When I first read the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao I was confused on how the word fuku impacted people’s lives and confused on what it really meant. All I really understood was that fuku wasn’t friendly. The first and second page is where I immediately got caught up. Although I didn’t understand the context, I kept on reading, to try and grasp an understanding of this word. As I continued I finally recognized what the author was explaining and it’s connections. When I finished the rest of the pages I re-read the first two in order to better my knowledge now that I understood. From what I understand in the novel, Junot Diaz (author)elaborates on the word fuku. According to Diaz the word fuku derived from Africans “carried in the screams of the enslaved.” To sum it up, the word fuku is defined as a curse or some sort of “doom”. Diaz continues utilizing this word throughout the text by highlighting its connection to the Dominican Republic’s dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, who ruled from 1930 to 1961. Diaz includes stories from other Dominicans that have encountered fuku during their lifetime and John F. Kennedy’s assination as well. Now that I look back, Diaz may have been trying to catch the reader’s attention by making them confused in order for them to be curious enough to read more. Which is what happened in my case. Diaz probably does this so that readers become interested off the bat and don’t automatically assume the text will be boring.Â
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