Category: Portrait of a Word

While reading “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz I was confused with what the author believed. Does he believe in the “fuku” curse/doom or is he trying to prove some other point? For example, Diaz states “In my parents’ day the fuku was real as shit, something your everyday person could believe in” (2). Diaz shows that people in his life believed in fuku; it was a common occurrence. I do not know if he himself truly believes in fuku or not. If he doesn’t, then I believe that he uses fuku as some sort of metaphor. Diaz says “…that whoever killed Trujillo, their family would suffer a fuku so dreadful it would make the one that attached itself to the Admiral jojote in comparison” (3). Is the fuku a metaphor for the fate or reaction that would happen as a result of the murder of Trujillo? If not then I still found this piece of writing very entertaining. It’s not as professional as most pieces that I have read. The way Diaz speaks alone makes me create him as a character in my mind instead of just reading someone’s boring lecture. The topic was very interesting. At first I read the whole passage with the view that everything that Diaz said was literal. I found it hard to find something difficult to pick out from it so I started to nitpick at it.

In “The Brief, Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, I did not really find anything confusing, or difficult to understand or comprehend. I like how Diaz fuses Dominican slang and formal English.I believe Diaz does this to appeal to a much wider audience, and that she accomplishes very well. The one thing that was somewhat “difficult” was the size of some of the footnotes. On the second page, there was one that was longer than the main text itself. Granted, it was a history lesson of the extent of Trujillo’s reign over the Dominican Republic. I also appreciate the “colorful” language Diaz uses in the beginning of the excerpt. “…uttered just as one world perished and another began; that it was a demon drawn into Creation through the nightmare door that was cracked open…”(1) Even though I am not 100% sure what Diaz is referring to in this sentence, I still get very vivid imagery, due to her word choice. This is executed perfectly in my opinion, it hooks the reader’s attention, whilst the author gets to the “meat”. I also like how the story Diaz is mentioning throughout the excerpt is bigger than itself. What Diaz is implying is that Trujillo, former dictator of the Dominican Republic, is the one who killed JFK. It somewhat caught me by surprise, in a good way, the way Diaz just blatantly says it. In all, I genuinely enjoy Diaz’ writing style. She found a way to take a history lesson, and spin it around to actually make it very interesting.

The excerpt from “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz made me surprisingly interested that I found myself wanting to read more about the superstition ‘fuku.’ I suppose it was because of how Diaz was telling the history of ‘fuku’ in a style that seemed less academic or formal- like but more natural and humorous. The sentence that took me by surprise and made me laugh was “who killed JFK? Let me, your humble Watcher, reveal one and for all the God’s Honest Truth: It wasn’t the mob or the ghost of Marilyn fucking Monroe.”(4) I admit that if I were to write a novel or paper I definitely would not utilize as much curse words as Diaz but I would love to write like him in a sense that captivates the audience into reading more. Another sentence I could not help but laugh and become sort of terrified was “It’s perfectly fine if you don’t believe in these “superstitions.” In fact, it’s better than fine- it’s perfect. Because no matter what you believe, fuku believes in you.”(4) I never believed in superstitions, even when my grandparents told me about the superstitions in Indonesia I would always brush it off but the way Diaz described ‘fuku’ by hyperbolically asking who killed JFK, where the curse of the Kennedys came from and also talking about his family’s personal ‘fuku’ experience made me wonder and question my own belief. I admire how he didn’t really put much thought into using academic words or complex sentence structures because that was what made me as a reader understand his point. I would like to use that in my own writing, being able to capture the reader’s attention but still sound knowledgable and credible without making my readers confused.

In the story, “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz he shows a superstition from Santo Domingo called “”fukú”. But the fukú ain’t just ancient history, a ghost story from the past with no power to scare.  I found Junot Diaz story to be very interesting he connects with the readers by sharing factual evidence like the assassination of John F. Kennedy then followed by the reason why we lost the war in Iraq. For example, Kennedy was the one who green-lighted the assassination of Trujillo in 1961, who ordered the CIA to deliver arms to the Island but intelligence experts failed to tell him that whoever killed Trujillo, their family would suffer a fukú so dreadful it would make the one that attached itself to the Admiral jojote in comparison. I don’t believe in old history superstitions but I think the Kennedy family was affected by the curse, Kick Kennedy died in a plane crash and Ted Kennedy survived a plane crash and he even wondered if his family fell victim to an “awful” curse. Another reason was the soldiers that was in Santo Domingo that was shipped off to Iraq was cursed by fukú it was gift of Diaz’s people to America, a small repayment for the unjust war. I never believed in any superstitions till the day I read “ The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”, the events that happen couldn’t been a mistake after leaving Santo Domingo. I know different cultures and nationalities have many tales that involve curses that dates back to ancient history.

A NOTE ON THE QUIZ: YOU CANNOT LOOK AT PHONES DURING THE QUIZ! THIS MEANS, IF YOU WANT TO LOOK AT THE TEXTS, YOU MUST HAVE THEM PRINTED OUT– BOTH COATES AND DIAZ. I WILL NOT HAVE EXTRA COPIES.

Hey everyone– for Thursday, please read and annotate the excerpt from “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” that I handed out in class. Extra copies will be available outside my office door (Namm 525.) READ THE FOOTNOTES!  (I sometimes skip footnotes too. Don’t do it here.)

Please also write a “difficulty paper” of about 200-250 words (NOT 100 words, you guys) in which you write about what in the story you found difficult, confusing, boring, etc… Remember how this went last time. You need to be as specific as possible. Refer to a particular passage and then try to think it through. WHY is this difficult? What do you think Diaz might be trying to do here?

You may also want to read Diaz through the eyes of a writer. What is he doing in his writing that you would like to do in your own writing? How, specifically, might you be able to hone those skills? Alternately, what is he doing that you DISLIKE? How might you be able to avoid those pitfalls?

Please post your response using category: Portrait of a Word.

There will be a quiz in class on Thursday on all of the reading for this unit so far (Diaz and Coates.) You will also be asked to quote properly, using the introduce/ summarize/ analyze formula that we practiced in class. Just a note: quizzes can not be made up. If you miss it, you miss it.

 

1.  Ta-Nehisi Coates, a black writer, who grew up with the normilization of such words as “nigga”, who learned the importance rights to name through his father’s many names.

2. Events such as Richie Incognito referring to his teammates as “half-niggers”, that then exploded to conversations about wether the word should be used, and by who.

3. The audiance in question is the black community, those who believe the way to remove the violent and evil background of such a word is either through full removal, or reconstruction and normilization.

4. The main take away from this is the importance of context to a word. Where Jewish people can joke around about someone being good with money being “a good jew”, the standard isnt held the same for black people to refer to themselves as “niggas”.

5. The article had a tone of concern, where a double standard of perfection is expected from the black community to not use said word unless expected to be treated as equals with it, regardless of context.

6. I do agree with his view of the word in most cases. However, from my personal experience, such words have special meanings based around community and time. As “nigger” was built around years of discrimination and hatred against colored people. While “nigga” has a somewhat diffrent implication, built on a culture of creation and community built against the old system.

Speaker– The speaker is an African American male named Ta-Nehisi Coates. He has 6 brothers and sisters. We also know that he is married.

Occasion–Coates is speaking about the use of the N-word, and how saying this word has a lot power behind it. No matter who uses it there’s so much meaning and history behind that word.

1. The writer is Ta-Nehisi Coates, He has six brothers and sisters,  and He is African American.
2. Coates is speaking about the usage of the N-word, and how saying this word has a lot power behind. No matter who uses it there’s so much meaning and history behind that word.
3. i think this is targeted for everyone, no matter the race, no matter the ethnicity this article is for everyone. I believe this is targeted for everyone because this is an important conversation to have with people.
4. I believe Coastes purpose is to start conversation between people whether their white or black and speak about why do we continue to say the N-word if it has so much bad history behind it. Or why black people should take back the word. But also how that word affects today culture, how it affects the youth. whats the true purpose of even saying this word. i think he brings a lot questions like these that he wants people to speak about.
5. in the article Coates has a pretty mellow tone, doesn’t sound aggressive or super passionate. It almost sounds like hes just trying to get his point across while being informative and making readers question what he says as well.
6. I really enjoyed reading this article i think Coates was doing a very good job in pointing out his thoughts about the usage of the N-word. in which i do agree with a lot of what hes saying.

Speaker– The speaker is Ta-Nehisi Coates. He has 6 brothers, and he seems to have an understanding of the fact that people call each other different things, based on their relationship.

Occasion– The reason why Coates is bringing up this topic of using the “n-word” is because we live in a time where racial tension is still prevalent, even though it is rare. A lot of racism is silent, due to the high positions some of these people hold. But, Coates makes the point that even people under the spotlight can be openly racist.

Audience– The audience Coates is trying to reach are those who may be confused, about the context of the word, or to people who think that the word should be banned, who aren’t black.

Purpose– The purpose of this article  is to show that “white racism needs no verification from black people.” Coates wants to get the point across that a word can take on a different meaning, depending on the context it was used in. Coates talks about how people call each other words that normally would be hateful and extremely offensive; but the relationship and tone of words make it obvious that it wasn’t  meant to be taken seriously.

Tone– The tone of this article is very informative, and upfront. This is due to the blatant use of “derogatory” words. But I think he does this intentionally to make the point even clearer that these words take on different meanings based on even the reader, and Coates.

I agree with Coates because he is saying that “white people” have no power to discern what words a black man should or should not be saying. He is saying that the use of the word “nigger” shows the trials black people had to endure, and that a word so strong, reflects back on times that won’t be forgotten.

 

1. The Speaker is called Ta-Nehisi Coates, and he is an African American. We also know that in the article it says that he has 6 brothers and sister.
2. Coates is trying to tell us the word “nigger” used in our society. He is trying to bring this up because there are some white people who say the word, but they are not allowed to. Furthermore a Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver called a black security guard N word.
3. He is talking to the NFL,NBA, and MLB players and our american society. In the article he says ” Tony Kornheiser called on the commissioners of the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball to ban their players from publicly using the word.”
4. Coates is trying to accomplish that the word used takes on meaning from context and relationship. People can’t just say the “n” word whoever they want to, but only black people when they say the word to each other because of the relationship to each other.
5. The tone of the essay is straightforward. Coates is trying to tell why only black people should use the word, and tells us examples why it would be ridiculous if they want these people to stop saying it.
6. I Agree with Coates, because just as he said the word only should be used between them because the context and relationship matters when one speaks to each other.