Her relationship with the two children is extremely sporadic emotionally and can seem. almost too harsh and unloving Due to the trauma caused by fukú, she finds it difficult to build a normal relationship with her children, and even more difficult to help them overcome their own problems. not arrested either in the Dominican Republic; she also lives with cancer. The trauma she faced in her country essentially shaped her personality and, as a result, made it impossible for her to have a normal relationship with her children. Lola, Belicia's eldest, is a courageous and rebellious character.She is a unique and passionate girl who often clashes with her mother. Lola and Beli have a conflicted relationship. We often see them clashing throughout the novel. “You dread conversations with your mother. These unilateral denigrations. You thought she should call you to talk to you about your diet again. (52 years old, Diaz) Lola's relationship with her mother is toxic and extremely critical on Beli's part. She does not have a warm and peaceful relationship as one might imagine between a mother and her child. Due to Beli's constant arguments and disapproval, we often see Lola rebelling. She takes on the persona of a “punk chick” in which she dresses all in black and shaves her head. By molding her physical appearance to look like someone "different", it also places her in the category of an outcast, causing her to have a minimal number of friends and abnormal relationships with men. Her mother becomes extremely disappointed in her and only throws anger and disapproval towards Lola over her physical appearance and individual personality. In a sense, Lola does it because her mother hates it. Lola also runs away from her home in Wildwood to live with a boyfriend. It appears that Lola's actions are done deliberately to upset her mother. We clearly see the situation between the two when at the table, Belicia announces her cancer to her children. Instead of any sympathy, Lola literally rejects her mother's announcement and just looks at her and says "Can you please pass me the salt?" (63 years old, Diaz) She continues by saying “This time, I hope you die from it. » (63 years old, Diaz) Beli's lack of affection and attention towards her daughter pushed Lola to take action. By acting out, she sought any kind of attention she could from her mother, even if it was negative. We wonder if the way Beli acts towards Lola has created hatred in Lola. Is it Lola's personality or Belicia's influence? Next, we have Belicia's son, Oscar De Leon. Oscar is the classic definition of a “nerd.” He is constantly caught up in video games and fantasy worlds, drifting away from reality whenever he gets the chance. Not only is Oscar a nerd, but he is seriously overweight and almost completely lacking in social skills. "Dude carried his nerd side like a Jedi carried his lightsaber or a Lensman his lens. He couldn't have passed for Normal if he wanted to" (23 years old, Diaz). We see Oscar having such a hard time fitting in. At the beginning he has two friends, who are barely friends, and ultimately not in his life, and who have no idea how to act around women. As we follow Oscar throughout the novel, we see the torture he faces from a young age through his adult life. He is ridiculed, singled out and generally excluded. We see him face the same problems in high school and college. Overall, his displacement leads him to depression and he attempts suicide by jumping off a bridge. Oscar survives and, after his recovery, continues where we left off. He even has problems as an adult in his job. Even as a teacher, at a higher level, children always found ways to make fun of him. “His heart wasn't in it, and boys of all abilities and abilities were shitting on him profusely. Students laughed when they spotted him in the hallways. They pretended to hide their sandwiches. (264, Diaz) Oscar longs to fit in, to be normal, to be loved. He has never had any of these things in his entire life, and towards the end of the work we see Oscar finally feel these things when he meets Ybon; a prostitute with whom he falls in love during a visit to the Republic.