Life of Oscar Wao analysis
Why does society as a whole stand for everything it fights? In a world that criminalizes bullying and preaches about equality, do social crimes slip through the cracks unnoticed. It is true that things we are afraid of draw our attention, and we are dedicated to crushing our fears aren’t we? Did a kindergartener know what a terrorist was before September Eleventh? No, and he likely wouldn’t have been able to locate the Middle East anymore than his house on a map. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended the thought of an immediate end of the world by nuclear war. A war we thought we have swept under the rug is the war on social injustice. America is the land of the free, because of the great lengths we go to protect ourselves, but as a result we have ostracized our own people and abandoned our founding principals. America was formed by outcasts from every region in the world. Many sought religious freedom and others escaped from trouble at home. As a nation full of the unwanted we do a lot to make others feel ostracized. The Jim Crow laws, which were in place in the south for almost a century accomplished the sole goal of separating African Americans from the rest of society. During the onset of World War Two we incarcerated thousands of Japanese Americans, because of their heritage. We have a history of making every effort to prevent change and divide this nation. All of this is simply evidence that this problem has existed between races and communities, since this nation’s founding. Today, however, it is unacceptable to target other races and as a result we have turned our focus to within our communities. Our change of focus toward our communities is profound in the school systems. In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao a Dominican boy living in the ghetto experiences both ends of what it means to be Dominican. Oscar has experienced two very different lives, one where people honor him and another where people walk over him. The ironic