Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, A Multi-thematic Novel

Abstract

Understanding of the individual’s identity is becoming a topic that is more and more important to people. Personality, development, etc. are things we have been taking a closer look at for the last couple decennia. There is a certain area that is very important in this area, though, which is the identity of the adolescent. Novels and research about the behaviour of adolescents has become more prominent in recent years. For this thesis, the focus is on the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. With close analysis and research into the different themes surrounding the novel such as Bildung and diaspora, a better understanding of the situation of teenagers is explored. Furthermore, the complexity of the novel became very apparent as research continued. The problems that surround placing a certain novel in a certain genre show us how complex novels about identity are.