Reading one chapter “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, the word ‘fuku’ is used a lot. The author brings it up so much to the point that it means “a curse or a doom of some kind.” Despite knowing fuku has something to do with darkness, I’m confused about what points the author is trying to make. I saw that he made a comparison to superstitions which is believing in supernatural beings. This means spirits unleashing evil into the world causing problems for people. I feel that the author was trying to bring more recognition about how fuku is real and how many other cultures believe in it. Fuku is a strong belief by Dominicans which means bad luck. The author mentioned how many ethnic people like Haitians and Puerto Ricans have similar beliefs to it as well. Being an Arab myself,  I can relate on some aspects of Fuku. Misfortune to us is caused by super-naturals called Jinns. That is besides the point though.

I am still confused about why the author believes Fuku is caused by the aftermath of slavery. Why does he think it has to do with that? Couldn’t it just be because of the principles of life? Can’t it be that karma is just a real thing? His beliefs for Fuku is extremely strong which I do understand. I do believe that misfortune is caused by the super-natural especially it is a part of religious beliefs too. Everyone does have a story or more of misfortune caused by superstitions.